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How many of us 'really' listen to Jaco?

davidjackson

davidjackson

Guest
Sep 10, 2011
409
25
UK
www.strandedflowers.co.uk
#1
I was chatting with some friends about bass players the other day. When somebody asked who the best of all time was I mentioned Jaco and my wife said something like "That's funny, I never hear you listening to that stuff."

I thought about it and realised that, actually, I hardly ever listen to him. If I'm being honest, I have listened to Jaco's original solo record about twice in full. I have a great CD called The Birthday Concert but, again, have only listened to it a handful of times. I do listen to Weather Report from time to time.

Do any of you guys ever really sit down and listen to Jaco's music for pleasure? If I want to listen to great music for pleasure with great bass tracks I tend to go for stuff featuring Duck Dunn, Jamerson or Bob Babbett. Does this mean I should be naming them when asked about the greatest. To my mind the music they played on beats anyting that Jaco played on.

Is Jaco's music simply "better than it sounds" or am I alone in citing him as a hero but never actually listening to his work?
 
#2
I'm in the same boat as you then...

No doubt Jaco did a LOT for the role of the electric bass guitar in music and in a solo context, but I have never really LOVED the music he is most famous for.

I may put him on a list of the most influential bassplayers of all-time, but I would not call him one of MY main influences...

Feels like I'm committing some sort of bassplayer's sin as I type this because of the way so many players talk about him, so I'll just :hiding:
 
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#3
It's not a sin. Strokes for folks....

I haven't listened to him a whole lot lately, but I did have about a ten-year run when I listened to him all the time. Like... really a lot.

Joni Mitchell's Hijiera and Mingus are two of my favorite bass records of all time.
 
#9
I have listened to Jaco.....a lot! I get what he did and he was innovative (his use of harmonics was insane) but honestly, I heard Lamont Johnson (Brainstorm) first back in 1977 and he was doing things on fretless that most bassists weren't doing back then either. There were other fretless players as well emerging from the same time period.

Jaco the best? Not in my opinion. Definitely one of the greats though.

Here's some more of Lamont Johnson. Honestly, IMO, he was doing what Jaco did but he also had thumping skills to add. He does talk about Jaco in the interview linked above.
 
#10
The only religious experience I've ever had listening to music was sitting in my car in a parking lot before class listening to Opus Pocus. I'd listened to that album 1000 times but something got to me that morning.

I don't listen to him much anymore but that moment was intense.

Also my favorite thing of his was the Trio of Doom live record. The studio stuff was missing something.
 
#12
Like what was mentioned above, I don't actually listen to Jaco all that much, but I do listen to his work with Weather Report and Joni Mitchell quite a bit. I also don't listen to Les Claypool nearly as much as I listen to Primus, if you know what I mean. I've listened to Jaco as an excellent component of great musical collaborations, but I don't really worship his bass parts on their own merit.

And I forgot to add another great album with his playing on it "Bright Sized Life".
 
#18
This gets endless debate on TB. Jaco's work is prodigious, to say the least. He was a treasure.

Which is not to say everyone is going to like him. When he hit the scene, I was kind of in denial / trying to ignore him for a while. Also, I didn't get his sound right away. I learned.

Each to their own. I listen to him sporadically these days; and continue to be amazed at many levels. He was deep.
 
#19
I don't listen to him much, but when I do it's either his solo debut, or his work with Joni Mitchell, especially Mingus. The Dry Cleaner from Des Moines is one of my favorite songs of all time.

Weather Report and most other fusion bands give me hives and I have never been a fan of Saturday Night Live-style jazz/rock (whatever that late seventies/early eighties big-band style might be called), so much of Jaco's work isn't to my taste.
 
#20
He did interesting things, but I wouldn't spend that much time listening for fun. I like a couple songs here or there. Although I play bass, I don't usually listen to music solely for bass. If I listen to a song for bass, it has more to do with the content rather than the instrument. I do appreciate the sound and character of the bass alone, but I play to myself all the time. Solo bass things really have to grab me to get me interested. I don't believe everything Jaco played was that way.
 

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