Steve Bailey told us(class at wootcamp) a story about an encounter he had with jaco.
If you are unfamiliar with Steve Bailey, he has done some of the most impressive harmonic work around, stuff that is leagues ahead of what jaco was doing melodically and harmonically.
So jaco was at one of his gigs, where steve had been doing his solo bass stuff, all these harmonics and harmonic chords and sophisticated false harmonics. And jaco approaches him, something like "what was that you were doing there?"
Now a word about steve's false harmonic technique. Rather than using his thumb to make a harmonic node, he uses his index finger, and then plucks with his ring and middle finger, as well as his thumb.
So steve explains it to jaco "well, it's a false harmonic technique, like what you do with your thumb, only I'm using my finger"
and jaco's like "yeah, I got that, but what it doesn't got is
that sound"
he then grabs the bass and plays the lick from "birdland"
then steve explains "But with this technique it opens up my hand and I can play multiple strings at once..."
and steve plays a little bit then.
jaco's response "but it doesn't have that
sound man"
grabs the bass again and noodles around with birdland
Steve, realizing that jaco won't give up, releases his last argument "well, with this technique, I can play root notes with my thumb, and pluck multiple harmonic notes, creating fuller chords"
jaco simply shrugs it off "it doesn't have that sound"
Now, steve's look on this story is that he(steve) was right, that his technique is superior to jaco's false harmonic technique, however, I tend to agree with jaco.
While steve's technique is very impressive, it does lack
that suond what ever that sound may be. When you use your finger in place of your thumb, it creates a rounder less raw sound, which works great for some music, but ultimately, I prefer the sound jaco gets with his thumb.
So if that little anecdote give you any insight then that's good
Eitherway, would jaco still be cocky today? most likely yes, if not MORE cocky because all those cats you mentioned, nitti, wooten...etc. wouldn't be where they are now if it weren't for jaco. They may have taken bass to the next level, but they wouldn't have been able to do that had jaco not paved the way.
so then, were jaco around today, I'd say chances are, even if his technique and style was dated and no one was digging it anymore, he could still be cock of the walk because all these bassists world-wide would be kissing his feet.
or maybe not...hmm, it's been said that in death you become more notorious.
