Willie Weeks

Last updated

Willie Weeks
Willie Weeks (cropped).jpg
Weeks performing in the 2007 Crossroads Guitar Festival
Background information
Born (1947-08-05) August 5, 1947 (age 77)
Salemburg, North Carolina
United States
Genres Rock, blues, jazz, blues rock, country
Occupation(s) Musician, actor
Instrument(s) Bass guitar
Years active1963–present
Labels Reprise, Tamla, Polydor Records, Epic Records, EMI Records, Warner Bros. Records, Atlantic, Capitol, Columbia, EMI, CBS, Elektra

Willie Weeks (born August 5, 1947) is an American bass guitarist. He has gained fame performing with famous musicians in a wide variety of genres. He has been one of the most in-demand session musicians throughout his career. Weeks has also gained fame touring with many of rock's heavyweights throughout his career.

Contents

Career

Weeks was born in Salemburg, North Carolina and began playing the electric bass in the early 1960s. His earliest influences were the country, pop and R&B music he heard on the radio. Weeks counts bassists Ron Carter, James Jamerson, and Ray Brown as early influences.

Weeks has worked in the studio or toured with a wide range of artists, including:

Gregg Allman, David Bowie, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Roy Buchanan, Jimmy Buffett, Kevin Chalfant, Eric Clapton, Hank Crawford, Robert Cray, Pino Daniele, Bo Diddley, The Doobie Brothers, Lou Fellingham, Aretha Franklin, Vince Gill, Buddy Guy, Isaac Hayes, George Harrison, Donny Hathaway, Etta James, Billy Joel, Rickie Lee Jones, Wynonna Judd, Chaka Khan, B.B. King, Neil Larsen, Lyle Lovett, Gail Davies, David Lee Roth, Michael McDonald, Don McLean, John Mayer, John Mellencamp, Bette Midler, Randy Newman, Pino Palladino, Leon Russell, Boz Scaggs, John Scofield, Carly Simon, Soulive, Rod Stewart, The Rolling Stones, James Taylor, Richard and Linda Thompson, Joe Walsh, Steve Winwood, Bobby Womack, Stevie Wonder, Ronnie Wood and Eikichi Yazawa.

His playing on Donny Hathaway's Live (1972), including a 3½ minute bass solo on "Voices Inside (Everything Is Everything)", [1] which is regarded by many bass players as some of Weeks' best work. He played a 1962 Fender P-Bass through an Ampeg SVT amplifier on the recording (though it had initially been reported that he played through an Ampeg B-15).

Weeks' contributions to the Hathaway album impressed many English rock musicians, leading to his work with Ronnie Wood, The Rolling Stones ("It's Only Rock & Roll"), George Harrison and David Bowie from 1974 onwards. [2] In a press conference for his 1974 North American tour, Harrison cited Weeks' musicianship when dismissing the likelihood of a Beatles reunion, saying he would "rather have Willie Weeks on bass than Paul McCartney". [3]

Weeks played with Ask Rufus, the precursor band to Rufus with Chaka Khan. He appeared on their recording of Al Kooper's song "Brand New Day". Weeks also played with the Fabulous Amazers and Bill Lordan (pre Robin Trower drummer) in the Minnesota group Gypsy. He also played bass guitar for Michael's Mystics back in the 1960s in Minnesota, with Lordan again on drums. That band recorded "Pain" by the Grassroots, a big hit locally for the Mystics. [4]

He also played bass at Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival on July 28, 2007 at Toyota Park in Bridgeview, Illinois. [5]

Equipment

In addition to his red 1962 Fender Precision bass, Weeks uses a maple-neck 1958 Precision bass and a 1964 Fender Jazz Bass, as well as a tobacco sunburst Kay four-string acoustic bass for Clapton's "unplugged repertoire". Weeks used a sunburst 1963 P-Bass during Clapton's 2008 European Summer tour. In 2014 he began using his "WW" Willie Weeks signature bass by Bee Basses.

On the 2009 Australasian and British tours, Weeks played Fender, Kay and Alleva Coppolo basses. In 2017, Weeks used a custom-made Alien Audio bass made by Charles "Chopper" Anderson in Nashville.

Weeks appeared in the films Blues Brothers 2000 (in a fictional supergroup along with other musicians he's worked with) and Lightning in a Bottle.

