Doug Wimbish

Doug Wimbish (Frankfurt 2006)

Doug Wimbish (born September 22, 1956) is a bass player, primarily known for his studio work for the rap/hip hop label Sugarhill Records and his membership of the funk metal band Living Colour. He has played for a vast range of artists, including Jeff Beck, Mick Jagger, Madonna, George Clinton, Paula Cole, Bomb the Bass, Depeche Mode, Joe Satriani, Mos Def and Tarja Turunen. Wimbish is considered to be a pioneer in hip hop bass playing and in the use of bass effects, alternate tunings and extended hand techniques.

Life

Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Wimbish started playing guitar at the age of 12 and switched to bass guitar at the age of 14. In 1979 he was hired together with guitarist Skip McDonald and drummer Keith LeBlanc to form the house rhythm section for Sugarhill Records. Although they did not play on the Sugar Hill Gang's famous song "Rapper's Delight" (the rhythm tracks for this song were played by the group Positive Force), they did play on many other famous tracks, for example "The Message" by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, "White Lines" by Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel, "New York, New York" by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, and "Apache" by the Sugarhill Gang.

Doug Wimbish with Living Colour (Vienna 1993)

Doug Wimbish with Little Axe (Vienna 2009)

Together with McDonald and LeBlanc, Wimbish headed to London in 1984 and started working with producer Adrian Sherwood and formed the group Tackhead. Together with Tackhead and as a session bassist, Wimbish found himself in demand as a bass player for many artists and was considered as a permanent sideman for the Rolling Stones after the departure of bassist Bill Wyman in 1993; although the job went to Darryl Jones, Wimbish later played on the Stones' 1997 album Bridges to Babylon. Wimbish joined Living Colour in 1992 (he replaced Muzz Skillings, who left the band) to tour and record the album, Stain.

Living Colour disbanded in 1995, and Wimbish joined his old Sugar Hill Gang partners to play in Little Axe, an ambient-dub project initiated by Skip 'Little Axe' MacDonald.

After the disbandment of Living Colour, Wimbish went back to London to continue his career as a studio bassist. In 1999 he formed the drum and bass group Jungle Funk together with drummer Will Calhoun and percussionist/vocalist Vinx. Also in 1999, Wimbish solo album Trippy Notes for Bass was released. In 2000, Living Colour was reformed with Wimbish as the bass player and toured in the United States and in Europe (original bassist Muzz Skillings was not part of the line up). In 2001 and 2002 Wimbish recorded and played with rapper Mos Def in a band called BlackJack Johnson, which also featured members of P-Funk and Bad Brains in the lineup.

Wimbish also formed Head>>Fake, a drum and bass project with drummer Will Calhoun. They released a CD, In The Area. In 2005 they started recording new songs. The recording took place in Brussels, Belgium and was followed by an extensive European tour. The CD has never been released. A Head>>Fake DVD was released in 2008. It features a recording of a Head>>Fake concert in Prague.

In 2008 Doug Wimbish' second solo album was released through Enja Records: CinemaSonics.

Doug has also featured on four Little Axe albums with Alan Glen on Harmonica.

Effects

Doug Wimbish (Vienna 2009)

This list includes Wimbish's on the floor and live rack.^[1]

• TC Electronic 2290 Digital Delay
• Sans Amp D1 Bass Driver
• Sans Amp GT2
• Sans Amp Vintage
• Danelectro Daddy-O
• Digitech Whammy Pedal
• Dunlop Crybaby
• Boss Bass Synth
• Boss Flanger
• Boss Digital reverb/delay
• Boss DD3 Digital Delay
• Boss FV50 Volume pedal
• Boss TU12 Chrom. tuner
• Voodoo Lab Proctavia
• Voodoo Lab Micro Vibe
• Voodoo Lab Analog Chorus
• Voodoo Lab Pedal Power
• D.O.D. Envelope Filter
• Line 6 Delay
• Digitech 2112 Delay unit
• Digitech IPS33B pitch transposer
• Yamaha REX50
• Planet Phatt
• Sennheiser Wireless Units
• Line 6 distortion
• Line 6 modulator
• Digitech 256XL

Discography

Solo work

• Jungle Funk (1998)
• Trippy Notes for Bass (1999)
• CinemaSonics (2008)

With Living Colour

• Stain (1993)
• Pride 1995)
• Collideøscope (2003)
• The Chair in the Doorway (2009)

With Tackhead

• Tape Time (1987)
• En Concert (1988)
• Friendly As Hand Grenade (1989)
• Strange Things (1990)
• Power inc. vol. 1 -- Compil. (1993)
• Power inc. vol. 2 -- Compil. (1993)
• Strange Parcels as Disconnection (1994)
• Power inc. vol. 3 -- Live From 1985 to 1997 (1997)
• Sound Crash -- Compil. (2006)
• Sharehead -- very limited edition (2010)

With Little Axe

• The Wolf That House Built (1995)
• Slow Fuse (1996)
• Hard Grind (2002)
• Champagne & Grits (2004)
• Stone Cold Ohio (2006)
• Bought for a Dollar, Sold for a Dime (2010)

With other artists

• Mark Stewart and the Maffia - As the Veneer of Democracy Starts to Fade (1985)
• Mark Stewart and the Maffia - Mark Stewart (1987)
• Mick Jagger - Primitive Cool (1987)
• Mark Stewart and the Maffia - Metatron (1990)
• Seal - Seal (1991)
• Annie Lennox - DIVA (1992)
• Madonna - Erotica (1992)
• Joe Satriani - The Extremist (1992)
• Little Annie - Short and Sweet (1992)
• Billy Idol - Cyberpunk (1993)
• Mick Jagger - Wandering Spirit (1993)
• Joe Satriani - Time Machine (1993)
• Annie Lennox - Medusa (1995)
• Depeche Mode - Ultra (1997)
• Rolling Stones - Bridges to Babylon (1997)
• Mos Def - Black on Both Sides (1999)
• Dhafer Youssef - Electric Sufi (2002)
• Fernanda Porto - Giramundo (2005)
• John McCarthy - "Drive" (2006)
• Tarja - My Winter Storm (2007)
• Petteri Sariola - Phases (2009)
• Tarja - What Lies Beneath (2010)

DVD

• Head Fake in the Area of Prague (2008) (released on Dude rec. / camera, edit, director tomato22)

References

1. ^ "Doug Wimbish's gear". Doug Wimbish. http://www.dougwimbish.com/gear.html. 

External links

• Doug Wimbish's Instructional DVD NEW DIMENSIONS FOR BASS, produced by The Rock House Method
• Doug Wimbish's homepage
• Doug Wimbish Official myspace
• Discography at unofficial On-U Sound website
• Profile at unofficial On-U Sound website
• „head>>fake“ extended Interview with Doug Wimbish and Will Calhoun for radio orange94.0 stream (October 2008)
• Doug Wimbish interview at allaboutjazz.com

Persondata
Name	Wimbish, Doug
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Date of birth	September 22, 1956
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