Jaco, Not impressed

basspunk2005 · #1 06-09-2005, 02:24 PM

I have been on talkbass for a while and quite a lot I see people saying 'jaco is an amazing player etc etc'. I respect the fact he might be really good on theory or whatever but aside from that what is he good at. At first when I read all these comments I thought excellent another very tallented bass player with lines that I can learn, so i searched the internet and found some videos of him playing, I think the website was basslobster.com. Anyway I watched them expecting to see an amazing player and all i saw was someone playing a few harmonics and then a few scales really fast then into a walking bass style line. I know some harmonics he does/did are fairly challenging to reach etc but to me its boring seeing just him front stage with the rest of the band getting no notice at all, yea I like seeing the bassist getting attention but I dont like it when its all one person. This is all in my opinion so can people not reply if they are gonna just sit and take the pi**. cheers

Richard Lindsey · #2 06-09-2005, 02:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by basspunk2005

I have been on talkbass for a while and quite a lot I see people saying 'jaco is an amazing player etc etc'. I respect the fact he might be really good on theory or whatever but aside from that what is he good at. At first when I read all these comments I thought excellent another very tallented bass player with lines that I can learn, so i searched the internet and found some videos of him playing, I think the website was basslobster.com. Anyway I watched them expecting to see an amazing player and all i saw was someone playing a few harmonics and then a few scales really fast then into a walking bass style line. I know some harmonics he does/did are fairly challenging to reach etc but to me its boring seeing just him front stage with the rest of the band getting no notice at all, yea I like seeing the bassist getting attention but I dont like it when its all one person. This is all in my opinion so can people not reply if they are gonna just sit and take the pi**. cheers

If you don't want replies, don't post in a public forum. In any case, this subject has been done to death. There is a current thread about this

Jaco...

so a second one seems pointless.

MysticMichael · #3 06-09-2005, 03:37 PM

Surely you must be putting us on. This is a joke of some kind. Right?

No???

MM

eric234 · #4 06-09-2005, 03:42 PM

when you can play like jaco then you can talk about him like that and also that was a bass solo so the band wouldn't get much attention

Getao · #5 06-09-2005, 03:47 PM

it helps to listen to his music too... instead of just a live video of him soloing

43apples · #6 06-09-2005, 03:48 PM

that sentence has absolutely no meaning and also there is no commas or periods or anything no capital letters sorry im not trying to be a jerk but its a bit annoying when im trying to understand your post

eric234 · #7 06-09-2005, 03:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Erlend_G

that sentence has absolutely no meaning and also there is no commas or periods or anything no capital letters sorry im not trying to be a jerk but its a bit annoying when im trying to understand your post

dlloyd · #8 06-09-2005, 03:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by basspunk2005

I have been on talkbass for a while and quite a lot I see people saying 'jaco is an amazing player etc etc'. I respect the fact he might be really good on theory or whatever but aside from that what is he good at. At first when I read all these comments I thought excellent another very tallented bass player with lines that I can learn, so i searched the internet and found some videos of him playing, I think the website was basslobster.com. Anyway I watched them expecting to see an amazing player and all i saw was someone playing a few harmonics and then a few scales really fast then into a walking bass style line. I know some harmonics he does/did are fairly challenging to reach etc but to me its boring seeing just him front stage with the rest of the band getting no notice at all, yea I like seeing the bassist getting attention but I dont like it when its all one person. This is all in my opinion so can people not reply if they are gonna just sit and take the pi**. cheers

Well, I don't really like his music, but I'm impressed.

