Jaco Pastorius, Portrait of Jaco: The Early Years 1968-1978 (Holiday Park Records, 2002)
My brother is a bass player. He took it up because he liked Paul McCartney. The first bass he bought was a copy of Paul's Hofner violin bass. He played that for a few years, and then he became obsessed with a different sound. He talked about this sound in adoring language, as if the heavens had opened and he'd experienced some sort of epiphany. I'm sorry, but this is the only way I can explain the depth of impact that this new sound had on him. He went out and bought a Fender Precision bass. There were no fretless basses in any of the music stores in our city. The Precision would have to do. His practising became louder, and more obscure. When I asked him what was going on, he just looked at me, his eyes glazed over, his fingertips sore, and said, "Jaco man, Jaco!"
Before Jaco Pastorius, the electric bass had been pretty much a background instrument. Badumbumbumbum! Low and rumbling, keeping the beat and bottom end with the drums. McCartney made it a little more melodic on the classic Beatles' records; the great jazz bassists, like Ray Brown, played stand-up bass. The violin on steroids. The legendary James Jamerson provided a creative foundation for dozens of Motown hits...but in the shadows. The world had not seen, nor had it heard anything like the music that was to come out of south Florida, from the mind and fingers of Jaco Pastorius. This two-disc anthology seeks to address the wrongs that have befallen Jaco, since his tragic death at age thirty-five. There have been a slew of poorly recorded bootlegs from the end of his career, when he was plagued with manic depression and chemical dependence. Long-time friend Bob Bobbing has lovingly compiled this tribute to Pastorius's genius.
The first disc, Jocko... the early years begins with an ambient recording of the train tracks near Jaco's hometown of Oakland Park, Florida. Then Jaco's voice declares, "I had the fortunate experience of growing up with everybody that played music...I know where I stole every note! And I was raised by the best musicians in the world. Thank you Jesus and God." Thus begins an amazing journey through funk, r&b, folk and jazz.
The development of Pastorius's style is shown through a series of well chosen tracks, both obscure and well known. We first hear his father Jack Pastorius singing "Please Don't Love Me," all Sinatra-esque and swinging, with Jack (proud father) speaking about his son. This mainstream swing music, the big band era, was a major influence on the young musician. His first gig is presented, as Jaco (at that time spelled Jocko) played drums; then an experimental home recording of Jocko's first attempts on the bass; and an early recording of an organ trio called Woodchuck (with B-3 phenom Billy Burke). This version of Ray Charles's "If You Were Mine" really swings. The songs are introduced by interviews with associates, family and friends, each of whom remembers Jocko fondly, speaks of his musical gift and his personality. These interviews break up the flow of the music, it's true, and certainly many listeners will tire of them; but the first couple times through they paint an extraordinary portrait of the artist. The CDs become an aural biography. The music, on its own, is so powerful and displays such extraordinary development and feel that every tune captured my attention, and I forgot about the interruptions.
Jocko delves deeply into the Wayne Cochran & the CC Riders years. If you never saw, or heard Wayne Cochran, man... you missed something. I recall seeing them on television shows like Hollywood Palace, and this ten piece band would be riffing some powerful r&b; then Mr. Cochran would come out in a glitzy jump suit and proceed to push all the needles in the studio to ten! This was the funk, and the selection of live Cochran material is a rare treat. Pastorius played with Cochran for nine months, and I'm not sure whether the band I saw included Jocko or not, but seeing (and hearing) the CC Riders was an unforgettable experience. These samples are outstanding, especially "Amelia" and "Long Long Day." A 1973 home recording of Jocko playing a custom-made acoustic bass guitar is fascinating; he was unhappy with the result, though. The interviews tell a story of Pastorius deciding to make his own fretless bass. He decided one day to do it, ran to the hardware store for some pliers, plastic wood and sandpaper, and took apart his bass... the afternoon of a show!
