Sweet Revival

The Crusaders: Wilton Felder (tenor sax), Wayne Henderson (trombone), Larry Carlton, Arthur Adams and David T. Walker (electric guitar), Joe Sample (keyboards), Chuck Rainey (electric bass) and Stix Hooper (drums, percussion). From the album Crusaders 1 (1972).

Chuck Rainey is an important American electric bassist who played jazz, rhythm and blues, soul, soul jazz, funk, rock and pop during the second half of the 1960s and in the 1970s. While Stanley Clarke and Jaco Pastorius used the electric bass wildly as if they were improvising with a guitar in jazz fusion, Rainey kept his pulse steady providing constant support by firmly setting the pace. In addition to participating in countless albums, he also performed in movie soundtracks, popular television shows and advertising. Born in Cleveland, during his childhood and teenage he studied trumpet, violin and piano. While in military service he learned to play rhythm guitar and when he returned to his hometown, he played with local rhythm and blues groups. However, his lack of soloing led him to switch to electric bass. In 1962 he moved to New York and in 1964 joined the band of blues, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, soul, soul jazz and funk saxophonist King Curtis, with whom he stayed for more than three years and appeared in Live at Small’s Paradise (1966) and later in Get Ready (1970) and Everybody’s Talkin’ (1972).

Meanwhile he had become a studio musician, went to Los Angeles in 1972 and backed up countless musicians, such as smooth jazz guitarist George Benson in Goodies (1968); jazz trumpeter Randy Brecker in his debut Score (1969); jazz-rock guitarist Larry Coryell in Coryell (1969) and Fairyland (1971); jazz tenor saxophonist and flutist Yusef Lateef in Yusef Lateef’s Detroit (1969), Suite 16 (1970) and The Gentle Giant (1972); singer, multi-instrumentalist, composer and record and film producer Quincy Jones in Walking in Space (1969) and Body Heat (1974); soul jazz organist Lonnie Smith in Mama Wailer (1971); Argentine jazz saxophonist Gato Barbieri in El Pampero (1972); jazz tenor saxophonist Gene Ammons in Free Again (1972); jazz keyboardist Hampton Hawes in Universe (1972); and jazz-funk group The Crusaders in Crusaders 1 (1972).

The Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin in Young, Gifted and Black (1972), Amazing Grace (1972), With Everything I Feel in Me (1974), Let Me in Your Life (1974) and Sweet Passion (1977); jazz trumpeter Donald Byrd in Black Byrd (1973), Street Lady (1973), Places and Spaces (1975) and Stepping Into Tomorrow (1975); soul jazz, jazz-funk and jazz fusion singer and flutist Bobbi Humphrey in Blacks and Blues (1973) and Fancy Dancer (1975); jazz singer Peggy Lee in Let’s Love (1974); rock band Steely Dan in Pretzel Logic (1974) and Aja (1977); pop/rock singer Joe Cooker in I Can Stand a Little Rain (1974) and Luxury You Can Afford (1978); soul jazz pianist Gene Harris in Nexus (1975) and In a Special Way (1976); and Japanese jazz alto saxophonist and flutist Sadao Watanabe in My Dear Life (1977) among many others. Rainey has only released five albums as a leader: The Chuck Rainey Coalition (1972), Born Again (1981), Hangin Out Right (1998), Sing and Dance (1999) and Interpretations of a Groove (2013).