Session Musician - History and Associations

History and Associations

During the 1920s and 1930s most record companies had their own prolific "studio bands" turning out records of the latest pop hits. These were often made up by jazz and dance band musicians who were at the same time members of regular working bands and who divided their time between studio work (recordings as well as broadcasting) during the day and live performances in the evenings. Notable such "studio musicians" include Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Teddy Wilson, Oscar Peterson, Jack Teagarden, Red Nichols, Miff Mole, Andy Sannella, and Mike Mosiello.

Although session musicians have long and successful careers and can achieve considerable fame within the music industry, they rarely achieve popular celebrity. Notable exceptions include the members of the band Toto who met in various recording sessions; John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page, who were well known as session musicians before their later success with Led Zeppelin; keyboardist Rick Wakeman; and renowned vocalists Valerie Simpson, Lisa Fischer and Luther Vandross.

Perhaps the best-known session band are Booker T & The MGs who were the house band at Stax records in Memphis during the 1960s and 1970s playing behind Otis Redding, Eddie Floyd, Sam and Dave, Isaac Hayes and The Staple Singers amongst many others. MGs guitarist Steve Cropper co-wrote many of Redding's hits and The MGs produced albums and hit singles such as Green Onions in their own right while being the house band at Stax.

Among the most prolific established studio musicians are The Wrecking Crew. Based in Los Angeles, the Wrecking Crew has recorded innumerable songs and albums since the 1960s. One of their bassists, Carol Kaye, is said to be the most recorded bassist of all time with 10,000 sessions spanning four decades, yet is largely unknown to the general public.

The Funk Brothers were session musicians who performed the backing to many Motown Records recordings from the late 1950's to the early 1970's. The legendary Billy Preston was a session musician who played with Mahalia Jackson and was known as the 'fifth' Beatle for his work with the Beatles.

The Los Angeles singer/songwriter scene associated with The Troubadour nightclub and Laurel Canyon in the late 1960's to mid-1970's was supported by musicians Russ Kunkel, Danny Kortchmar, Leland Sklar and Craig Doerge. This session combo, nicknamed The Session or The Mafia, backed many musicians, among others: Carole King, James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Warren Zevon, Kris Kristofferson and David Crosby.

A few session musicians have even built reputations of notoriety: English session singer Tony Burrows appeared so often as a frontman for various one-hit wonder studio groups (such as Edison Lighthouse, The Flower Pot Men, The Pipkins, The Brotherhood of Man, White Plains, and The First Class), in a short period of time during the early 1970s, that his attempts at a solo career under his own name were hampered, due in part to burnout.

Another well-known group of session musicians is called The Nashville A-Team and is made up of A-list studio musicians who recorded during the Nashville Sound era. Their contributions began in the 1950s with artists such as Elvis Presley. Some of these musicians are still alive today. The original A-Team includes bassist Bob Moore; guitarists Grady Martin, Hank Garland, Ray Edenton, and Harold Bradley; drummer Buddy Harman; pianists Floyd Cramer and Hargus "Pig" Robbins; fiddler Tommy Jackson; steel guitarist Pete Drake; harmonicist Charlie McCoy; saxophonist Boots Randolph; and vocal groups The Jordanaires and The Anita Kerr Singers. The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section comprising Barry Beckett, Roger Hawkins, David Hood, and Jimmy Johnson, also known as The Swampers, is another well-established group of session musicians. They have become known for the "Muscle Shoals Sound." Many of the recordings done in the Memphis area, which included Muscle Shoals, Alabama, used the The Memphis Horns in their arrangements. MFSB was a group of soul music studio musicians based in Philadelphia at the Sigma Sound Studios; they later went on to become a name-brand instrumental group, and their best known hit was TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia), better known as the theme from Soul Train.