Discography

With Gypsy

With Donny Hathaway

With Herbie Mann

With Stevie Wonder

With Gloria Jones

With Splinter

With Aretha Franklin

With Randy Newman

With Ronnie Wood

With Rod Stewart

With George Harrison

With Don McLean

With David Bowie

With James Taylor

With Carly Simon

With Terry Garthwaite

With Kenny Vance

With Al Jarreau

With Richie Havens

With Dianne Brooks

With The Miracles

With Maria Muldaur

With David Batteau

With Steve Winwood

With Cher and Gregg Allman

With Lenny Williams

With Dan Fogelberg

With Joe Walsh

With Rickie Lee Jones

With Bette Midler

With The Whispers

With Adam Mitchell

With Chaka Khan

With Stephen Bishop

With Michael McDonald

With Bill LaBounty

With John Mellencamp

With Patrick Simmons

With Rosanne Cash

With Jimmy Buffett

With William Lee Golden

With Webb Wilder

With Etta James

With Vince Gill

With Kenny Rogers

With Marty Balin

With Ronna Reeves

With Joan Baez

With Wynonna Judd

With John Michael Montgomery

With Tracy Lawrence

With Billy Burnette

With Chris Norman

With Rodney Crowell

With Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown

With Peter Cetera

With Janis Ian

With Tanya Tucker

With Mac Gayden

With Russ Taff

With Lisa Brokop

With Dan Hill

With Lari White

With Anita Cochran

With Mark Nesler

With Tara Lyn Hart

With Sonya Isaacs

With Robert Cray

With Gov't Mule

With The Tractors

With Hal Ketchum

With Alicia Keys

With Keb' Mo'

With Amy Grant

With J. J. Cale and Eric Clapton

With John Mayer

With Eric Clapton

With LeAnn Rimes

With Boz Scaggs

With Leon Russell

With John Oates

With Colin James

With Mark Ronson

With Cyndi Lauper

With Elizabeth Cook

With Ronnie Baker Brooks

With Gloria Gaynor

With Wendy Moten

With Cravity

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Winwood</span> English musician and songwriter (born 1948)

Stephen Lawrence Winwood is an English musician and songwriter whose genres include blue-eyed soul, rhythm and blues, blues rock and pop rock. Though primarily a guitarist, keyboard player and vocalist, prominent for his distinctive soulful high tenor voice, Winwood plays other instruments proficiently, including drums, mandolin, bass and saxophone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Ferrone</span> English drummer

Steve Ferrone is an English drummer. He is known as a member of the rock band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers from 1994 to 2017, replacing original drummer Stan Lynch, and as part of the "classic lineup" of the Average White Band in the 1970s. Ferrone has recorded and performed with Michael Jackson, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Duran Duran, Stevie Nicks, Laura Pausini, Christine McVie, Rick James, Slash, Chaka Khan, Bee Gees, Scritti Politti, Aerosmith, Al Jarreau, Mick Jagger, Johnny Cash, Todd Rundgren and Pat Metheny. Ferrone also hosts The New Guy weekly radio show on Sirius XM's Tom Petty Radio.

<i>George Harrison</i> (album) 1979 studio album by George Harrison

George Harrison is the eighth studio album by the English rock musician George Harrison, released in February 1979. It was written and recorded through much of 1978, a period of domestic contentment for Harrison, during which he married Olivia Arias and became a father for the first time, to son Dhani. Harrison wrote several of the songs in Hawaii, while the track "Faster" reflected his year away from music-making, when he and Arias attended many of the races in the 1977 Formula 1 World Championship. The album also includes the hit single "Blow Away" and "Not Guilty", a song that Harrison originally recorded with the Beatles in 1968.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Donald "Duck" Dunn</span> American bass guitarist

Donald "Duck" Dunn was an American bass guitarist, session musician, record producer, and songwriter. Dunn was notable for his 1960s recordings with Booker T. & the M.G.'s and as a session bassist for Stax Records. At Stax, Dunn played on thousands of records, including hits by Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Rufus Thomas, Carla Thomas, William Bell, Eddie Floyd, Johnnie Taylor, Albert King, Bill Withers, Elvis Presley, and many others. In 1992, he was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Booker T. & the M.G.'s. In 2017, he was ranked 40th on Bass Player magazine's list of "The 100 Greatest Bass Players of All Time".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andy Newmark</span> American session drummer (born 1950)

Andrew Newmark is an American session drummer who was a member of Sly and the Family Stone and has played with George Harrison, John Lennon, Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Carly Simon, Ron Wood and Roxy Music.

<i>Eric Claptons Rainbow Concert</i> 1973 live album by Eric Clapton

Eric Clapton's Rainbow Concert is a live album by Eric Clapton, recorded at the Rainbow Theatre in London on 13 January 1973 and released in September that year. The concerts, two on the same evening, were organised by Pete Townshend of the Who and marked a comeback by Clapton after two years of inactivity, broken only by his performance at the Concert for Bangladesh in August 1971. Along with Townshend, the musicians supporting Clapton include Steve Winwood, Ronnie Wood and Jim Capaldi. In the year following the two shows at the Rainbow, Clapton recovered from his heroin addiction and recorded 461 Ocean Boulevard (1974).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rob Mounsey</span> American musician (born 1952)

Rob Mounsey is an American musician, composer, and arranger.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony Jackson (musician)</span> American bassist (born 1952)

Anthony Jackson is an American bassist. Described as "one of the masters of the instrument", he has performed as a session musician and live artist. He is also credited with the development of the modern six-string bass, which he refers to as a contrabass guitar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andy Fairweather Low</span> Welsh singer and guitarist (born 1948)

Andrew Fairweather Low is a Welsh guitarist and singer. He was a founding member and lead singer of 1960s pop band Amen Corner, and in recent years has toured extensively with Roger Waters, Eric Clapton and Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings.