All this... and there's a second disc too! According to the liner notes, a French pianist misspelled Jocko's name on a written note. "Alex [Darqui] spelled it Jaco, and that's that! Jocko liked the look and from that point on, the "World's Greatest Bass Player" would always be known as Jaco!"
Disc Two is called Jaco... the world's greatest bass player, and these are some of the tracks that my brother found so hypnotizing. The first track is a discussion with the compiler of this set (Bob Bobbing) about harmonics. This is the sound that defined Pastorius's genius, and the recording is from 1974...he was playing harmonic scales that early! The next few tracks are with the Peter Graves Orchestra. The big band sound was familiar to Jaco from his father's career, and from the records that were played at home. Graves gave Jaco room to grow, recognizing and capitalizing on his genius. Listen to the melodies in Jaco's bass. Not the standard bassline for Pastorius -- he becomes a part of the tune.
"Ocus Pocus" is an interesting track. It features steel drum virtuoso Othello Molineaux and a second pan player, Sir Cedric Luces, with Jaco on bass. This is not your standard Trinidad steel pan music. Jaco's chords challenge the pan players to go beyond the limits of their instrument, just as he always did. Joe Zawinul talks about an early meeting with Jaco, who presented him with a cassette tape (reproduced here) of "Continuum." The fretless bass displays the direction Jaco's muse would take him. It virtually sings the melody.
Pat Metheny met Jaco while teaching at the University of Miami, where they became friends, later working together in the Peter Graves Orchestra. They recorded together in Germany in 1975, during the making of Metheny's debut album. "All the Things You Are" is a live recording that finds the three musicians (including drummer Bob Moses) in total sympatico. They brought this unity into the studio, but a second live track is found here from a gig at Pooh's Pub in Boston. Metheny's solos are bright and electric; Jaco, as always, remains true to the song while searching out every corner of the melody.
Pastorius describes his own solo album with the words, "The first cut on this album, you're dead... someone thought it's a piano player... I'm playing the changes so well." And if it was anyone else you might think, "What an ego!" But this is Jaco Pastorius, and he really backed this talk up with an outstanding performance. That album is not included on this collection, though, and we go right to the Joni Mitchell years. Joni was looking for a new direction. She was trying to find unknown sounds on her guitar, and the harmonics and jazz direction she longed to take coincided completely with where Jaco's bass would take her. Their collaboration led to some of Mitchell's best work. Two tunes from Hejira are included. "Refuge of the Roads" finds Jaco interweaving counterpoint with Joni's voice and acoustic guitar. "Hejira" shows his melodic sense complementing Joni's and creating a haunting sound I've never heard anywhere else. There are several memories from Mitchell, and she still speaks highly of their work together.
Weather Report was the band in which Jaco Pastorius really came into his own. Together with Joe Zawinul (keyboards), Wayne Shorter (saxes), and regularly changing faces in the rhythm section, Jaco came in after the loss of Alphonso Johnson (and Ndugu) on bass. Zawinul talks about how Jaco was "a bit busy" at first, but soon settled in and found his space. "Cannonball" shows him comfortably at home. Then a track with Herbie Hancock, "Kuru," displays Jaco's speed and precision. Hancock pays fine tribute to Jaco in his recorded remarks.
The album ends with a never-before heard demo of "Las Olas Farewell," with Jaco singing the entire melody. The tune was later recorded by Flora Purim. This recording is rather raw in some ways, but it shows an artist in complete control of his work. The beautiful mood piece ends an intimate and personal introduction to one of the 20th century's renaissance men. The two-disc set is accompanied by an in-depth eighty page booklet, with photos, program notes and a touching reminiscence by Jaco's daughter Mary, "Daddy... just daddy to me."
This man changed the way people play the bass, he changed the way we hear it. As an introduction to his music, and as a memorial to his talent, Portrait of Jaco is an outstanding anthology of music and biography. It's not available in stores, but you can buy it from cdbaby.
The Jaco Pastorius Web site is here.
