Jaco Pastorius: The Greatest Bass Player In The World

By Paul Behrens

BHRPAU002

Introduction

Motivation -

Jaco Pastorius' influence on music and bass guitar is one of unprecedented value and reach. He had a larger than life personality, and an almost spiritual connection with music comparable to that of John Coltrane or Charlie Parker. There is a mythology that surrounds musicians like Jaco and their virtuosity. The discipline required to master an instrument is one thing but to completely revolutionize an instrument is another. Much like Parker and Bebop, Jaco is usually boxed into what was then known as 'jazz-rock' and has now become fusion. Also like Parker, Jaco was not chained by this genre label, and played everything from Bach to the Beatles, on one album nonetheless (see Word of Mouth - Jaco Pastorius). He always played creatively, with great time and intonation, and was always ruthlessly exploring the bass guitar's creative capability as a harmony-defining melodic and rhythmic instrument.

On a personal note, Jaco is truly one of my biggest inspirations in life and music. His music is a masterclass in bass-playing and his compositional work truly touches my soul. His recordings are so unique because they are projections or extensions of himself and his personality, one is barely able to pick up the influences. He was someone saying something completely original with his music. His voice came out in his playing and compositions which, in my opinion, is the goal of any artist.

Jaco's life was a complicated one. He came from a broken home, suffered the extremely difficult mental illness of manic-depressive bipolar disorder as well as problems with drugs later in his life. These drugs exacerbated his mental health issues and caused him to become publicly self destructive later in his life. This led to him losing work due to his erratic behaviour on and off stage, resulting in homelessness and eventually the tragedy of his murder. Despite all this he is fondly remembered for his humanity as well as his contributions to music and the electric bass guitar.

A young Jaco at the beach. Image credits: Unknown.

Life

Jaco was born John Anthony Francis Pastorius III on December 1st, 1951. The name 'Jaco' is derived from John's aptitude in sport which earned him the nickname 'Jocko'. This changed when a French-born musician/family friend misspelt his name and he decided he liked it that way (Jacopastorius.com, 2020). Music ran in the family, as Jaco's father (Jack Pastorius or John Anthony Francis Pastorius II) was a jazz singer and drummer. Jaco didn't see his father much growing up as his mother (Stephanie Pastorius) and Jack had a conflict-ridden relationship and were separated most of his life. His family was not wealthy, and his father sent money home sporadically as a touring musician. Jaco saved up money to buy his first bass by delivering newspapers in the mornings. It seems to me that Jaco had an intense work ethic, and an ability to learn things as quickly as they were taught to him. As a young man he excelled in everything he applied himself to.

Jaco, perhaps subconsciously influenced by his father, began his musical career playing the drums. His switch to the bass came after be broke his wrist while he was playing American football. The soul cover band he was playing for, Las Olas Brass, had coincidentally acquired a more skilled drummer at the same time their bassist left the band and so Jaco filled the spot. He claims that as young man on drums he was playing mostly British rock and later on bass his main gigs were of the R&B and funk variety (Pastorius, 1976).

Jaco caught his big break in 1975, when Blood, Sweat & Tears drummer Bobby Colomby met Tracy Pastorius and she mentioned that she was married to "the best bass player in the world". Mr. Colomby was, at that moment, searching for artists to sign to Epic Records' new jazz label. Colomby agreed to see what Jaco could do and offered him a record deal on the spot, which turned into the self-titled LP: Jaco Pastorius.

Jaco with his 1st bass. Image credits: Unknown

Jaco's first ever bass, a 1966 Fender Jazz. He used this bass for the first 5 years of his playing. (Sacks, 2017)

Jaco was not only a full time musician but also tried hs best to dedicate what time he had to his family, which was very important to him. He married Tracy Lee in 1970 and they had their first child that year, Mary. This was a huge turning point in Jaco's life as he had to started incurring more financial responsibilities as a result of having kids, and this seemed to spur on his efforts to take music more seriously as a means of making an income. Jaco is described by Herbie Hancock as being a "family man, almost like a farmer" (JACO, 2015). He toured the U.S. for months at a time earning as much as a working musician could in an attempt to support his family, which undoubtedly took a strain on his mental health and relationship with his wife. Tracy and Jaco concluded their marriage in divorce in early 1979 after years of drifting apart, and Jaco married his girlfriend Ingrid Horn-Müller in July of that year. He had twin boys with her (Julius and Felix) in 1981. Jaco and Ingrid divorced in 1985, after Jaco's drug use and unusually provocative behaviour caused Ingrid to distance herself from him in order to protect their children.

