Given the rough ’n' ready quality of early sixties Motown recordings, it's a miracle that anyone should have been able to decipher the playing of then unknown bas­sist James Jamerson. But apparently fledg­ling bassists around the world tried to nail the bottom end of the stream of r'n'b and soul singles spilling from Berry Gordy's primitive Detroit studio. And now, thanks to Dr Licks, we can hear why. This fascinat­ing biography and analysis handsomely augments the growing evidence of Jamerson's enormous gifts and justly canonises him as a pioneer...