I might be kicked off TB for this, but.....

[Clark Dark]

He had his flaws but they were drugs and booze. He was a composer, arranger, bassist, and he could play "cut time"...he was a heck of a musician even if not your particular flavor.
River people


Opus Pocus

 

[-Asdfgh-]

The issue is more along the lines on who brought a certain idiom or style to the "masses."

I can see your point, but I find it hard to see a sudden jump in what was being done by the Beatles in 1963, but then I wasn't there at the time, hence saying earlier in the thread that the contemporaneous experience is more telling, so I could be entirely wrong. I'll ask my uncle who was there at the time and was actually asked to join on bass with one of the fellow travellers in the Mersey Beat sound at that time, although his love was and still is blues so he passed.

Nirvana was "the band that destroyed glam," and wash the "turning point" in a large section of popular music. We can look at the SubPop catalog and discuss which bands were the true originators of that style (Cobain would have said the Pixies were his main influence), but it was Nirvana that brought it to the mainstream.

I remember! It didn't seem revolutionary as I was already listening to the Pixies and Killing Joke*... Although to be fair Killing Joke of the late 80s had a more commercial sound before vanishing off again with Dirt, Extremeties, etc. (Which I'll break out again for a nostalgic listen shortly. And I say this as someone who bought Nevermind as soon as it came out.

I believe Cobain also considered KJ an influence.

 

[Rugmaster]

Since it appears that anyone can add tags, I think we can be sure that it wasnt the OP who wrote "F-Jaco".

 

[-Asdfgh-]

I like Willis. His playing is different than Jaco's though.

I find Willis more enjoyable to listen to than Jaco. Both supremely talented, of course.

 

[Ampig]

I just gonna say it. There is a huge difference between the amount of knowledge and skill required to become a true jazz or classical musician than to play rock or other popular styles. Think I'm full of it? Hang out with those cats. You will be humbled. I'm a jazz lover but a rock player, so im not blowing my own horn. If you don't enjoy jazz, that's cool, but you are misguided when you denigrate players who have attained the skill level of Jaco. It requires intense dedication, hard work and study to get there. I don't really listen to much classical music, but I would never be presumptious enough to judge a classical bassists skill or say I don't get their bag when the truth is that I'm not qualified to even really understand what they do.

 

[Clark Dark]

Let's not forget Jaco's years with Wayne Cochran & the CC Riders where he was laying down R&B grooves years before moving on to jazz and classical. It was like being with James Brown from a different mother.

 

[Kim Jong Funk]

Let's not forget Jaco's years with Wayne Cochran & the CC Riders where he was laying down R&B grooves years before moving on to jazz and classical. It was like being with James Brown from a different mother.

Cochran's hair was epic.

 

[Shortie]

Question for you Shortie
Do you assume that all trained and educated bass players should like Jaco

No, of course not. Your taste is your taste. What I do think is that a serious musician should understand and appreciate Jaco's greatness, even though they might not enjoy his music.

There is a lot of Jaco's material I don't particularly care for myself - "Donna Lee" and pretty much everything on his first solo album doesn't do much for me at all, although I hear greatness. I'd like "Come On, Come Over" an awful lot more if it was backed by the Stax/Volt/Atlantic guys. Mostly I listen to and enjoy what he did with Weather Report and his big band.

 

[TonyP-]

No, of course not. Your taste is your taste. What I do think is that a serious musician should understand and appreciate Jaco's greatness, even though they might not enjoy his music.

Ok cool...
I can appreciate what He did, but it stops right there.
Jonas is another story.

 

[Shortie]

Ok cool...
I can appreciate what He did, but it stops right there.

If you're doing II-V-I instead of I-IV-V maybe spend some time with the stuff Jaco did with Weather Report. I know his sound is weird, but he uses it to do certain things, and he plays some very serious, deep jazz. I listen to him like I would listen to a great jazz player on upright - Christian McBride or Dave Holland or even back to Richard Davis or Reggie Workman - people like that - that's what I hear from him.

You don't have to like it - like I said, your taste is your taste - but sometimes you can acquire a taste too. Jaco might be like whiskey - when you first tasted it as a kid it didn't taste so good either - his sound is a big obstacle.

 

[chubfarm2001]

Since it appears that anyone can add tags, I think we can be sure that it wasnt the OP who wrote "F-Jaco".