Notable Acts

Early work: Wayne Cochran & the C.C. Riders, Pat Metheny (pre-1976)

Jaco was already touring with Wayne Cochran and the C.C. riders when he was 21, and was well on the way to gaining the necessary gig experience that would sustain him in his career. While his stint with them was short (about 5 months in 1972), he learned some basics of chart-writing and arranging from his the band leader Charlie Brent. Charlie was a rhythm guitar player and a gifted musician in his own right and Jaco cites him as the person who influenced him the most in terms of his writing.

Jaco met Pat Metheny while they were both on faculty for the University of Miami's music school in the early 70s. Along with the landmark album Bright Size Life Jaco also recorded a record with Metheny simply titled Jaco alongside pianist Paul Bley and drummer Bruce Ditmas. This album's recording date (1974) predates all of Jaco's professional record dates, including his self-titled album's. Jaco's sound is already fully formed at this point, and he really sounds like himself.

(Left to right) Peter Erskine, Joni Mitchell, Jaco Pastorius, Herbie Hancock. Image credits: Peter Erskine

With Joni Mitchell (1976 - 1979)

Joni Mitchell is a titanic musician and artist in her own right, and the combination of her songwriting and Jaco Pastorius' melodic playing and warm tone led them to collaborate over 3 albums: Hejira, Don Juan's Reckless Daughter, and Mingus. Jaco also toured with Mitchell as part of her Shadows and Light tour in late 1979. My personal favourite Jaco and Joni tune is God Must Be a Boogie Man (Mitchell, 1979). A duet between Joni's singing and loose, rhythmic guitar strumming perfectly balanced by Jaco's grooves and melodic touch. Jaco played busily in these recordings, yet he is always playing to compliment Mitchell's singing and playing. Jaco and Mitchell drifted apart as Jaco focused more on his solo work and work with Weather Report.

Weather Report in Sydney, Australia. Imagecredits: Unknown

Weather Report (1976-1982)

Jaco was first called to a Weather Report session in L.A. in late 1975. Jaco had given keyboardist Joe Zawinul (Miles Davis, Cannonball Adderley) a demo of what would become his self titled record the year before at a show in Miami, introducing himself as 'the greatest bass player in the world'. Joe had written a song about the recent passing of his bandmate and friend, Cannonball Adderley, called 'Cannonball' (Weather Report, 1976). Jaco also asked if he could add a song to the album setlist, 'Barbary Coast', a welcome addition to the new groove sound Weather Report was moving towards at the time.

After the release of Black Market, Alphonso Johnson (Weather Report's then current bassist) left to play in drummer Billy Cobham's band. The drummer Alex Acuna was also soon to be replaced with the drummer Peter Erskine (based purely on Jaco's recommendation). This was to be the band that released Weather Report's most financially and critically successful record Heavy Weather. Jaco has co-producer credits and also wrote the tunes Havona (Pastorius, 1977a) and Teen Town (Pastorius, 1977b).

In 1981 the group released their album Night Passage. Jaco only contributed one composition on this album, 3 Views of a Secret (Pastorius, 1981a), as his creative focus at the time was the Word of Mouth record. This tune was also re-recorded for Word of Mouth.

