South Carolina native Steve Bailey’s exemplary bass style has graced the work of artists as diverse as Dizzy Gillespie, the Rippingtons, Kitaro and Jethro Tull, to say nothing of three fantastic solo albums. Indeed, not for nothing did Bass Player magazine (for which he is a columnist and advisory board member) once say that “Steve Bailey is to the six-string fretless bass what Columbus is to America.”

As an educator, Bailey served on the faculty of the Bass Institute of Technology (B.I.T.) for more than a decade and has created numerous instructional bass books and videos. He hosts many bass events and camps, including Bass at the Beach and the International Solo Bass Competition.

As a young man, Bailey’s surfing career was cut short by an invitation to join a band as bassist, and the rest for him was history. His first bass was pawnshop dog with half its frets missing—perhaps contributing to Bailey’s future virtuosity. After hearing the great Stanley Clarke, Bailey modified his first “real” bass—a Fender—so that it had 24 frets, and the 12-hour practice days began.

Bailey’s first big gig after college at North Texas State and the University of Miami was with Cuban jazz sensation Paquito D’Rivera, after which he graduated to Dizzy Gillespie’s band and traveled the world. Longing to return to sand and surf, he then took his bass career to the Los Angeles studio scene and a gig with the Rippingtons. Known for his distinctive fretless sound, Bailey subsequently landed gigs and sessions with David Benoit, Larry Carlton and Kitaro. He released his first instructional video, Advanced Bassix, and joined the B.I.T. faculty in Hollywood.

Bailey formed bass duo Bass Extremes in the early 1990s with fellow virtuoso Victor Wooten, and continued to record, gig and travel throughout the decade. He then returned to South Carolina to resume surfing—always his first love—build his own studio and start a family. He remains a busy player on both coasts, and is an artist in residence and associate professor at Coastal Carolina University. Bailey collaborated with Fender on the 2009 release of his signature model, the Steve Bailey Jazz Bass VI (in fretted and fretless models), Fender’s first-ever six-string bass guitar.