“The door burst open. It was James, who was late and had come into the wrong room. He started listening and said, ’No, no, that's not the way you do it,’ and grabbed my EB-3”: Jack Bruce on his chance meeting with Motown hit-maker James Jamerson

CIRCA 1965: Motown bassist James Jamerson a key member of the studio band known as the Funk Brother. Jack Bruce performing live on stage the the London Guitar Festival on June 4, 2011.

Ask any bass-playing great of the last 50 years who their heroes are, and you can bet that James Jamerson will feature high up the list. A bass-playing pioneer, some might say a visionary.

“The first time I met James Jamerson was in 1974 at the Record Plant in L.A.,” recalled Jack Bruce in a Sept/Oct '01 Bass Player interview. “He was there to do a Stevie Wonder session, and I was next door, coincidentally doing a tribute-to-Stevie track called Keep On Wondering for my album Out of the Storm.