Quote:

I watched them expecting to see an amazing player and all i saw was someone playing a few harmonics and then a few scales really fast then into a walking bass style line

Tell you what... I really want to hear you now.

eric234 · #9 06-09-2005, 03:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dlloyd

Tell you what... I really want to hear you now.

exactly

Mr.Phil · #10 06-09-2005, 05:03 PM

I'm speechless... Way to insult one of the greatest players that ever lived. I'd be curious to see if you can play the solo you watched. My guess is you can't (feel free to prove me wrong!)

eric234 · #11 06-09-2005, 05:37 PM

think before you say something like that again

Threeviews · #12 06-09-2005, 05:43 PM

It seems obvious that basspunk has responded too quickly (and derisively) in evaluating a musician about whom he/she doesn't know very much (and for whom almost all bassists at least have significant respect...). But to 'take corners' and simply let ourselves be offended or amused would be to miss an opportunity to articulate and pass on what we DO love about Jaco and why he is important to so many of us. And it is simply a fact that--due to the passage of years and styles and to the proliferation of "alien"-quality virtuoso players in the last twenty years (made possible/probable by Jaco, for one...)--lots of young bassists don't 'get it' or 'feel' Jaco the way many older players do. Let's face it, fusion didn't 'happen' the way record companies and jazz promoters in the 70s and early 80s wanted it to. And here's my most serious point...and I know much of this has been dealt with before, in other posts... WE (as the players and DIY oral historians) have made Jaco famous for a lot of the wrong things (to the extent that a word like 'wrong' makes any sense here at all). If left with the choice between analyzing transcriptions of "Portrait of Tracy" and really critically digging on/into the groove of "Barbary Coast," I'll choose the latter every time. In other words, we fetishize technical innovations at the expense of soulful, solid, thoughtful, groovy, meaningful Bass work and (until '84, maybe??) ridiculously fast and sensitive MUSICIANSHIP. I feel this way about other, more current bass stars. For a few examples, Vic W.'s triple-slapping, Bromberg's piccolo solos, and ManThing's three-bass tapped anthems are all astounding and mind-opening, but not nearly as *useful* to me (as a player) as those same musicians' really stellar *functional* bass-playing (and they all do it 90% of the time...) How is it that players with masturbatory chop-fantasies get to write the history books? How do we 'pass down' our bass heroes without turning them into action figures ("...with kungfu sliding harmonic technique" or "push-button thumb-of-steel slap action")? These are important questions, and it's not enough just to write off basspunk's post as someone "not getting it."

DJC

powerslave · #13 06-09-2005, 05:50 PM

that sux you don't like Jaco, so many bass players do. but you don't - so what, so what you ........ nevermind

Arthur U. Poon · #14 06-09-2005, 06:03 PM

If Jaco's playing isn't your thing, that's fine. Search for some players that you do like.

- Art

TheMinotaur · #15 06-09-2005, 06:04 PM

Im a Big Jaco fan because of many reason but mainly what he did for us Bassist before him Bass Players were just another musician in the Background who no onw knew. Before Jaco no one really knew what the bass was.

Dont judge Jaco by just an instructional Video Listen to some of his songs Pick up his Solo Albul Jaco Pastorius (Self titled) Listen to song Such as Continuum His Transcription of Charlie Parkers Donna Lee Portrait of Tracey I listen to that album everyday of my life for the last 10 yrs.

You dont have to like him Your dont even have to listen really to him and you have a right to your opinion and I respect that.

Everyone who plays bass is a good bassist no matter if they are a soloist or a Root Background player they do their jobs look at Michael Anthony of Van Halen You may think he sucks because all he does is the 1/8 note root alot but to me that is genious everyone has their style and you just listen to it to enjoy and and learn what the music is telling you.

When someone asks me how many Languages I know I answer them I am Bi lingual I speak English and I listen to music and understand fluently what it is trying to say.

Well I hope you give Jaco more of a shot and get his Self titled Solo album but if you choose not too then Good luck to you.

**Pacman** · #16 06-09-2005, 06:23 PM

You know, when I was a teenager someone told me to check out Jaco, and I had a similar reaction. I didn't see what the big deal was.

Then I learned about music, and now I understand. I've had similar experiences with Miles, Coletrane, Zappa, Mozart, Bartok, and Shostakovich.... Come back to him in a few years, you might be surprised.

Joe Turski · #17 06-09-2005, 06:42 PM

Having opinions are a beautiful thing. We all have them. Some good, some not so good.

But to come on a bass forum and bash someone as great as Jaco, and ask people to NOT reply. Well that's just plain foolish.

Thread Closed!