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Rediscovered Talent
Jaco Pastorius: First Name Bassist
By James Auburn
MusicBizAdvice.com profiles an artist from the past. Some you may have
heard of, some not, but we hope you'll take time to check out their music...especially if
it's something different than you usually listen to. This month, we rediscover
influential bassist Jaco Pastorius.
Jaco Pastorius. The
name--usually sans surname by devotees--long ago became synonymous with
seemingly unattainable instrumental prowess. “JOCK-o, maaan…” For decades
now, the utterance of “Jaco” has sent shivers of excitement through young
wannabe jazz-rockers and rock bassists who spend many a waking hour
shredding away at their particular ax, trying to come within a mile of the
skills of the bass virtuoso… “Jaco”.
These young aspirants are almost always doomed
to fail because what made Jaco Pastorius unique was not that he had bass
chops as good as anyone – though that was certainly true – but that his
playing had a distinctive voice; within half a bar, you knew it was
Jaco playing. He used to say that vocalists were as big an influence on his
bass playing as anything else, and it was following this inclination in his
musicianship that enabled him to make the bass “a sonorous, singing lead
instrument for the first time”, as Musician magazine put it in 1980.
John Francis Pastorius III was born on December 1, 1951, in Norristown, PA,
and raised in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, the son of a professional drummer and
singer. By the time he was a teen, Jaco himself could play drums, piano,
guitar and sax, until he injured his hand in a street fight (showing a
pugnaciousness that would eventually be his undoing). Later, he was asked
to play a pickup gig on bass; he had never played the instrument before, yet
he withdrew his savings from the bank, bought a Fender Jazz bass, and set
about his new challenge.
Jaco later taught at the University of Miami while gigging and displaying
his (for the time) uncommon versatility in taste and style; though he did
some writing for big bands and jazz artists such as Ira Sullivan, he also
played rock and Motown (even gigging with legends like the Temptations and
the Supremes). At a gig at a Ft. Lauderdale club, he met Blood, Sweat &
Tears drummer Bobby Colomby, who eventually produced Jaco’s solo debut album
in 1976. That self-titled album featured luminaries like Herbie Hancock,
the Brecker Brothers, soul treasures Sam & Dave, and Wayne Shorter, and
demonstrated that Jaco deserved to be hangin’ with the greats.
Shorter was, at the time, co-leader (with keyboardist Joe Zawinul) of the
revered fusion band Weather Report. Jaco had earlier approached the two
after a concert in Miami; the 25-year-old’s claims of being “the greatest
bass player in the world” (and subsequent demonstrations thereof) impressed
them enough to have him write a tune, “Barbary Coast”, that Weather Report
would record on their 1976 Black Market LP. By their next album, the
commercial breakthrough Heavy Weather, Jaco had assumed the bass
position in the band, replacing Alphonso Johnson (no slouch on the
instrument himself).
On the group’s well-attended tours, Jaco’s stage flamboyance and showy,
Echoplex-drenched solo bass interludes quickly gained him an adulation
usually reserved for rock stars, and Jimi Hendrix of the bass” comparisons
were born. Jaco also garnered criticism in some jazz circles for his
spotlight-stealing tendencies, and for the fact that he and the equally
domineering Zawinul were pushing Shorter—considered by many as one the
greatest players and writers in jazz history--to an ever-smaller role in
Weather Report. But arena crowds don’t read jazz critics’ rants; a few more
fiery runs on that fretless bass neck, and they were happy.
Jaco recorded six albums with Weather Report, including the live 8:30.
Over the years, he would lay his incomparable mark on four Joni Mitchell
albums, as well as appearances on recordings by Herbie Hancock, Airto, Mike
Stern and many others, along with several more albums under his own name. A
good number of live bootlegs exist, plus a series of recorded live
performances called Live in New York, which some mistake as bootlegs
but which according to ex-wife Ingrid, Jaco granted permission to record.
Jaco’s legend would scale as high as that of anyone in the music industry…
and the end of his story would be as tragic.
Jaco was diagnosed with manic-depression in 1982. His tenure with Weather
Report ended that same year, and he continued to tour and record
(particularly with his Word Of Mouth Big Band), but years of drug and
alcohol abuse poured gasoline on the fire raging inside his mind. His
performances started to suffer for it. After what were referred to as
“uncontrolled and reckless incidences”, his family had him admitted to a
mental hospital and placed on Lithium. Two weeks later, he convinced the
doctors he was well enough to leave to play a pre-scheduled gig and promised
to return; he did not. Jaco was hospitalized a number of other times,
including at Bellevue, but it never helped, and as often happens with
artists who suffer manic-depression, he didn't like the side effects of his
medication and often wouldn't take it.
Jaco spent a small part of his later years virtually homeless; James Isaacs
wrote, “Musically uninitiated passers-by who encountered him wandering the
streets of New York could not possibly have known that this haggard figure
was a peerless virtuoso who revolutionized his instrument… and [was] a
charismatic performer who had toured the world.” The story ends even more
sadly: Jaco got into a scuffle outside a Ft. Lauderdale nightclub with the
club’s bouncer, who proceeded to beat Jaco into a coma. Jaco died nine days
later on September 21, 1987, not yet 36 years old.
One can only speculate what heights Jaco Pastorius may have scaled had his
illness not consumed him as it did; we are only left with his recorded
output, those cascades of fretless bass notes that elevated him to god-like
status in many a listener’s ear, including those of Jaco’s “hotshot
bass-player” progeny: Victor Wooten, Oteil Burbidge, et al. If nothing
else, he gave the music biz yet another tragic “tortured genius” legend…but
no one lived up to it as well as Jaco Pastorius.
Epilogue: Jaco’s twin sons,
Julius and Felix--born in 1982 to Jaco and then-wife Ingrid, whom he married
in 1979--continue the family’s musical legacy with their band,
Way of the Groove, in which
Julius plays drums, and Felix is on bass. Along with siblings Mary and John
(Jaco’s children from a previous marriage), and Jaco’s brother Rory, they
continue their father’s own musical legacy through Jaco’s official web site,
JacoPastorius.com. Ex-wife Ingrid
also continues Jaco’s legacy via her own website,
Ingrid’s Jaco Pastorius
Cybernest, the site that later evolved into JacoPastorius.com.
Although they were divorced in 1985, Ingrid writes on her web site, “Jaco
and I broke up legally in 1985, though emotionally and spiritually I
remained attached to him, his music, and now his soul.”
Discography
James Auburn is a
keyboardist, musical director, arranger, educator, and all-around
audiophile. He's also the co-founder of the Boston Hip Hop Alliance.
Rediscovered Talent
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