PlayersRANDY JACKSON, JOURNEY J c c andy Jackson, born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1956, doesn't have the usual bass-player biography. A fusion bassist from his twenties, having got his start with the French jazz violinist Jean-Luc Ponty, he found fame with the AOR giants Journey in 1986. This kickstarted a long and prolific session career, whether playing pop hits with artists such as Whitney Houston or complex jazz with Billy Cobham, and he soon expanded his role to production, artist management, and then A&R, where he was a stalwart for many years at Columbia and MCA.
✪ PlayersRICK SAVAGE, DEF LEPPARD ew rock bass players have embraced their unique position within a band as well as Def Leppard's Rick 'Sav' Savage. But then again, he's a lot more than a bass player, contributing to the songs' often-grandiose harmonies live on stage, co-writing many of their biggest tracks and even going as far as tracking some of the guitars-something which bass players are rarely afforded the opportunity to do-over a career spanning four and a half decades. It's this vantage point that gives him a greater understanding of his instrument's role in the context of a group, acting almost as the mediator between melody and rhythm. That's as apparent now, on this year's twelfth studio album Diamond Star Halos, as it was on 1987's best-seller Hysteria.