Jaco Pastorius

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by frimleygreener, Jul 22, 2016.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. PiratesFan

    PiratesFan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chambersburg, PA
    Jaco didn't play on too many rock/pop records, so his fame is primarily among musicians, jazz fans and world music fans. If someone listens to him enough, I think they could immediately recognize Jaco's playing. Anyone listening to fretless bass playing, be it Nathan East, Jimmy Haslip, Victor Bailey, etc., can certainly hear the influence of Jaco.

    And his son, Felix, played with the Yellowjackets and made a CD with them. He doesn't sound like his dad, but some of that talent surely got into his DNA.
     
  2. cyclistsb

    cyclistsb Forum Resident

    I saw that movie never knowing much about him. I had Bright Sized Life but that never made me a huge fan. I then bought his best of record and thought there were some very interesting songs but that record isn't very fluid...all over the map. What would someone recommend that wants something interesting but not exactly experimental?
     
  3. Steve G

    Steve G Senior Member

    Location:
    los angeles
    Saw him with weather report and just listened to Joni's Mingus last night. That is all.
     
    drasil likes this.
  4. footlooseman

    footlooseman Forum Resident

    Location:
    Joyzee
  5. Rodney Toady

    Rodney Toady Waste of cyberspace

    Location:
    Finland
    When Jaco was good, he was incredible; when he wasn't, he was still very good. He seemed to burn out rather quickly, though. Most of his best playing on record (in my opinion, that is) seems to have appeared on albums released in 1976: Jaco Pastorius, Bright Size Life (Pat Metheny), Hejira (Joni Mitchell), Black Market (Weather Report). I don't know what went wrong after that; perhaps the weight of the mantle of the world's best bass guitarist was a bit too much for him to handle and he became a victim of his new-found fame - he tried too hard to be astounding all the time which eventually became detrimental to the music.
     
    jimmydean and midniteinsanjuan like this.
  6. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Brillant player, took the bass gtr to a new level. Joni was impressed, and rightly so.
     
  7. Anne Elk (Miss)

    Anne Elk (Miss) Well-Known Member

    Location:
    U.K.
    This is a good answer. In my opinion, although you can appreciate any form of music and an instrumentalist's technical proficiency differently if you're a musician, it's obviously not vital in order to enjoy the music. I would argue that it's not a better appreciation because, ultimately, everyone responds emotionally to a piece of music in the first instance. Maybe the musician just goes a few steps farther and works out 'why' and 'how'. I think it's limiting to think of Jaco purely in terms of being a bass player. He made significant compositional contributions to Weather Report and, in my humble and likely minority opinion, Word Of Mouth is a better album even than the excellent Jaco Pastorius.
    I believe it's a coincidence that, when I want to listen to Weather Report, I usually opt for the Jaco albums, just as I do when I want to listen to Joni Mitchell, but my first Joni album was The Hissing Of Summer Lawns and my first Weather Report was Heavy Weather so maybe it's not such a coincidence after all. Honestly, my visceral reaction listening most of those tracks is to the bass and when I'm playing the songs in my head, the bass is as prominent as the vocal melodies. I haven't seen the documentary yet; I'll check it out.
     
    AnalogJ and gregorya like this.
  8. Yost

    Yost “It’s only impossible until it’s not”

    In seems that the Netflix documentary is only available in the US. This according to sources on the internet. I've checked and it's not available in The Netherlands, sadly.
     
  9. Sneaky Pete

    Sneaky Pete Flat the 5 and That’s No Jive

    Location:
    NYC USA
    I haven't seen the documentary but Jaco was a fantastic musician and he brought something unique to Weather Report that they never attained without him. He invented a new way of playing the bass and that is a rarity. Although others have adopted his technique no one has really been able to duplicate his playing. I've seen an interview with Pat Methany where he states as much.

    It's tragic that mental illness and substance abuse contributed to his demise. It is more tragic that he was unnecessarily killed and never able to get the help he needed.
     
    gotblues likes this.
  10. Grunge Master

    Grunge Master 8 Bit Enthusiast

    Location:
    Michigan
    To any hardcore Jaco fans on here; is there any place that you can see the Havana Jam that featured the infamous Trio Of Doom? They show a couple of little clips in the documentary, although they don't look very good. I didn't know if this was something that's readily available, or it was never released.
     
