Bass player on Hakuna Matata from The Lion King?

May 3, 2016
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I am very keen on knowing who is the boss laying down the fretless groove on the cinematic (not musical) version of Hakuna Matata from Disney's The Lion King. The playing is ingenious. I have been looking all over the Internet without any success. Does anyone know who is playing the bass?

 
Bakithi Kumalo maybe?
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Wikipedia claims that Phil Spalding played all the bass on the soundtrack, but they don't have a source. I checked on Discog.com and they do list "The Lion King" under album that Phil Spalding worked on. Anyone know more?

Phil Spalding - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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I don't see anything that would make me doubt that it's him. Elton John wrote most of that soundtrack (I'm pretty sure), and Spalding was his bassist.
 
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Philip Spalding (born 19 November 1957, London, England) also known as Phil Spalding, is an English bass player. He is best known as a session musician and player of Fender Precision Bass guitars. He has played and appeared with performing artists such as Mick Jagger, Seal, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Elton John and Randy Crawford.[1]

At an early age he was a successful child model and appeared in a television advertisement for Smiths Crisps. Spalding was a computer operator for a high street bank, before joining rock artist Bernie Tormé in 1976. Later he joined Original Mirrors before beginning a collaboration with Toyah, in December 1980. Whilst with The Toyah band he recorded and co-wrote songs for studio albums and toured with the band, until 1983.[2] Since then he has been a member of GTR and Mike Oldfield's band. More recently he has appeared on albums by Michel Polnareff, Suggs, Robbie Williams and Kylie Minogue.[1]

Spalding also recorded all bass tracks on the Lion King soundtrack studio album.
 
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I know ot's been an old thread- so just an extra friendly advise, when it comes to Disney Soundtrack music, one of the best bass sessionist (my favourite) to look for is Abraham Laboriel. If you enjoyed the groove of Ratatouille, Frozen, & many others, you will love him too. Honestly I have a feeling that he played Lion King as well. Interview with bass legend Abraham Laboriel
 
More Zombie-threadness!!!

My wife has a thing for Disney soundtracks, and I came here looking for an answer to this exact question!

Well, it was confirmed by Phil Spalding himself in an interview published on September 13, 2017:

“For the Lion King material, Elton was always enquiring about what I was playing, as he’s a busy piano player and his left-hand playing is phenomenal.”

We can all stop waking up at 3AM wondering!
 
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I now have kids who are old enough to watch select Disney movies, and I too was impressed with the fretless bass playing on the Lion King songs. Also, I appreciate that the bass is loud enough in the mix that I can hear it well. Thanks TB for another thread still providing value! I found this particular thread by doing a general google search.