Jaco: The Movie (2015 Jaco Pastorious documentary)

A jazz bassist friend of mine brought this DVD by yesterday and we watched disc 1. It was put together over the course of 6 years by Robert Trujillo of Metallica, and the loving effort and dedication shows in every frame. There are some incredible home movies as well as unseen live footage, and the filmmakers interview all the major players, with Pat Metheny the notable exception. Beautifully shot and sharply edited, it's exactly the film Jaco deserves. We're watching disc 2 soon, with the outtakes and longer interviews. Highly, highly recommended.

http://www.amazon.com/JACO-The-Film-Jaco-Pastorius/dp/B015NLH4EA

 

Can't wait, as I've ordered this. Heard an interesting interview with Trujillo and Flea on Marc Maron's podcast discussing this. Couldn't help but be annoyed (a little) by Maron, who seemed so ignorant about Jaco's gifts. You could feel the musicians pulling him toward checking out the film, and possibly appreciating Jaco's music, but the attitude amongst many to not check out a player like Jaco on the assumption that the music is virtuosic and not emotional (why they hell not BOTH!) is part of what ails US musical culture post punk.

That's a digression, but I can post more about the film once it arrives.

 

I ordered it today.

I'm a bit surprised that there is no Pat Metheny presence. Anyone know why?

 

Should have played him "Portrait of Tracy" or the Invitation version of "Continuum." Or any version of "Three Views Of A Secret."

If you're not moved one way or another by any of those, then I don't know what to tell you.

 

I saw it in New Orleans screened in the NOLA film fest

Trujillo and Jaco's eldest son as well as some NOLA musicians that sat in with him was great

The second disc of interviews was wonderful
As extensive as it was
It could have gone on for hours for me

Highly recommended

 

Metheny was part of Jaco's big break
I found it odd too

Can't see him on the Joni Shadows and Light footage

Wayne Shorter was dignified talking about Jaco's legend and short falls

 

I thought maybe Metheny stayed away because Bill Milkowski (who seems to have written almost everything I've ever read about Jaco) must be involved but I don't see Milkowski's name anywhere. Metheny tore Milkowski a new one in the liner notes to the Jaco Pastorius CD reissue and I was hoping he was part of the movie so he would elaborate and give his side of the story.

 

I've tried listening to Maron's podcast but I found his tone/delivery grating, the sound of someone who likes to hear himself talk. You would think a host would do some homework on a subject before interviewing people connected to it.

 

Wow. I had no idea.
That explains a lot.

 

there was a brief Milkowski interview, but he doesn't appear to be one of the principals in putting this documentary together

I would have liked to hear from Tracy but I can understand why that didn't happen
The home movie footage was wonderful but bittersweet in that he was home so infrequently

 

Well done doc, a little long but tons of absurdly great bass playing footage. Also it sidesteps the events surrounding his death a little bit as I was left with a lot of questions

 

Here's the quote from Metheny:

jaco’s legacy has had a rough go of it - a horribly inaccurate, botched biography, endless cassette bootlegs of late-life gigs that do nothing but devalue the importance of his message through greed and overkill, and a mythology that seems to thrive on the stories that surrounded the lesser aspects of his lifestyle over the triumphs of his early musical vision and wisdom.

And here's a link to the entire essay he wrote for the Jaco CD reissue:

http://www.jacop.net/writ_metheny.html
(personally, I have some of those bootlegs of late-life gigs and at least a couple of them are great.)

 

Here is a recent interview by Shad with Messrs. Trujillo and Marchand on CBC Radio's Q.

 

The movie was a really emotional experience, quite well done. It concentrates more on his brilliance than on the decline, but it doesn't shy away from the decline or from a discussion of mental illness. It shows a couple of brief clips of when he was really out of it, and those do help add context. There's one from recording of Holiday For Pans that is particularly heartbreaking.

For time purposes, the movie feels like it doesn't include quite enough on his early woodshedding and travel with Wayne Cochran. And I would have represented his concert with Joni Mitchell by using "In France They Kiss On Main Street" rather than "Dry Cleaner From Des Moines."

I would have saved the Metallica clip where Trujillo plays Jaco's bass for the 2nd disc as well (although it was a cool clip).
While Pat Metheny is not interviewed, he does appear in several clips, and the credits have a fun bit of juggling done by Pastorius with Lyle Mays.

 

I bought this last week and quite enjoyed it. I figured there would be footage from Jaco's instructional video but it sure looked like crap. Both my VHS and the digitized version I have look better.

 

Excellent stuff.

 

Wanting to see this...

 

Fantastic film. My favorite Jaco solo. Especially, the loop pedal section around 1:40

 

This is now free to stream on Netflix. Not perfect but had some great live footage and interviews.

 

What happened to his bass? Was it completely re-done? Terrible...

 

A moving tribute to a true original. I thought there was a good balance of his personal story with enough input from other musicians to satisfy us music heads. Hopefully the doc will inspire young people to seek out Jaco's music.

 

Being in NOLA myself, I'm curious - which NOLA musicians were in attendance?

 

Hi fellow NOLA dweller

Ricky Sebastian was one
The other an older gentleman was with Wayne Cochran's CC Riders band (horns?)

 

I'm watching this on Netflix now. Jaco so frustrates me. I mean, the audacity - to go around calling himself "the greatest bassplayer in the world" - and to be RIGHT! And then to have come to the miserable end he did. He should be alive today and living in a palace. As a non-genius musician, it really frustrates and saddens me when the actual geniuses get trodden in the dirt.

 

How would you like to be Alfonso Johnson watching Zawinal listening to your replacement kill it in a hotel room

I wouldn't say Jaco mired in the dirt

Jaco ascended to the top of the jazz fusion world and even spawned major cross over audience

His drug use and unmanged/ undiagnosed bipolar disorder were a significant part of his falling from those lofty heights

A life cut tragically short