Word of Mouth (Big Band, record)

The word of mouth big band was started after Warner Brothers Records signed a contract with Jaco that enabled him to hire a cast of any all-star musicians that he wanted. His big band consisted of:

Chuck Findley - trumpet
Howard Johnson - tuba
Wayne Shorter, Michael Brecker, Tom Scott - reeds
Toots Thielemans - harmonica
Peter Erskine, Jack DeJohnette - drums
Don Alias - percussion

These were the musicians that helped Jaco record his 2nd solo album, Word of Mouth. This album was Jaco's expedition into writing music for a big band, and features Jaco's compositional side more so than his bass playing. Beautiful instrumentation and luscious string arrangements such as in John and Mary (Pastorius, 1981a) are contrasted by the blistering cacophony and atonality in Crisis (Pastorius, 1981b).

Jaco's decline in mental health had manifested itself in his music. Crisis is a clear indicator of the chaos that was brewing in Jaco's brain at the time. He toured Japan with Word of Mouth configured as a 21-piece big band and his behaviour became even more erratic:

He notably chucked this bass into Hiroshima Bay during the Japan leg of the 1982 Word of Mouth tour, after which point Ibanez Guitars put a natural finish on it. (Sacks, 2017)

Interview - Modern Electric Bass

Modern Electric Bass is an instructional VHS tape Jaco made with bassist Jerry Jemmott (Aretha Franklin, B.B. King) published in 1985. It features an interview with Jaco, a performance featuring guitarist John Scofield and drummer Kenwood Dennard, as well exercises and insights into Jaco's practice and approach. In between lessons and performances Jaco recounts stories from his life. I chose this interview as Jerry himself is a bass player, and understands very clearly why Jaco is special among musicians. Their conversation is very natural and through this we are able to gain extensive insight into Jaco in his most natural environment: among other musicians.

Jerry's first words are a greeting and then he asks how Jaco feels about having influenced so many musicians and putting the spotlight on bass guitar with his playing. His response is "give me a gig, y'know?". In the last five years of his life Jaco was practically homeless, as well as living with friends on and off. His mental illness and drug/alcohol abuse had lost him his friends, family, and his work. Other musicians unfortunately saw him as a liability on stage:

"I grabbed the mike and let him take the lead. He'd used to play "out," but there's out and then there's out. This was not good. It was frustrating. It was heartbreaking. And so I just let him play and I followed him and sang with him. That way, no matter where he went I could try and be supportive. But he was not in the mood to be supportive. That particular evening, he was a saboteur." (Mitchell, 1987)

Jaco had begun using drugs like cocaine in later Weather Report tours, and also begun abusing alcohol.

Jaco's personality and musicality is perfectly exemplified towards the end of the interview when Jerry asks him for an example of something that stuck with him out of all his influences. Jaco answers his request, playing a rendition of one of Jerry's bass parts on B.B. King's Live and Well album. Jaco not only provides the viewer with a clear insight into his influences here but also honours his own musical hero. Jaco had the ability to play anything, as Jerry puts it, "with real sincerity, every style of music..." and "...all parts of a given piece on this one instrument, the bass." and yet he chose to play something truly of his roots and in doing so became closer with someone he considered a great influence on him. This warmth and ability to connect with people is a common theme among the various sources I researched for this assignment.

Jaco's contributions

A young Jaco Pastorius with his "Bass of Doom". Image Credits: Unknown

Harmonics - natural, false, pinched

"Sounded like music to me to so I just kept exploring it, that's all there was to it." - Jaco Pastorius (Pastorius, 1985)

Before apps, tuners, and pedals musicians tuned their instruments using their ears. A common tuning technique on stringed instruments is the playing of harmonics of the same note on 2 different strings. Then by adjusting the string length (thus the pitch) based on the sonic 'beating' that happens if one string is out of tune with the other you can tune it to pitch. Jaco clearly understood this but he saw further use for harmonics. Enter his composition "Portrait of Tracy" (Pastorius, 1976b), a stunningly beautiful and sensitive solo bass piece created using chord-melody and harmonics in a tribute to his first wife. This song alone gave what was previously considered a "low notes only" instrument the range of a whole orchestra. The warm, low bass notes provide drive and direction while the rich harmonics dance on top telling us a story in a piece that fills every frequency on one instrument. There really isn't anything else like this song, and that's a testament to Jaco's originality and creativity.