I've spent thirty years on stages with extraordinary musicians, but I'll be honest — even I had a moment of disbelief when we put together the personnel for We Are Just Human.
Bass Musician Magazine just published a piece on the album that gets at something I've been trying to articulate since this project came together: it's rare for one record to feature even a single bass icon. This one has five.
Marcus Miller plays on "Come Close To Me" and "Kiss and Make Up." Victor Wooten — a five-time Grammy winner — anchors "Time Machine." Will Lee shows up on "Like No One's In the Room" and "I Believe." Jimmy Haslip brings his voice to "Where Is The Love." And Bakithi Kumalo, whose bass lines are etched into the history of pop music, holds down "Live This Life For You."
Five players. Five completely different musical philosophies. One album, built song by song around each of them. The full band reads like a wish list — Lakecia Benjamin on saxophone, Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez on percussion, and the late Dean Brown on guitar, whose playing on this record is among the last he ever committed to tape.
What strikes me most about the Bass Musician piece is the framing: it's not a record built around solos. It's a record built around service to the song. Five of the greatest bass players alive, all choosing restraint and feel over flash, because that's what these nine songs needed.
Read the full feature at Bass Musician Magazine, and if you're a bass player — or you just love watching masters work in service of something bigger than themselves — this one's for you.
We Are Just Human is out now on Apple Music, Spotify, and everywhere you stream music.
Read the original feature: https://bassmusicianmagazine.com/2026/06/new-music-five-of-the-greatest-living-bassists-appear-on-one-album-kenny-peaglers-we-are-just-human/