Los Angeles, CA · jazz-fusion · funk · alt-r&b

Thundercat

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Six-string bass played like a lead instrument, sung over in a helium falsetto — virtuosity worn so lightly it reads as comedy until you follow the changes.

Born Stephen Lee Bruner in 1984 and raised around Compton, Thundercat grew up in a musical household: his father Ronald Bruner Sr. drummed for the Temptations, the Supremes and Gladys Knight, his mother Pam played flute and percussion, and his brother Ronald Jr. became a drummer too. He played in the jazz band at Locke High School under teacher Reggie Andrews, who reconnected him with Kamasi Washington.

Bruner had a minor hit in Germany at 15 with the boy band No Curfew, then joined Suicidal Tendencies at 16, replacing bassist Josh Paul, and spent years as a working sideman. Erykah Badu is credited with helping him find his stage identity as Thundercat, and he also played live for Raphael Saadiq and Snoop Dogg before Flying Lotus pushed him toward singing and making his own records.

His solo sound, six-string electric bass paired with a light, high vocal register, sits between jazz fusion, funk and R&B. His 2011 debut The Golden Age of Apocalypse, produced by Flying Lotus, drew on 1970s fusion players like Stanley Clarke and George Duke, and the two have worked closely together since.

Later albums Apocalypse, Drunk and It Is What It Is followed, the last winning a Grammy for Best Progressive R&B Album, and his bass work on Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly earned him a Grammy for the track 'These Walls.' Rolling Stone has counted him among the greatest bass players.

The songs pair dense harmonic writing and fast, melodic bass lines with deliberately deadpan, self-deprecating lyrics, virtuosity delivered with a straight face.

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jazz-fusionfunkalt-r&b