Carol Kaye

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Carol Kaye
Born March 24, 1935 (1935-03-24) (age 73)
Everett, Washington
Occupation(s) Session musician, teacher
Instrument(s) electric bass guitar, guitar
Years active 1950s-present
Associated acts The Beach Boys, Richie Valens, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Sinatra, Glen Campbell, Leon Russell, Sonny and Cher, Joe Cocker Barbra Streisand, Ray Charles, Frank Zappa, Ike and Tina Turner, Johnny Mathis, Simon and Garfunkel, The Righteous Brothers, The Marketts Herb Alpert, The Buckinghams, Paul Revere and The Raiders, Gary Lewis and The Playboys and the Monkees.
Website Carol Kaye's website

Carol Kaye (born March 24, 1935) is an American electric bass guitar player and Los Angeles session musician who performed on many hit records during the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s. Kaye was the bassist on several Phil Spector, David Axelrod and Brian Wilson productions. She also played bass for Elektra's The Zodiac (1967), and played guitar on Ritchie Valens' La Bamba and is also credited with the bass tracks on several Simon and Garfunkel hits. Among her most often cited work, Kaye anchored the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds.

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[edit] Life and career

Kaye was born in Everett, Washington to professional musicians Clyde and Dot Smith. She grew up in poverty near the Port of Los Angeles and in 1949 at the age of fourteen began teaching guitar professionally.[1] Throughout the 1950s Kaye played bebop jazz guitar in dozens of nightclubs around Los Angeles with many noted bands including Bob Neal's jazz group, Jack Sheldon backing Lenny Bruce, Teddy Edwards and Billy Higgins. By her own account Kaye got into lucrative studio work "accidentally" in late 1957 with Sam Cooke. A few years later, when a bass player failed to show for a session at Capitol Records in Hollywood, she was asked to fill in on what was then often called the Fender bass.

Throughout the 1960s she played bass on a significant percentage of records appearing on the Billboard Hot 100, although she was almost wholly unknown to the general public at the time. Kaye played bass on many of the Beach Boys hit recordings, including Good Vibrations, Help Me, Rhonda, Sloop John B and California Girls. She also worked on Brian Wilson's ill-fated but legendary Smile project (and was present at the "Fire" session in late November 1966 when Wilson reportedly asked the studio musicians to wear toy fire hats). Kaye's work also appears extensively on well-known television and film soundtracks from the 1960s and early 1970s.

She worked under most of the leading producers and musical directors in Los Angeles during that era, including David Axelrod, Brian Wilson, Michel Legrand, Phil Spector, Elmer Bernstein, Lalo Schifrin, David Rose, Dave Grusin, Ernie Freeman, Hugo Montenegro, Leonard Rosenman, John Williams, Alfred and Lionel Newman. Kaye was also responsible for the bass tracks on several Monkees hits, did soundtrack work (including sound effects on bass guitar) for a young Steven Spielberg and tracks for Quincy Jones whose 2001 autobiography Q noted, "...women like ...Fender bass player Carol Kaye ...could do anything and leave men in the dust."[2]

Kaye performed on several American television themes including the Quinn Martin produced Cannon, The Streets of San Francisco, Mission: Impossible, M*A*S*H, Kojak, Get Smart, Hogan's Heroes, The Love Boat, McCloud, Mannix, It Takes a Thief, Peyton Place and the Cosby Show. She is also credited with performing on the soundtracks of Hawaii Five-0, The Addams Family, The Brady Bunch as well as Ironside, Room 222, Bonanza, Wonder Woman, Alias Smith & Jones, Run for Your Life and Barnaby Jones.[3]

Beginning in 1969 she wrote How To Play The Electric Bass, the first of many bass tutoring books and DVD Courses, and personally taught thousands of students (some of whom later became famous, including John Clayton, Jim Hughart, Mike Porcaro, Alf Clausen (composer of Simpsons TV), Pat Smith, Tony Sales, Roy Vogt, Bill Laymon, Charles Meeks and Dave Hungate). Kaye retired from studio work during the 1970s because of arthritis but later became active again as a session musician, live jazz performer and teacher of both bass and guitar, giving seminars and interviews.

[edit] Zappa

Kaye played 12-string guitar on Frank Zappa's groundbreaking Freak Out!. When she was called to work on his next album Kaye played on a few songs but declined to continue, saying she found some of the lyrics offensive being a mother of three children. She later said Zappa was very good-natured and understanding about her qualms and they remained on friendly terms.

[edit] Selected discography

Kaye played on hundreds of commercially released recordings and soundtracks. These lists represent only a small fraction of her recorded performances.

[edit] Electric bass credits

[edit] Songs

[edit] Albums

[edit] Guitar credits

[edit] References

  1. ^ Carol Kaye official website Biography, retrieved 29 Nov 2007
  2. ^ Jones, Quincy, Q : the autobiography of Quincy Jones, Doubleday 2001 ISBN 0-385-48896-3, Pg. 126
  3. ^ IMDb, Carol Kaye - bio, retrieved 29 Nov 2007

[edit] Sources

[edit] Teaching materials by Kaye

  • How To Play The Electric Bass, Electric Bass lines series Nos 1-6,
  • Jazz Improv For Bass
  • Pro's Jazz Phrases Bass
  • Bass DVD Course
  • Music Reading DVD w/Manual
  • Teaching Playing Hangin' DVD
  • Jazz Bass CD & Guide
  • Rock-Funk Bass CD & Guide, produced Joe Pass
  • Carol Kaye: Bass CD
  • Bass Performances CD
  • Hit Bass Lines CD
  • Jazz Improv Soloing DVD Course

[edit] Archival recordings

  • California Creamin - Carol Kaye Guitars 1965 CD
  • Better Days (1971) CD

[edit] Documentary

  • Rockin Suuri Tuntematon aka First Lady of Bass: Carol Kaye documentary, Pekka Rautiomaa, YLE Dokumenttiohjelmat 2004

[edit] External links

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