It was one of his amazing attributes, not just how good of a player he was, but that he always sounded like a regular member of whoever he was sitting in with. He never once stood out or sounded like a hired hand, he just sounded like the Stones' piano player, or the Kinks', or whoever.
That's the job, but yes Nicky did that exceptionally well - I can tell him from Ian Stewart, but that's because Stu did one thing (really well, but just one thing).
Duane added a lot to a lot of records, but if I had been in a position to hire session players back then I would've only brought him in if Duane Allman was specifically what I wanted, otherwise I would've gone with Muscle Shoals regulars Jimmy Johnson, Joe South, or Eddie Hinton. And with Hinton and South you got songwriting too.
Japanese guitarists Ryo Kawasaki and Kazumi Watanabe both hired out for a good number of notable projects more so by a long shot even with there pretty lengthy solo projects.
when I saw the name Ryo Kawasaki I thought of the software Kawasaki Synthesizer that we used to have for our Commodore 64. Since I’m not a musician I used to use it to make weird backgrounds for the sound collage tapes I used to like to make. Great fun! I checked, it is the same guy, awesome memories - Ryo Kawasaki, Jazz Fusion Guitarist and Guitar Synth Inventor, Dies at 73 – Billboard Screen shot! https://ia803400.us.archive.org/18/...izer_Demo_1984_Ryo_Kawasaki/screenshot_19.png
I notice people appear to be omitting jazz musicians (since everyone pretty much would swap places and be a session player for someone else on their album), so I've included them with an asterisk (*) to differentiate them between the rock/R&B/etc session players: Bass - James Jamerson, Chuck Rainey, Paul Chambers* Drums - Tony Williams*, Tony Thompson, Jeff Porcaro Guitar - Larry Carlton, Steve Khan Keyboards - Greg Phillingaines, McCoy Tyner*, Nicky Hopkins, Tommy Flanagan*
Huge, HUGE HUGE fan of Landau. His live stuff with Toss Panos on drums is other-worldly. Many years ago, I was digging thru the cutout CDs at Rasputin's and grabbed Live 2000, not knowing what it was. All I knew was it was 50 cents and looked interesting. Got it home and was gobsmacked at the incredible dynamics of this trio (Jimmy Johnson on bass). Michael Landau changed my life, seriously.
Here's a wonderful interview with the great British session guitarist Vic Flick: Vic Flick interview with Jesse Amoroso at Cowtown Guitars, Las Vegas (vicflickguitarman.blogspot.com)
Yes, generally if you are a good enough jazz musician to be successful, you can play with any other jazz artist. A few jazz players transitioned into pop session work, like Victor Feldman and Wilton Felder (mentioned earlier). Jimmy Rowles was another example, a jazz pianist who was also credited for keyboards on Fifth Dimension records. More recently Matt Rollings started as a jazz pianist but went into Nashville country sessions.
I am actually referring to the Sr., his dad, who is a famous jazz bass player. The Sr. is actually more famous than junior as a session player.
I don't know if Phil Collins would qualify as session drummer, or rather as a guest star. In any case he also played on QE2 by Mike Oldfield. In the same way you can find Peter Gabriel playing flute on Mona Bone Jakon by Cat Stevens, and likely on other records, but I would not consider him as session player.
