It's perhaps the most important ingredient in just about any music stew. The right bass player can make a rhythm section, can urge the music toward unexpected and exciting places, can add another melodic layer, or just as easily provide the visceral thump that is so often the catalyst in making a song or a band's sound truly sublime.

Kent Weber is the right bass player. Everyone in his hometown in New York knows it. They've seen him elevate the city's best acts to heady vistas by blending melody and aggression into a wholly pleasing sound all his own. Weber is a legend, a member of The Buffalo Music Hall of Fame and recipient "Best Bassist" awards. Weber knows and loves rock, pop, jazz, soul/funk, R&B, and folk/acoustic; he's devoted his career to perfecting their ever-elusive nuances. But that's not enough. In 1997, he started studying jazz theory with Berklee graduate Paul LaDuca. Since then, Weber has become as well known for his upright playing as he's always been for his virtuosic electric work.

Resting on his laurels? That's not something Weber has ever considered. He's a bassist who knows the value of playing for the song, who has the chops, but knows that melody is king, who is equally at home cranking out a heavilly distorted killer riff, funking it up, or laying down a supple Ray Brown or McCartney-esque line.

Weber is an inspired and inspiring player. He's a man who knows the power of the mighty low end.