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bassists who don't like jaco

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#141
I realise i may get flamed for this but i think you should just accept the fact that maybe Jaco isn't your cup of tea.

As for me, i must say that i mostly like his groovy side and some others like Portrait of Tracy. Stuff like Donna Lee i find extremely boring, maybe good as exercises but incredibly boring to listen to. It's possible to not like Jaco and not want to play like him, there are enough Jaco copies anyway.

Yes, he was the first to do this on electric bass, i can appreciate this, but when i listen to music, i listen to stuff that touches me.

It's not mandatory for a bassist to like Jaco, stop forcing yourself to like it.
 
#142
Gopher Bob said:
yea ive listned to the whole cd and let it sink in for a couple years. It's not that i don't think hes a great player, it's that i don't like what i hear. Aside from that i would though like to have your opinion on at least one song you find important or whats youor favorite.
Click to expand...

My faves from the Heavy Weather album are...

Havona
Palladium
Birdland
A Remark You Made
 
#144
JimmyM said:
Wow, this topic really DOES come up once a month!
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every 23.7 days on average really.

Jaco was a great bassist and innovator. I myself knew he was good, but didn't "get" him early on. It took others to open my eyes and in researching their path, I found the Jaco link. I went back and relistened and finally "got" it.

Like said, being a bassist does not make you HAVE to dig Jaco... but knowing what he and a few others have done to pave the way to modern bass playing is important.

My favorite Jaco recordings are the ones with Joni Mitchell. It shows what he can do in a more reachable Pop setting.
 
#146
Gopher Bob said:
ive been here for four years and this post hasn't been done once a month and i'd appreciate it if you kept your negative comments to yourself thank you.
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What negative comments? You say you don't like Jaco, I said fine.

This topic DOES come up once a month, though.
 
#147
You don't like Jaco... so what? Not every Saxaphone player likes Coletrane/Bird, Not every Drummer likes Neil Peart/Buddy Rich, Not every guitarist likes Hendrix/Clapton, etc etc... nobody holds it against them.

My guess is you don't like Jazz Fusion... that's cool... my guess is you want to/do play in a rock setting (this includes all subgenres, I'm just saying rock vs jazz)... your not going to go into this rock setting and have the band discriminate against you for not liking Jaco... so who cares? When you see a thread about Jaco... don't enter it... you don't care... so who cares?
 
#151
This topic comes up so frequently that even I'm struggling to say anything ...:hmm:

:D

But seriously - Jaco was playing Jazz...it does take some idea of what Jazz is all about to appreciate it - the forms, what people are doing etc.

Most people I know, don't come to this appreciation until they reach middle age and have listened to a fair bit of music - I know I didn't appreciate Jazz until I tried to play it with other people.

I bought Heavy Weather when it came out in the late 70s and was stunned by the bass playing - but at the time I was playing in post punk rock/pop bands and nobody liked this album - even fellow musicians I played it to ...:hmm:

Now I hear Jaco's solo on Havona and hear what he's really doing - the references, the harmonic and rhythmic innovations - upper extensions of chords and slowing of forward motion with changing patterns etc. etc.

20 years ago - this all passed me by ....

Wait 20 years , play some Jazz than come back to this thread!! ;)
 
#153
In my n00b years, I had an "I hate Jaco thread" of my own... I'm going to try to find it... it should be good for a laugh, I'll post it if I find it.

I don't love Jaco... but I like Jaco now. I like his funk stuff more than his jazz stuff. Weather report is cool, but some of Joe's tones throw me off a bit... cheese keys. :D
 
#155
To me it was his understanding of harmony, and to this day few have achieved to his level. I really do not care that many bassists can sound relatively similar to Jaco. At the heart of the matter when playing their own material, many bassist today technically can cover his style, but can't touch him in content (mho).

Sorry, but the people that say this comes up often are correct. I could have posted this ten times in the past three months.
 
#156
I, too, am not a Jaco fan, but I do respect his work. Likewise, I know that a lot of people feel that Billy Sheehan is the best bass player. I watched/listened to a video of him and while I can respect that the guy is technically one of the best players, the style and sound is not what I like in bass playing. So what? It's just my opinion.

Like others have said here, don't get caught up in thinking that you HAVE to like something. Be yourself!

Paul Mac
 
#158
I'm 51 now, and I've been playing bass since age 15. I think it's easier for older folks to appreciate Jaco's contribution, because we know first hand what life before Jaco was like. How may of you remember in the 60's and 70's when electric bass was looked down upon by establishment musicians as not a "real" instrument? When I auditioned in 1972 as a bass major it was upright bass only please.

Electric bass has come a very long way in a relatively short time, and one of the big leaps forward was the apearance of Jaco (and Stanley, and so on). These guys gave electric bass some real credibility with the music establishment.

So I'm saying not all of Jaco's legacy is inherent in the music itself (although I'm still very impressed by his musicianship). It's also the tremendous changes he set in motion (intentionally or not). A few generations later, we all still benefit the Jaco legacy.

You may have heard the old saying about "Jaco opened up the door and everybody else walked through." That's probably a bit of an overstatement, but not by all that much. My opinion, of course.
 
#159
Bruce Lindfield said:
But seriously - Jaco was playing Jazz...it does take some idea of what Jazz is all about to appreciate it - the forms, what people are doing etc...


20 years ago - this all passed me by ....

Wait 20 years , play some Jazz than come back to this thread!! ;)
Click to expand...

Although I have not heard him, I suspect Bruce is a gifted player. The fact that it took him twenty years to appreciate Jaco only speaks to how gifted this man was. He had very little formal training. He learned so much on his own or from other musicans on the road and he did much and still died well under forty years of age! Most people cannot really grasp that this man was truly a genius.
 
#160
Like it, don't like it, whatever. I don't like snails. Many others do. I didn't like Wilt Chamberlin as a human being, but he was a hell of a ball player.

Like him or not, you have to respect what he did to revolutionize bass playing. If you can appreciate his work, that's all anyone can ask. If you can't, you're in the wrong business.

If you actually like it, all the better. If not, no big whoop.
 
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