Jeff Ament
Pearl Jam
Temple of the Dog
Mother Love Bone
Jeff Ament (born March 10, 1963) is an American rock bassist and one of the
founding members of Pearl Jam.
Ament was born in Havre, Montana. He began playing the bass guitar as a teenager
and would usually play along with The Clash and The Police records. Jeff would
later relocate to Seattle, after quitting college and moving there from his
native Montana in the early 1980's with his band Deranged Dection. He became
aquainted with fellow Seattle musicians Stone Gossard and Steve Turner, and he
was asked to join their new band Green River in 1983. Green River are commonly
considered to be the first grunge band and achieved a considerable local
reputation, but in-fighting within the band led to a break up in 1987. Ament and
Gossard recruited local 'celebrity' Andrew Wood and formed Mother Love Bone in
1987. Things looked to be going well, with the band signing to a major label and
released the critically acclaimed album Apple, until Wood's tragic and untimely
death shortly before the album's release in 1990. It was at this point that
Ament and Gossard almost parted company, but stuck around for the Temple of the
Dog project which featured future Pearl Jam vocalist Eddie Vedder. Pearl Jam was
formed just after in 1990.
Jeff is an extremely accomplished bassist, and is particularly noted for his
work with the fretless bass, upright bass, and twelve-string bass guitar. He
also makes a major songwriting contribution to the band, penning one of Pearl
Jam's biggest hits, Jeremy as well as Nothingman, Low Light and Nothing As It
Seems.
Aside from music, Jeff is a talented skateboarder, basketball player and graphic
artist. When he initially went to college in Montana, it was to get an art
degree or a basketball scholarship. With his brother Barry Ament, Jeff runs Ames
Bros., an art production company that produces tour posters and album artwork
for many bands as well as Pearl Jam. He has a side project band named Three
Fish.
Jeff currently lives in Missoula, Montana.
Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 4 Jul 2006, 16:49 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 4 Jul 2006