Russ Titelman is an American record producer and songwriter. He has to date won three Grammy Awards. He earned his first producing the Steve Winwood song "Higher Love", and his second and third for Eric Clapton's Journeyman and Unplugged albums, respectively. Titelman also produced Clapton's 24 Nights live album of 1990 and the all-blues album From the Cradle, released in 1994.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phil Upchurch</span> American jazz and blues guitarist

Philip Upchurch is an American jazz and blues guitarist and bassist.

Will Lee is an American bassist known for his work on the Late Show with David Letterman as part of the CBS Orchestra and “The World's Most Dangerous Band" during Letterman’s tenure as host of NBC’s "Late Night".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Stainton</span> Musical artist

Christopher Robert Stainton is an English session musician, keyboard player, bassist and songwriter, who first gained recognition with Joe Cocker in the late 1960s. In addition to his collaboration with Cocker, Stainton is best known for his work with Eric Clapton, The Who, Andy Fairweather Low and Bryan Ferry.

"Master" Henry Gibson was an American percussionist with an extensive career and discography spanning four decades, best known for his work with Curtis Mayfield.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Tee</span> American pianist, singer and arranger

Richard Edward Tee was an American jazz fusion pianist, studio musician, singer and arranger, who had several hundred studio credits and played on such notable hits as "I'll Be Sweeter Tomorrow " (1967), "Until You Come Back To Me" (1974), "The Hustle" (1975), "Slip Slidin' Away" (1977), "Just the Two of Us" (1981), "Tell Her About It" (1983), and "In Your Eyes" (1986).

Fred E. White was an American musician and songwriter. He was one of the early members of Earth, Wind & Fire. He previously played drums on Donny Hathaway's Live album.

Charles B. Findley is an American trumpet player known for his diverse work as a session musician. He also plays other brass instruments such as flugelhorn and trombone. His technical abilities and versatility are renowned even among other session players, with the celebrated session horn player and arranger Jerry Hey saying "Chuck Findley can play anything".

Richard Thomas Marotta is an American drummer and percussionist. He has appeared on recordings by leading artists such as Aretha Franklin, Carly Simon, Steely Dan, James Taylor, Paul Simon, John Lennon, Hall & Oates, Stevie Nicks, Wynonna, Roy Orbison, Todd Rundgren, Roberta Flack, Peter Frampton, Quincy Jones, Jackson Browne, Al Kooper, Waylon Jennings, Randy Newman, Kenny G, The Jacksons, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Boz Scaggs, Warren Zevon, and Linda Ronstadt. He is also a composer who created music for the popular television shows Everybody Loves Raymond and Yes, Dear.

<i>Live from Madison Square Garden</i> (Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood album) 2009 live album by Eric Clapton & Steve Winwood

Live from Madison Square Garden is a double CD and DVD live album by Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood, which was released on 19 May 2009 by Duck / Reprise Records. The album is made up of recordings from Clapton and Winwood's performances at Madison Square Garden in February 2008. It is Clapton's ninth live album and Winwood's first live album as a solo artist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Māya Love</span> 1974 single by George Harrison

"Māya Love" is a song by English musician George Harrison, released on his 1974 album Dark Horse. The song originated as a slide guitar tune, to which Harrison later added lyrics relating to the illusory nature of love – maya being a Sanskrit term for "illusion", or "that which is not". Harrison's biographers consider the lyrical theme to be reflective of his failed marriage to Pattie Boyd, who left him for his friend Eric Clapton shortly before the words were written. Harrison recorded the song at his home, Friar Park, on the eve of his North American tour with Ravi Shankar, which took place in November and December 1974. The recording features Harrison's slide guitar extensively and contributions from four musicians who formed the nucleus of his tour band: Billy Preston, Tom Scott, Willie Weeks and Andy Newmark. Reviewers note the track as an example of its parent album's more diverse musical genres, namely funk and rhythm and blues, compared with the more traditional rock orientation of Harrison's earlier solo work.

References

  1. ↑ "Donny Hathaway Live". Chris.quietlife.net. Archived from the original on December 2, 2013. Retrieved March 16, 2014.
  2. ↑ Leng, Simon (2006). While My Guitar Gently Weeps: The Music of George Harrison. Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard. p. 157. ISBN   978-1-4234-0609-9.
  3. ↑ Doggett, Peter (2011). You Never Give Me Your Money: The Beatles After the Breakup. New York, NY: It Books. pp. 224–25. ISBN   978-0-06-177418-8.
  4. ↑ "Mystics / Michael's Mystics". MinniePaulMusic.com. Retrieved April 18, 2023.
  5. ↑ "Pictures and Photo Galleries". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on December 1, 2007. Retrieved March 16, 2014.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.