ahh jaco pastorius

[max8899]

haha well i have only been playing for 5 months and the other day my bass teacher was playing some heavy weather and i absolutely loved it (never heard it before) and anyways Jaco is now my idol and i have started learning teen town and im loving it. totally random but i had to let it out my love for his music its totally awesome

[Baryonyx]

Yes, and as far as his work with Weather Report goes, the 1982 self titled album is particularly bombastic (tracks like Volcano for Hire and Dara Factor One are amazing).

[HomeBrewTJ]

jaco who?

[line6man]

Yep...
Jaco is half the reason that i got into fretless...

I would suggest that you pick up a copy of Heavy Weather, also a copy of his self titled album.

[KJung]

And, here's a free bit of advice from an old guy who has been playing a long time. Many a young player has gone down the Jaco/Stanley/Victor hole, focusing at a very early stage in their playing development on fast chops, complex patterns, and learing heads to tunes. For one out of a thousand, that results in quick growth and impressive playing. For the other 999, it results in playing fancy stuff sloppy and out of time for the rest of their life and never getting a gig

Don't forget to work on playing even quarter notes with a metronome. For the first 5-10 years that you are playing, that will pay off much more than trying to play Donna Lee

[Baryonyx]

I don't really see many young players trying to be a clone of Stanley! In a way, I wish I did!

I've been playing what, 7 years now? I though, even though I can play faster, more complex stuff than the majority of what Stan does, I thought this year would be a really good time for me to get back to Stan and really get inside his playing and see what I can take from it.

I already knew a lot of his stuff but there were a lot of tunes I didn't know. So I started woodshedding on tunes like Lopsy Lu, The Toys Of Men, Silly Putty, Strange Weather, My Greatest Hits etc etc.

Stan had long been a favourite of mine, but I thought it was time to get to know his stuff more intimately than just the Animal Logic records and School Days. I had a lot of fun, and really learned a lot from it, though I'd like to think I'm past the "hero worship" days!

However, I absolutely agree. Beginners trying to cop virtuoso licks is pretty embarassing. Learn to play bass first, and you'll have a much more solid platform on which to build your chops.

[funkybass4ever]

Originally Posted by KJung

And, here's a free bit of advice from an old guy who has been playing a long time. Many a young player has gone down the Jaco/Stanley/Victor hole, focusing at a very early stage in their playing development on fast chops, complex patterns, and learing heads to tunes. For one out of a thousand, that results in quick growth and impressive playing. For the other 999, it results in playing fancy stuff sloppy and out of time for the rest of their life and never getting a gig

Don't forget to work on playing even quarter notes with a metronome. For the first 5-10 years that you are playing, that will pay off much more than trying to play Donna Lee

well said

[Valerus]

Originally Posted by KJung

Don't forget to work on playing even quarter notes with a metronome. For the first 5-10 years that you are playing, that will pay off much more than trying to play Donna Lee

Good advice right here

[D.Don]

Originally Posted by KJung

And, here's a free bit of advice from an old guy who has been playing a long time. Many a young player has gone down the Jaco/Stanley/Victor hole, focusing at a very early stage in their playing development on fast chops, complex patterns, and learing heads to tunes. For one out of a thousand, that results in quick growth and impressive playing. For the other 999, it results in playing fancy stuff sloppy and out of time for the rest of their life and never getting a gig

Don't forget to work on playing even quarter notes with a metronome. For the first 5-10 years that you are playing, that will pay off much more than trying to play Donna Lee

And once you get your hands on one of them Jamerson or Babbitt lines and feel the groove, everything else becomes quite uninteresting.

(Beginner, played bass first time february this year).

D.Don

[soong]

lol max8899. Join the club.

[Baryonyx]

Originally Posted by D.Don

And once you get your hands on one of them Jamerson or Babbitt lines and feel the groove, everything else becomes quite uninteresting.

(Beginner, played bass first time february this year).

D.Don

Given that you started playing in February, I would expect that you'll soon retract this statement when you discover there is more to playing bass.

[i_got_a_mohawk]

The best part about playing bass isnt wanking it off, its playing a solid beat with a good drummer and bouncing some fun fills about.

[dougjwray]

Listen to Jaco on Pat Metheny's album "Bright Size Life" for the most beautiful fretless tone ever. (IMHO)
Also, listen to him on Joni Mitchell's song "Refuge of the Roads" for an example of his incredible ingenuity and creativity in a pop-folk-rock setting. According to him, he came into the studio alone (just him and the engineer, and he hadn't even met Mitchell yet), gave the rough tracks a listen, and recorded all his parts on the album ("Hejira"). Mitchell came in the next day and was floored. He was brilliant.
I'm sure you'll get lots of other suggestions, but those are off the top of my head.

[KJung]

Originally Posted by Baryonyx

Given that you started playing in February, I would expect that you'll soon retract this statement when you discover there is more to playing bass.

+1... and just to be clear, I love Jaco as much as the next guy! I just find some younger players getting so into Victor, Jaco, whatever, that they lose a couple years that could be better spent really honing the craft (time, articulation, clean playing, etc.). It's hard for a young player to recover from sloppy playing and bad time early on IMO.

Obviously, there is room for both, even early on, and I was being a little big 'tongue in cheek' in my earlier post.

Edit: And, +1 to Jaco on the Joni stuff. It's really the only 'Jaco' I listen to anymore, since the Weather Report stuff sounds painfully dated to me at this point (although I lived it in the late 70's early 80's). The Joni stuff (Hejira, Mingus, Don Juan) sounds like it could have been recorded yesterday!

[dougjwray]

The irony of it is that guys like Stan, Jaco and Victor all have (had, in Jaco's case) extremely solid time, knowledge of music, the ability to listen, the ability to contribute only meaningful ideas... and they would all stress the huge importance of these things to beginners, too.
When you're a beginner, it's so easy to be dazzled by daring feats on the axe. (Which isn't all bad, of course... it moves things along...)

[rollcall]

one word... HEIJIRA

[tycobb73]

I don't know. That type of music never did anything for me. You have to write good songs as a whole and Weather Report to me isn't it. The bassists I respect the most are Entwhistle and McCartney because in their bands great songs came first followed by great playing. The goal of any musician should be great songs, not great chops. If a great songs requires great chops, then fine.

[Otso]

Do yourself a favour and get this album. Don't only listen to his chops, because his music is what really matters. Good technique just means having the ability to actualize musical ideas.

[mjolnir]

...W00t?

[MD]

Very good advise from KJung. Learn to be a bassist first.
And since he mentioned Donna Lee... this is very cool, for those of you who are messin' with DL....
http://www.ricksuchow.com/music-47.html