Jerry Jemmott

Gerald Stenhouse Jemmott (born March 22, 1946) is an American bass guitarist. He was one of the chief session bassists of the late 1960s and early 1970s, working with many of the period's well-known soul, blues, and jazz artists. He has won two Grammy Awards.

Born in Morrisania, Bronx, New York City, in 1946, Jerry Jemmott began playing upright (acoustic) bass at age 11 after discovering Paul Chambers. After switching to electric bass guitar, he was discovered by saxophonist King Curtis in 1967. With his connection through Curtis to Atlantic Records, he soon began recording with other Atlantic recording artists, including Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Wilson Pickett, the Rascals, Roberta Flack, and Margie Joseph. He also recorded with B.B. King, Freddie King, Chuck Berry, Otis Rush, Champion Jack Dupree, and Mike Bloomfield, and accompanied Herbie Hancock, Freddie Hubbard, Erroll Garner, Les McCann, Eddie Harris, Houston Person, George Benson, Archie Shepp, Lionel Hampton, Herbie Mann, Eddie Palmieri, and Charles Earland. He played the bass line on the song "Mr. Bojangles" and contributed to B.B. King's "The Thrill Is Gone". Jemmott and Duane Allman would fly down to Muscle Shoals to record for Atlantic. In 1971, King Curtis recorded his hit album, Live at Fillmore West, with Jemmott, Bernard Purdie, Billy Preston, and other members of the Kingpins.

After a near-fatal 1972 auto accident in Manhattan that also involved Roberta Flack and guitarist Cornell Dupree, Jemmott temporarily quit playing bass due to injuries he sustained, but would return in 1975 in the midst of the closure of many of the recording studios, due to emergence of compact home recording studios that utilized the syncing of the drum machine with the synthesizer, the precursor to the decline of recording industry and the emerging acceptance of the sound of digital recordings. He continued to work in film and theater as an arranger and conductor with John Williams and the Boston Pops Orchestra. He was cited as a major influence by Jaco Pastorius, who incorporated Jemmott's funk bass lines into his own style. Jemmott hosted the instructional video Modern Electric Bass (1985), which featured advice from Pastorius.