![]() Jamerson was asked to try, and he managed to make it work immediately. The bass player on the session was Tweed Beard, but he wasn’t able to get the right feel on the song. Later in the year, producer Hank Cosby invited Jamerson to attend a recording session at Gordy’s new studio, later to be the recording headquarters of Motown Records. Wanting to start his own label and studio to enable more of the profits to remain in his hands, Gordy borrowed some money from his family, bought a two-track tape recorder, and in mid-1959 he bought a former photographic studio at 2648 West Grand Boulevard, Detroit where he converted the first floor into a basic recording studio. He then became an independent producer, leasing the tracks to other labels. Around this time, Jamerson also played in Jackie Wilson’s backing band, whose big hit ‘Reet Petite’ had been written by Berry Gordy…īerry Gordy had first found some success in the late 1950s as a songwriter, and his songs for Jackie Wilson and Barrett Strong were very successful. This quickly established his reputation as a studio player, and other local studios began to hire him for their sessions. In 1958, local singer and record label owner Johnnie Mae Matthews saw Jamerson playing with Washboard Willie and hired him to play on sessions for her new Northern Records label. This band played regularly around Detroit, and James Jamerson’s playing developed rapidly. When he graduated from High School, he started to play for ‘Washboard Willie and the Supersuds of Rhythm’. Soon, Jamerson was gigging regularly at wedding parties and dances with his friends Richard ‘Popcorn’ Wylie and Clifford Mack (who would both also later play for Motown), and he was establishing a strong reputation as a bass player on the local scene. He mastered it quickly, and by the following year, he was able to play jazz bass-lines in the style of Ray Brown and Paul Chambers. ![]() With a desire to play music, James decided to sign up for the school jazz band, and he chose to play the double bass. When his mother moved the family to Detroit in 1954, James enrolled at Northwestern High School. His love of music grew as he got older, and he became an avid listener of pop, jazz, gospel and R & B songs being played on the local radio stations. He played the trombone while he was at elementary school, and also visited his cousin’s house in order to practice the piano, which he was soon able to play in church. His grandmother played piano a little, and his aunt sang in the local church choir. Photo: Experimento69 / CC BY-SA ( ) James Jamerson was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1938 (although he later discovered that the correct year was 1936), and he grew up in a musical family.
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