Chuck Rainey is one of those Zelig-like bassists who turn up everywhere, yet never became a household name. Probably because he never tried to steal the limelight.

As for a highlight, it’s hard to choose one from his work on more than 1,000 albums. Some go for Aretha’s Rock Steady; others for The Rascals’ classic Groovin; or maybe Steely Dan’s Peg.

I’m a big fan of his work with Roberta Flack, who has so much more to her than the two mega-ballads that made her name.

But ‘m going for Quincy Jones’s take on Summer In The City, which uses The Lovin’ Spoonful’s 1966 hit as a starting point and takes it to sublime new places in the jazz-funk universe.

Rainey’s bass provides a warm undercurrent to the fluttering runs of Dave Grunin’s electric piano and the fills of Eddie Louis’s organ, whose memorable intro was famously sampled in The Pharcyde’s hip-hop classic Passin’ Me By.

Although primarily associated with soul, funk and R&B, Rainey was also highly respected by jazz musicians for his unflashy style: his rhythmic pulse and groove a contrast to virtuosic bassists like Jaco Pastorius and Stanley Clarke.

Born in Ohio in 1940, the son of two amateur pianists, Rainey studied violin, piano and trumpet in his youth in Ohio and took up the guitar during his military service but switched to bass when he was 21, finding it easier for his large hands.

He played electric guitar and bass in various R&B bands in Cleveland before joining King Curtis’s group in New York in 1964, just in time to support The Beatles the following year.

Moving to Los Angeles in 1972, he worked with The Crusaders, Donald Byrd and Sonny Rollins, and played on five Steely Dan albums, as well as writing a five-volume instruction book and instructional videos.