After James Jamerson laid down all those funky bass lines in Detroit, helping to create 56 No. 1 R&B hits and 23 No. 1 pop hits, making Motown into a cultural juggernaut, popular music never has been the same.

What Jamerson demonstrated was that the electric bass could do far more than undergird a song’s rhythm and provide the roots of its harmonic progression. The bass, in Jamerson’s hands, became a full partner, a melody maker, a groove generator. Jamerson embraced chromaticism and harmony. He ensured that the bass played a role equal to any other instrument.

Though this Edisto Island native is not a household name, he is a god among musicians. A Founding Father. A revolutionary.

Now he will have a portion of a street on Edisto named after him. A 4:30 p.m. Aug. 19 public naming ceremony at the corner of S.C. Highway 174 and Steamboat Landing Road is the result of an ongoing lobbying effort by Jamerson’s first cousin and Lowcountry resident, Anthony McKnight, who is determined to get the bass player all the recognition he deserves.

What McKnight really wants is for Jamerson to be inducted into the South Carolina Hall of Fame, he said. The street renaming, though, is a welcomed honor. It required House and Senate approval, which came easily enough thanks to a House bill introduced by Republicans Matt Leber, Mark Smith, Fawn Pedalino, Gary Brewer, Chris Murphy, Brandon Cox, Carla Schuessler, Joe Bustos, Tom Hartnett, Kathy Landing and Robby Robbins

The ceremony will be followed by a sold-out musical tribute and some remarks from dignitaries at the Edisto Island Civic Center.

Jamerson grew up on Big B Road, just off Steamboat Landing Road. He attended Jane Edwards Elementary and Baptist Hill High School. He was immersed in music of the church and the radio. His father, James Sr., worked in Charleston’s shipyards; his mother, Elizabeth Bacon, was a domestic worker. They divorced when Jamerson was young. In 1954, the budding musician followed his mother to Detroit. There, Jamerson would establish himself as the go-to bassist for just about everybody: Marvin Gaye, The Supremes, Smokey Robinson, The Temptations, Martha and the Vandellas, Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight & the Pips.