Who's Your Favorite Bass Players; Why?

I try to go with alphabetic order without classifying for jazz or rock.

Jeff Berlin
Charlie Haden
Percy Jones(Brand X)
Mick Karn
Bill Laswel
Tony Levin
John Pattitucci
Pekka Pohjola

Pekka's my favourite as composer and I sink in every of his album when play them.

Jeff Berlin and Percy Jones often play bass solos as no one else can.

Tony Levin plays any-bass jazz, rock, and as far as I'm consearned played with Carly Simon and lots of jazz projects. Crimson and Pete Gabriel are only a fraction of his bass career.

Bill Laswell is certainly an underground bass and electronic king.

OOPS! forgot about Holger Czukay, but basically he's not only bassist and can actually play any instrument he ever takes. He chose bass in CAN due to his leadership bug and he admitted that he couldn't play keyboards as good as Irmin Schmidt.

Dean Peer?

I've always liked Cliff Williams of AC/DC, especially on the old stuff (not that he isn't still good, I only really liked the Bon Scott era). His bass playing really provided a great line in their songs.

Overall favorite.... Stanley Clark

Man, there are so many and most provide the absolute foundation for the music surrounding them.

I have to go with Chris Squire of Yes because he is still going STRONG after 30+ years. Saw Yes twice last summer, once in the small, acoustically excellent Flint Center in Cupertino, California. His ability to sustain and BEND a single note is just incredible and an true adventure.

Now, if we are talking UPRIGHT bass, Paul Chambers is hard to beat.