bassists who don't like jaco

[Basshole]

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.

Dude, he's right. He's not being negative, and if you've missed all of the other threads just like this one, I'm sorry.

The fact is that it DOES come up all of the time - this marks almost exactly a month since the last thread of this nature...maybe someone else can link it.

Listen, this sums it up best, perhaps:

i think with jaco, you need to realize that nobody has played bass like that before. granted, today, you can hear thousands of bassists play that way, so to you it may sound the same as everything you hear now, but i think you need to look at Jaco in a historical context. At least thats what i think...

The fact is that in hindsight, Jaco sounds like nothing special - but it's PRECISELY because he changed the way the bass guitar was played forever - if you had been listening to everything that had come before, and THEN heard Jaco, you'd have said "*** WAS THAT?!??!?" like everyone else did at the time, and you'd understand.

To look back, because his influence really was so great, one almost can be lead to believe that he's actually not doing anything particularly unusual...but that's really only because what IS NOW USUAL was forever changed by the guy, and there is no contrast.

You perhaps need to see it from the point of view of what had come before, to rightfully understand just how much of a departure it was. It really re-defined "the norm".

 

[Basshole]

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.

Billy is an incredibly talented guitar player. He just happens to play a four string for some odd reason.

 

[FenderHotRod]

Read the book.

 

[flatwoundfender]

As far as opening doors in the jazz world for electric I think Jamerson may have had a bigger influence. Many jazz bassists thought the electric was a joke before hearing Jamerson play it. While Jaco did change the face of bass, I far prefer the Jamerson style. I find his basslines to be the works of genius. He's got some amazing lines, but while they can become quite complex, they hold the song together and don't stick out. I firmly believe the best bass player is one you don't notice while he's there, but you do notice when he's not.

 

[Esteban Lobos D]

jaco is not my every day thing but i really got impressed when i heard his debut recording, specially with portrait of tracy and other great tracks.
but nowadays my interests are very wide and i just prefer other things, but when i want to hear him, i pick the "mingus" record by joni mitchell

i really love the free ambience and the interplay between the great musicians in the record, besides jaco is kind of a lead voice, a beautiful one, giving lot's of space to the phrase and silence, and the stuff is neither cheesy or to much pop oriented(is my english ok here?), it's just a great tribute to a great composer and everything flows very naturally.

 

[lyle]

Neither am I a fan of weather report or most jaco material, but I do understand the significance of his role in the bass community. I do believe he altered the face of bass forever and you guys are right. Even though it may not sound like something so profound today (because the fast up and down scale technique is used lots) but prior to jaco no one did that on bass.

 

[irjason]

...My favorite Jaco recordings are the ones with Joni Mitchell. It shows what he can do in a more reachable Pop setting.

Care to list a few of those? I think he's a great player, but the whole fusion thing is not my cup of tea.

 

[cb56]

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?

This just about says it all. I'm not a big Jaco fan myself, but I can appreciate what he brought to the instrument as far as innovation. That being said, during the same time period, I'll take Stanley Clarke's playing and musical innovation over over Jaco's anytime. just my opinion fwiw

 

[djcruse]

From what I'm reading, the person who started this thread is having difficulty separating Jaco the bass player from jazz fusion. That's kinda like looking at a Picasso and saying, "Yeah, that's nice, but I just don't like blue."

You don't have to like jazz fusion. You don't have to like Jaco. You don't have to do anything.

However, if you can separate his playing from his genre, you might have better results. YMMV

 

[page]

Jaco's technically amazing, but he's alright to me. My favorite part of Weather Report ( which I love) is the percussionists , then probaly Shorter, then Zawinul, and the the bassists Jaco and Johnson etc....

 

[Dr. Cheese]

That being said, during the same time period, I'll take Stanley Clarke's playing and musical innovation over over Jaco's anytime. just my opinion fwiw

At the time Jaco came out, I too was blown away by him. I remember thinking that "A Portrait of Tracy" was a Fender Rhodes, not one guy ona bass. That said, I was much more into Stanley Clarke. I think today he probably underrated as an innovator because he is still alive and because he has made some pretty cheesy recordings from time to time.

