Jaco Pastorius - Jaco Pastorius > Reviews > Jaco at his finest

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Groundbreaking
Lyrics	Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks	Flawless
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Awe - inspiring jazz !
Disadvantages:	It's not free

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Jaco Pastorius is awesome. He is, to the bass guitar, what Hendrix and Page are to the electric guitar, Beethoven to the piano or John Coltrane to sax. He was born in December of 1951 in Norristown, Pennsylvania and was given the name John Francis Pastorius III. He got the nickname Jaco from his love of sports and basketball umpire Jocko Conlan then later changed the spelling to the French spelling Jaco after receiving a note from pianist Alex Darqui. His father was a drummer so Jaco decided to follow in his footsteps, however at the age of 15 he badly injured his wrist and so took up the double bass in his school band. After saving enough money to buy a bass he discovered it couldn't stand up to the humidity and discovered his bass in pieces on the floor. Replacing his bass would be too costly so he prised the frets from his Fender guitar and filled in the spaces with putty. And so the legendary fretless bass style of Jaco Pastorius was born.

Thorugh the late seventies and early eighties Jaco collaborated with many musicians on many different albums - notably Joni Mitchell's Hejira and Al Di Meola's solo stuff. He released the album I'm reviewing - Jaco Pastorius - in 1976 and from then on released a further 9 solo albums, 6 albums with Weather Report and collaborated on around 18 albums.

In the mid eighties it was starting to become obvious that Jaco was suffering from bi-polar disorder alongside a hefty drug and alcohol abuse problem. This meant that his music began to suffer as his behaviour became more and more erratic which pushed him to become an outcast in the music business. After sneaking onstage at a Carlos Santana gig on September 11th 1987 he was ejected and made his way to the Midnight Bottle Club. He was refused entry to the club and ended in a nasty confrontation with the bouncer who left Jaco disfigured and brain dead. His family removed him from his life support machine 10 days later on September 21st 1987. The bouncer who killed Jaco was sentenced with second degree murder however only served four months of his sentence.

Onto the review of the album…

This is a fantastic CD with two of my personal favourite Jaco tunes. There are so many other amazing musicians who have collaborated on this CD - Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Randy and Michael Brecker, David Sanborn, Lenny White, Don Alias, Hubert Laws and Narada Michael Walden to name but a few…

Essentially this is a jazz CD but it covers so many different aspects of jazz. "Come on, come over" is dance jazz with soul vocals (from Sam & Dave - Double Dynamite) whereas "Continuum" is a crazy chromatic, melodious noise with bells, pianos bass and drums, then "Speak like a child" adds a twelve piece string orchestra!

The CD opens on "Donna Lee", an awe-inspiring duet between Jaco's fretless bass and Don Alias on the conga drums. Here's part a quote from Pat Metheny (April 2000) - "…not to mention that it's just about the hippest start to a debut album in the history of recorded music". Can't really argue with that?! I challenge any bass player to have a shot at learning this tune… Arrgghh!

Following "Donna Lee" is "Come on, Come over", a track that reunited soul men Sam and Dave, and is dance jazz… It's the sort of tune that puts a smile on your face and makes you groove! Funky!

Track 5, Portrait of Tracey, is one of the most influential bass solo's that has ever existed. It takes artificial harmonics to a whole new level and teaches the bassist so much about his or her guitar. In interviews with great modern bassists such as Victor Wooten when asked about who they were inspired by when Jaco comes up (he always does) Portrait of Tracey is one of the tracks that has been most inspirational.

"(Used to be a) Cha Cha" is on the CD twice. The original record doesn't have the second version which is basically an alternate take with Jaco, Hubert Laws (Flute) and Herbie Hancock jamming. I always think it's great when you can listen to a song played differently, that's what makes live music and jamming so amazing.

Forgotten Love, track nine, is a mini concerto written by Jaco specifically for Herbie Hancock's piano and Jaco doesn't perform on it. Again, this just adds that little extra something that so many artists lack.

6/4 jam is as it sounds. A jam in 6/4. This is essentially the speed of the beat of the song.

To be honest I can't really fault this album! I am a little biased seeing as I play bass guitar and Jaco is somewhat of a legend to me. But, bass aside, it is a fantastic jazz album that is definitely worth having in your collection! Every track has its own angle, a different personal point of view and different musicians. Like it says on the back of the cd - "…the album was a small gem in ever-changing light."

Track listing

1. Donna Lee
2. Come on, Come over
3. Continuum
4. Kuru/Speak like a Child
5. Portrait of Tracey
6. Opus Pocus
7. Okonkole Y Tromba
8. (Used to be A) Cha Cha
9. Forgotten Love
10. (Used to be A) Cha Cha (alternate take) - bonus track
11. 6/4 Jam - bonus track

Originally released by Epic in 1976, this has been re-released by Legacy (Sony) in 2000.

The booklet has an interesting read about Jaco and when this album was being recorded - written by Pat Metheny. It also has a few photos of jam sessions and recording with the plethora of musicians he collaborated with on this album.

A must have for anyone who enjoys jazz or virtuoso bass players!