Chuck Rainey

Did You Know?

• Rainey learned viola, piano, and trumpet as a child and majored in brass instruments in college.
• He attended Lane College in Jackson, Tennessee.

Career

Chuck Rainey started out on guitar after college, but his hands were too big for some of the chords. On a drummer’s advice, he switched to bass at age twenty-one. His first major gig came with Big Jay McNeely, followed by a tour through Canada and New York with Sil Austin. In 1962 he joined King Curtis and his All-Star band, and in 1965 that group opened for the Beatles’ U.S. tour. Rainey later became part of Quincy Jones’s big band in 1972. During the 1970s he played with Jerome Richardson, Grady Tate, Mose Allison, Gato Barbieri, Gene Ammons, and Eddie Vinson at the 1971 Montreux Festival, and he appeared on five Steely Dan albums. After Steely Dan’s first breakup, he played on one track from Donald Fagen’s debut solo album, but the session was tense, and he never worked with Steely Dan again.

Though best known as a session musician, Rainey released his own solo album, The Chuck Rainey Coalition, in 1972. He followed with Born Again (1982), Hangin’ Out Right (1999), Sing & Dance (2001), and Interpretations of a Groove (2012). He also wrote the five-volume Complete Electric Bass Player instructional books and filmed teaching videos. The early bass programs at Musicians Institute and the Dick Grove School of Music were his creations, and he wrote columns for Bass Player magazine from 1990 to 1992.

On November 5, 2011, a stroke paralyzed Rainey’s left side. He spent four years in physical therapy, meditation, and Hatha yoga, eventually making a full recovery. In 2014, he and drummer John Anthony Martinez founded Rhythm Intensive, an organization offering clinics, workshops, and master classes for rhythm section players. They also co-wrote The Tune of Success: Unmask Your Genius. In an April 2020 interview with Chris Jisi, Rainey said he had retired from playing bass to focus on writing his biography and running Rhythm Intensive. Alvarez Guitars and Ken Smith Basses both produce a signature line of bass guitars for him. On May 7, 2022, Berklee College of Music awarded him an honorary Doctor of Music degree.