I also read he was the greatest bass player that there ever was.
I'm not familiar with his work.
What do you advice me to search for?

Tosh said:

Get his first album. Then get Joni Mitchell's Hejira, Don Juan, Mingus, and Shadows and Light albums. Then get Weather Report's first album. That's Jaco 101 for ya.

Tosh said:

You ever heard of James Jamerson?

Only the best bassists worked without frets. If it has frets, that person is not the best.

CuntOMatic said:

Slight correction for ya, Jaco ain't on the first Weather Report album. His first with Weather Report is "Black Market", and he's only on two tracks. I would say get both of Jaco's solo records: the first is self titled "Jaco Pastorius", with a black & white picture of Jaco on the front, and the second is called "Word of Mouth". This will give you what Jaco was all about on both his playing and composing fronts. Then get "Heavy Weather", the second Weather Report album that he was on. "Night Passage" is also a nice one from his Weather Report days. A really great record featuring Jaco is Pat Metheny's "Bright Size Life". His work with Joni is great, but I wouldn't check it out before I went for the records I listed above. The ones I listed give you the best idea of his work from his best period. Whatever you do start with the first self titled one. If you could only get one, that's the one!! Jaco was the man!! I'm a Jaco freak, so you're in good hands!!


[Edited 3/26/06 3:04am]

FuNkeNsteiN said:

Sure I know James, I have not said that Jaco was the best.
Me might be, I just read it on internet.

this thread needs picutres:

Tosh said:

To be totally correct that was Jaco decribing himself. No one really argued with him but no one could outplay him on fretless bass (FWIW, Stanley Clarke would put him to shame, but Stan doesn't play a fretless).

Jaco's on the WR albums
1976 Black Market
1977 Heavy Weather
1978 Mr. Gone
1979 8:30 [live]
1980 Night Passage
1982 Weather Report (note year '71 was also an eponymous debut)

Though he's on a few tracks from BLACK MARKET
He's also on sessions of Joni mitchell, Pat Metheny (both on Joni's live SHADOWS AND LIGHT),and Paul Bley from this period. In '82 WR founders decided to change up the bass and drums and released Jaco.


Also notable are Jaco's solo records, studio and live, and a number of tribute albums.

Jaco died in 1987 from a physical beating, but was suffering from a variety of mental illnesses.
[Edited 3/26/06 9:38am]

Oops. I meant Heavy Weather.

CuntOMatic said:

Still got it wrong;
probably best to not post anymore

The live rendition of "A Remark You Made" on 8:30 is extremely touching, some great fretless bass playing... - Try it out.

The man is dead. Best bass player alive is Marcus Miller.

hjd said:

or Victor Wooten
or Doug Wimbish
or Lige Curry
or Rodney "Skeet" Curtis
or Les Claypool
or Alphonso Johnson
or Larry Graham
Or George Porter
or Verdine White
Or Norwood Fisher
Or Dug Pinnick

lot of greats still alive

PFunkjazz said:

No, I did not get it wrong. Jaco was on that album, mutha fucka.

CuntOMatic said:

Ah, but young bitch-face it was not his first appearance with the band.

PFunkjazz said:

I didn't want to recommend his first appearance, dumb ass. I think it's some of his best work, and thus recommended it.

...



It depends on when you would catch him... Sometimes, Jaco would playfully brag, "I'm The Baddest bass player in the world", but other times he would demur, saying things like "I'm just doing an imitation of cats like Paul Chambers, James Jamerson, Jerry Jemmott, Harvey Brooks....The Cats, Man. I'm just backing the Cats." He often freely acknowledged his influences. Stanley Clarke once said, "People often made us out to be rivals, because we were two of the Premiere bassists at the time, but we were actually very close. I remember he once gave my son a catcher's mitt for his birthday, which we still have..."

Btw, In one of his last interviews, when asked what bassists he liked, Jaco mentioned that" there's a young cat named Marcus Miller...he's gonna be great....". Nice to get props from one of the masters!

It hard to say best; they all played in different styles. Jaco brought a very fast, but fluid, harmonic sound to the bass, especially on the Fretless bass-----his sound almost gave the bass a melodic, human-like moan--he also helped popularize playing harmonic tones on the bass (see his song, "Portrait Of Tracy", on Jaco ). But as others here have pointed out, for some good examples of Jaco's work, check out Weather Report's Heavy Weather, or the live album 8:30 or Joni Mitchell's Heijira, Mingus and Shadows and Light...

for his solo albums, Jaco and Word of Mouth are great, not only for his playing, but for a good look at his compositional skills--his piece, "Three Views of a Secret" is a great example of this-- and here he acts as an accompanist, rather than the main performer; he gives the spotlight over to harmonica maestro Toots Thielemans, but you can still hear Jaco's lyrical fretless approach. his solo albums underscore the fact that in his prime, the main instrument was never more important than the composition. (Unfortunately, this changed later on, as he fell deeper into bipolar disorder and drug abuse...)










...
[Edited 3/27/06 8:20am]

I think the saddest thing about this whole thread is that so many people in the hood are into Jaco, but have no clue who Jaco is, cause Puff, or P. or Diddy or whatever his stupid fuckin name is, stole Portrait of Tracy for SWV's track Rain (down on me). Every girl in the hood knows that song, but nobody knows Jaco.

TheSmyrk said:

Sad, But True!! I thought the same thing when that came out-- folks won't have a clue where that came from....




....

TheSmyrk said:

You're right I have absolutely no fucking clue what fucking diddy puff track you are talking about nor do I fucking care. Fucking thraed was fine til you had to drop this stupid-ass nonsense. Now I'm fucking ashamed to post anymore.

CuntOMatic said:

All right bitch now go fuck-off.
I'm tired of this fucking thread.

Even after I took out the extraneous fuckings in that sentence, it still made no sense. What did I say that offended you, Mr. Biggums?

Ha great Dave pic!

Now go shut the fuck up.

That's Dave? Omg! Google has it under you!

What the hell went wrong on this thread?

anyways. Jaco was the man!

fucked up how he went out, though.

TheSmyrk said:

CuntOMatic said:

Jaco, IMO, was the greatest bassist of all time. I am a bassist myself. Funny, I was actually looking for a guitar in the early 80's and someone said they had one. What they actually had to sell was a "bass". I was so eager to play another instrument that I copped the bass for $25. I was always trying to be the best at what I did so I wanted to listen to the best. When I started asking people who to listen to for great bass techniques, I was told Jaco and Stanley. I copped every Weather Report record and Return to Forever album I could buy. Jaco drew me more than Stanley because everyone was trying to pluck at the time. Jaco was different. His choice of notes where more melodic than Stanley's. Not taken anything from Stanley though. Weird how all of my favorite musicians went out early. Jaco, Jimi, Jeff Buckley..... Sometimes I think that geniouses can only hold so much of their rare God given gifts. I have every Jaco boot, video, and am still looking for mo'!! If you really want to "see" the technique along with his theory you have to get his instructional video. That thing is fire!

jojofran said:

True! What I Love about that video is that Jaco actually explains things so that everyone can get something out of it, whether you're a beginner or an expert--In fact, even if you don't play the bass, you'll get a lot out of it!







...