  11. alexbunardzic

    alexbunardzic Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vancouver, BC
    I don't think that Weather Report gradual downhill slide was due to Jaco joining them. While I do agree that their pre-"Mr. Gone" albums were of significantly better quality, I don't think that has anything to do with their bass players. It's just that Messieurs Zawinul and Shorter started running out of steam.

    Besides the Weather Report context, Jaco was an amazing musician and instrumentalist. But let's not forget that he owes a lot to the German bass player Eberhard Weber. If you listen to Weber's records from the early seventies, you will hear that tone, the tone that Jaco managed to cop and then make it his own.

    But Weber is, in my modest opinion, a more accomplished musician than Jaco. Less prominent, less famous, but just a tad bit deeper than Jaco.
     
  12. Jimbino

    Jimbino Goad Kicker, Music Lover

    Location:
    Northern CA, USA
    Check out his work on the Joni Mitchell albums Hejira and Shadows and Light.
     
  13. lennonfan1

    lennonfan1 Senior Member

    Location:
    baltimore maryland
    I saw Joni's Shadows and Light tour and thought Jaco was amazing, I had Heavy Weather too but his work with Joni knocked my sox off:)
     
  14. AnalogJ

    AnalogJ Hearing In Stereo Since 1959

    Location:
    Salem, MA
    Anyone here have the live box set from Record Store Day 2017? I have it and I really like it.
     
  15. Jimbino

    Jimbino Goad Kicker, Music Lover

    Location:
    Northern CA, USA
  16. AnalogJ

    AnalogJ Hearing In Stereo Since 1959

    Location:
    Salem, MA
  17. PsychGuy

    PsychGuy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Albuquerque
    I agree with the OP, I prefer the Weather Report music before Jaco. Not sure that has much to do with him, however -- more the direction of the band. (But it does feel like they let him overplay on some of those records.)

    Listened to "Hejira" recently and really loved Jaco's playing. Great collaboration with Joni Mitchell on those songs.

    All in all, though, I preferred Jaco's high school bands!
     
    Last edited: May 11, 2017
  18. Jimbino

    Jimbino Goad Kicker, Music Lover

    Location:
    Northern CA, USA
    Yup - just provided links for easy clicking.
     
    AnalogJ likes this.
  19. frimleygreener

    frimleygreener "It 'a'int why...it just is" Thread Starter

    Location:
    united kingdom
    Thanks for an interesting debate...I should add that I marvel at Jaco's work with Joni: also with Bireli Lagrene ,as well as his Word Of Mouth works: Perhaps it is the case that Jaco was peerless at underpinning an arrangement rather than driving a composition. I would suggest that perhaps the former requires more from the player: Jaco had that in Spades.
     
    kevywevy likes this.
  20. It's on CD but I've never come across video of the performance.
     
    Grunge Master likes this.
  21. Lonson

    Lonson I'm in the kitchen with the Tombstone Blues

    Don't forget Don Juan's Reckless Daughter.
     
  22. Grunge Master

    Grunge Master 8 Bit Enthusiast

    Location:
    Michigan
    My favorite line from Hejira:

    We all come and go unknown
    Each so deep and superficial
    Between the forceps and the stone

    Deep stuff right there. No wonder she needed Jaco and his 'weird' bass playing!
     
  23. Charles Buxton

    Charles Buxton Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Antonio, Texas
    I'm not a musician, but, right about the time Jaco "hit", I had a musician friend "explain" Jaco to me. From that point on, I've evaluated bass players, especially electric bass players, through the "prism" of Jaco. Basically, it's not is the player "as good as, or better", but is he, or she, have an original style, really setting himself or herself apart, playing to be heard?
     
  24. ytserush

    ytserush Forum Resident

    Location:
    Northeast US
  25. mwheelerk

    mwheelerk Sorry, I can't talk now, I'm listening to music...

    Location:
    Gilbert Arizona
    So I'm not a musician and knowledgeable of the technical things he did in his playing that were so influential to the instrument. I'm also curious to those who do understand this are there current bass players you feel were directly influenced by Jaco or may now play in a similar vein?
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine