Jaco Pastorius

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Jaco Pastorius, born John Francis Anthony Pastorius III (December 1, 1951 – September 21, 1987) was a jazz bassist and composer, notable for his virtuoso technique and fretless bass playing style. He is considered by many to be the greatest electric bassist to have lived.

His major influence on the modern electric bass is widely touted, as he was responsible for the popularization of fretless electric bass. He introduced a textural approach and harmonic sense to bass playing that became the signature "Jaco" sound. Jaco's technique and style have profoundly influenced electric bassists both in jazz and in other genres. Although he was widely acclaimed as a virtuoso and a genius, his well documented off stage antics would eventually cost him his life.

1 Early history
2 Instruments and technique
3 Health problems and death
4 Discography
5 Reference
6 External links

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Early history

Pastorius was born in Norristown, Pennsylvania on December 1, 1951, and raised in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Jaco was an exceptionally gifted child, who excelled at most things he did. He went through elementary and middle school at St. Clement's Catholic School (he was an altar boy at the adjoining church) in nearby Wilton Manors, and went to high school at Northeast High in Oakland Park. He was a gifted athlete, and extremely arrogant, excelling at every sport he played. He particularly loved football, basketball, and baseball, and picked up music as well at a very early age. Jaco often got into trouble with other kids in the neighborhood for his arrogance, once causing him to be ambushed at football tryouts by an upset quarterback. The result was a broken left wrist, which severely affected his drumming ability. He played drums in a local brass band, Las Olas Brass, and was eventually let go by the bandleader for a more experienced and talented drummer. However, the Las Olas bass player David Neubauer was leaving, opening a bass position which Jaco offered to fill.

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Nickname

His given name was John Francis Anthony Pastorius III. He loved baseball, and often watched baseball with his father, Jack Pastorius. During a game, Jack called his son "Jocko"—after Major League Baseball player, and later umpire, Jocko Conlan—a name that stuck with him for the rest of his life.

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Love of music

Originally a drummer, following in the footsteps of his father, stand-up drummer Jack Pastorius, Jaco switched to bass at age 15. In about 1970, he began playing in a nine-piece horn band at the time called Las Olas Brass, which covered popular material of the day by the likes of Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, James Brown and the Tijuana Brass.

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Influences

He cited his greatest influences as James Brown, The Beatles, Miles Davis, and Stravinsky, in that order. These were probably the representatives from each of the four styles that Jaco pulled from to create his signature sound; funk/R&B, rock, jazz, and classical. Other musical influences include:

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Music career

He played music throughout his youth, utilizing his influences like Jerry Jemmott, James Jamerson, Paul Chambers, Harvey Brooks and Tommy Cogbill and honing his chops and developing his keen and smart songwriting prowess, in bands like Wayne Cochran and The C.C. Riders and stinting on various local R&B and jazz records during that time. In 1974, he began playing with his friend and later famous jazz guitarist Pat Metheny, they soon recorded first a record which Metheny titled "Jaco", afterwards with drummer Bob Moses, Metheny and Jaco recorded an album which is considered a benchmark in the history of fusion, "Bright Size Life". In 1975, Pastorius met up with Blood, Sweat and Tears drummer Bobby Columby, who had been given the green light by CBS records to find "new talent" for their jazz division. During this time, he had run into keyboardist Josef Zawinul at a club in New York, where his band, Weather Report was playing, he had his bass with him, and when he saw Josef, he walked up to him and said, "Hi, my name is John Francis Pastorius III, and I'm the world's greatest bass player". Zawinul responded with a gruff albeit friendly epithet and walked away being struck by the young kid's moxie. (The Tragic and Extraordinary Life of Jaco Pastorius)

Pastorius' first album, produced by Columby and entitled Jaco Pastorius (1976), was a breakthrough album for the electric bass. Many consider this to be the finest bass album ever recorded; when it exploded onto the jazz scene it was instantly recognized as a classic. The album also boasted a flurry of heavyweights in the jazz community, past and present at the time, who were essentially his stellar back up band, comprised of Herbie Hancock, David Sanborn, Lenny White and Michael Brecker among others. Shortly after the release of the album, Jaco made guest appearances on records all over the jazz canvas, (Mott The Hoople's Ian Hunter's solo album and Al Dimeola' solo album as the standouts). Soon after that, Pastorius was invited to join fusion band Weather Report, where he played alongside Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter until 1981. It is with Weather Report that Pastorius made his indelible mark on jazz music, being featured on one of the most popular jazz albums of all time, Heavy Weather.

During the course of his musical career, Pastorius played on dozens of recording sessions for other musicians, both in and out of jazz circles. Some of his most notable are four highly regarded albums with acclaimed singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell: Hejira (1976), Don Juan's Reckless Daughter (1977), Mingus (1979) and the live album Shadows and Light (1980). His influence was most dominant on Hejira, and many of the songs on that album seem to be composed using the bass as a melodic source of inspiration.

By the time he and Weather Report amicably parted ways in early 1981, Jaco had already been perusing his interests in creating a Big Band solo project, one that found it's debut aurally on his second solo release, which was distributed by Warner Brothers, Word of Mouth (which was also the name of the Big Band). Like his 1976 debut, Word Of Mouth also boasted a large amount of guest appearances by jazz musicians, Herbie Hancock appears again here, as does Weather Report alumnus Wayne Shorter and Peter Erskine, and other legends such as harmonica virtuoso Toots Thielemans and Hubert Laws.

The songwriting on Word Of Mouth overshadowed his bass playing to a degree and really opened a lot of eyes of people who just thought that his prowess and skills lied only on the electric bass. His production and ability to put together a record that was recorded on both coasts of the United States was stunning indeed.

He toured in 1982; a swing to Japan being the highlight (and allegedly full of bizarre tales of Jaco's deteriorating behavior). That tour was released in Japan as "Twins I" and "Twins II" and condensed for an American release which was known as "Invitation".

His increasingly erratic behavior began to affect his musical career (see below), and he eventually was dropped by Warner Brothers. By 1984, the Word Of Mouth Big Band had also splintered. He managed to record a third solo album, which made it as far as some unpolished demo tapes, a steel pans tinged release entitled Holiday For Pans, which once again showcased him as more of a tunesmith and producer than a bass player. He couldn't find a distributor for the album and the album was never released, however it has been widely bootlegged since. (In 2003, a cut from Holiday For Pans, entitled "Good Morning Anya", was included on Rhino Records' anthology Punk Jazz.)

Near the end of his career, He guested on low-key releases by jazz artists such as guitarist Mike Stern and drummer Brian Melvin.

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Instruments and technique

Pastorius was most identified by his use of two well-worn Fender Jazz Basses from the early 1960's. One was a fretted model, the other was fretless. The fretless was originally a fretted bass from which he had removed the frets. He had a background in repairing broken instruments so he used wood filler to fill in the grooves where the frets had been, sanded down the fingerboard, and applied several coats of marine epoxy to keep the rough Rotosound roundwound bass strings he used from eating into the bare wood. Even though he played both the fretted and the fretless basses frequently, he preferred the fretless, because he felt frets were a hinderance, once calling them "speed bumps."

The famous "Jaco growl" is obtained by using the bridge pickup exclusively and plucking the strings close to it. Additionally, different from most electric bassists before him, Jaco placed the midrange high in his instrument EQ, thus accentuating the natural growling tone of his fretless Fender and roundwound string combination. His tone was also colored by use of a flanger (an offboard sound modification device similar to a phase shifter) which gave a slight doubling effect, and his exclusive use of the original Acoustic brand bass amplifier. He would often use the distortion control built in on the Acoustic amp. Other effects he would use live were his octaver (an offboard effect pedal which provides a 2nd tone an octave lower) and his MXR Delay pedal which can be heard on his live solo spot with Weather Report, 'Slang' (Jaco tastefully loops a short extract of playing, and then solos over it). Pastorius was a master of using natural and artificial harmonics to extend the range of the bass and could achieve a nearly horn-like tone simply by changing the tone control and his playing technique. He developed his tremendous technique and speed simply through years of touring and gigs.

Both of his '62 Fender basses were stolen shortly before he entered Bellevue hospital in 1986; they were never recovered. Jaco also had two Jaydee Basses made for him shortly before he died; a fretted and a fretless.

The rumor that he used chicken grease when performing live to move faster along his bass guitar's fretboard is long disputed; it would seem more probable that he built up the speed on his instrument simply by gigging for most of his life, and that this was another's "musician's fable" (Chicken grease is not generally known to be a good lubricant for guitar strings).

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Health problems and death

In the early to mid-1980s, Pastorius began to experience mental health problems, including symptoms of bipolar disorder. These were worsened by heavy recreational drug use and alcohol use: while his on- and off-stage antics early in his career are well-known, these factors would only exacerbate his unusual and often bizarre behaviour. There are dozens of anecdotes and stories about his outlandish behavior and eccentricities, though some were highly exaggerated. His musical performances also suffered as a result. During this time he played in various solo acts and many night clubs in Fort Lauderdale and New York City. He fell out of public favor and became an outcast in the music business. His final address while alive was Holiday Park in Fort Lauderdale. After sneaking onstage at a Carlos Santana concert September 11, 1987, he made his way to the Midnight Bottle Club in Wilton Manors, Florida. There he was brutally beaten into a coma after an altercation with the manager of the club, Luc Havan, who was trained in martial arts. Coincidentally, this location is barely more than a mile from his childhood home. He suffered irreversible brain damage. After life support was removed, his heart continued beating for three hours.

Jaco Pastorius died on September 21, 1987, just ten weeks short of his 36th birthday, at Broward General Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale. He is buried at Our Lady Queen of Heaven Cemetery in North Lauderdale. Havan was charged with aggravated battery, and served four months in prison. He had no idea who Pastorius was, and only learned about his fame through newspaper reports of the incident.

The recorded legacy he left behind-with Weather Report, with Joni Mitchell and with his own Word of Mouth band remains for the ages.

Miles Davis honored the late bassist on his Amandla album with the Marcus Miller composition "Mr. Pastorius", as Jaco was an inspiration to Marcus Miller.

There is a birthday party held annually for Pastorius at various locations in the USA, typically New York City and South Florida, where his influence, memory, and life are commemorated.

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