 

[metalguy2]

I started playing bass when I was 16.. When I started playing I was a huge fan of death metal...Small amounts of rap thrown in. I listened to bands like Cannibal Corpse, and Carcass exclusively, until about a year ago. The saxaphone teacher at my place of learning told me to look up Jaco because of his chops. Well, a year later, I go on little kicks here and there visiting my roots in death metal. But other than that Jaco changed my life completely.
And I don't think I am really over stating that at all. Considering I am trying to study hard to become a music teacher. And that probably would have never happened if I was still listening to the music I was listening to a year ago.

I am not trying to force this Jaco idea on you. But keep in mind that Jimi Hendrix and the Beatles have not touched me in the same way as millions of people we live amongst on the planet earth. And keep in mind... Nobody is expecting you to like Jaco. Just know!

 

[Bass2x]

Jaco was a genius.
Died at 35, shame. That man could groove!
He did a cut with Carlos Santana called Aqua Marine, one of my favorites. Not a knock-yer-socks-off technical acrobatic exercise but a perfectly fitting groove. I don't think his brain was wired liked ours, he was different. Special. Genius.

 

[bucephylus]

The only thing I'm not getting about all these threads is where there are so many comments that Jaco's playing is now ordinary, so you have to listen in historic context.

Wow.

I guess I'm missing all these standard bass players who are burning up the fingerboard with precise harmonic extensions, quoting everything under the sun etc., and fitting it in musically to all kinds of situations. I mean Richard Bona is an excellent player, as are several other folks - Caron, etc. But, their style is so far from mainstream that I don't even know what to say. My 2c is you have to go out and get about 20 of the album recordings that Jaco led or co-led, and then check them out for a while to get the gist of his whole picture. Sorry, but to my knowledge, there just aren't any bass players currently active who are pushing the envelope in any way, shape or form, as Jaco did; not even close. His contributions remain anything but ordinary; which is not meant to deify his legacy or anything. Just because some guys now drop a few of his licks on the gig doesn't mean his "style" of playing is now standard. Saying that just misses the whole point.

 

[mike sancho]

Gopher try the WR 8:30 Live double album. Black Market and Birdland groove in a big way, Teen Town is just flat out wicked bass playing. I agree with whoever said you can't force it. You just might not like the music. Who are you listening to that you like? Merry Christmas everyone!

 

[big low end]

I agree. I LOVE JACO! I really do, I follow him like crazy. That's also because I love the music. If you want to appreciate Jaco more. Listen to some songs Pre-Jaco. Pay attention to the bass... Then listen to Jaco. He made the bass what it is today! I know a great bass player who cannot stand Jaco's music, but respects him for who he is, and still owns Jaco's self titled album. He's a lot like Hendrix, you don't have to like him.. but you can't help respect him for what he had accomplished.

I don't know about that highlighted comment. I give Larry Graham more credit for bass sounding the way it does today.

 

[unlined4string]

I think it's just the way of things that much music intended as an artistic statement tends to appeal to some people who "get it" while others don't see the beauty at all. And that's OK.

 

[big low end]

I think it's just the way of things that much music intended as an artistic statement tends to appeal to some people who "get it" while others don't see the beauty at all. And that's OK.

Are the people who don't "get it" any less of players? No. Just as "posers" think they are "hip"...but are the oppo site.

 

[remo]

I am a jaco noob.. never heard weather report... what is "THE" jaco weather report album to buy?

like "Close To The Edge" from YES the desert island Weather Report Album?

 

[JimK]

I am a jaco noob.. never heard weather report... what is "THE" jaco weather report album to buy?

I imagine the majority here will cite Heavy Weather.
I'll suggest a 2nd option: Live And Unreleased...Sony finally opened up their vaults & issued this double-cd set a couple years back. "Best" recorded version of "Teen Town" I've heard.
Jaco, Alphonso Johnson, & Victor Bailey can be heard during each one's stay in the band.