Yes, I was going to comment on this as the OP.

I did NOT add any tags to this post. I don't even know how to add tags. I have more respect than that.

 

[TonyP-]

If you're doing II-V-I instead of I-IV-V maybe spend some time with the stuff Jaco did with Weather Report.

To be honest I have, over 20 years ago (honest)
I'm not anti jazz just not into his work.

 

[StereoPlayer]

Yes, I was going to comment on this as the OP.

I did NOT add any tags to this post. I don't even know how to add tags. I have more respect than that.

You can remove them though as the author of this thread. Just click on the edit spot next to the tags.

 

[anavar]

No, it's not good. You dissed just about everybody on the site. What's good about that? You said it and you don't care? That doesn't make it good. But it might make you something not so good. Playing macho man doesn't make you tough or right - mostly it makes you like foolish.

re read it. i said i dislike a fair amount of the famous bassist that are talked about on Tb, not the actual bassists that use this site.

settle man, its all going to be okay. i know people may have differing opinions to you and i guess that makes your life hard, but its okay. Chin up.

Your playing is lame. The music you like is lame. The musicians you like are lame. Not insulting? : D

nope. That's your opinion dude and you're allowed to have it. hell, its probably true. oh well, thats how it is sometimes.

 

[Shortie]

To be honest I have, over 20 years ago (honest)

You don't owe me anything. I don't sit around listening to Jaco or much jazz all the time either these days - 80% of what I listen to and play is rock and RnB. I find a lot of jazz work to be just too long and self indulgent - or it was meant to be background music in a club, etc. But I'm blown away by the musicianship and certain jazz pieces I like a lot - mostly shorter stuff. I get off a lot more on funking out on a two chord James Brown vamp for an hour than I do playing through some jazz walking lines that put me to sleep after 10 minutes.

 

[BuffaloBob4343]

And my response was that no matter what YOU think about anyone's impact...

Right, and I suppose the next thing you'll tell me is that the Holocaust didn't happen either, that it is a matter of opinion.

But seriously, that is NOT what you said. You responded that I was trying to say that they should be revered, NOT that it was a matter of opinion as to the magnitude of their impact. But frankly, that is an absurdity anyway. Yes I'm sure there have been several bands that have had at least as great if not greater impact on popular music.

 

[BuffaloBob4343]

I'm unconvinced that it was a single person revolution, as there were several bassists that emerged at the same time that were all pushing the boundaries. It looks like a change that was already happening, and part of that is probably the evolution of technology such that outside of DB playing solo virtuosity could be heard.


I don't think that's true either. The Beatles were born from skiffle and rock and roll, and took it further, but with a lot of covers early on, and influences that also included The Ventures (according to Harrison), the Beach Boys (according to McCartney) and Motown (according to Lennon).

And it's hard to know what the effect is on the status quo from here as we are partly basing it on who has been the winner of the long-term publicity contest. As an extreme example Jane Austen wasn't considered an important author in her own time and only became so in the 20th century. You cannot assume from Austen's current popularity that she was influential at the time. So determining the effect of The Beatles on the status quo you have to research the impact on contemporaneous records and disambiguate the other cultural trends of the period.

Right! Hard to know their impact. Over half a billion albums sold in less than ten years. Lots of bands before them that were close I'm sure. Lots of bands before them with 20 number one songs in ten years as well. Or over any number of years for that matter. And tons since for sure. First rock band playing stadium shows. Yeah, hard to say if they had any impact at all. My bad.

 

[Shortie]

Gotta have respect for the pioneers,.....Jaco, Stanley Clarke, Bobby Dall, Geddy Lee....to name a few.

Those guys are all great players, but I think you're a bit off in your time line: Jamerson, Rainey, and then guys like Jack Bruce, Phil Lesh, Jack Casady, Macca and Larry Graham were pioneers - arguably the first guys to start doing something new with electric bass, instead of playing it like a small upright in rock and pop settings. The first P bass came out in 1951. Generally Jaco is considered the last of the pioneers. It took about 25 years to figure out what an electric bass was capable of doing. Same with the electric guitar.

Jaco was the last guy that had something original to say on the electric bass.

A. Jackson.

 

[Brother Goose]

Since it appears that anyone can add tags, I think we can be sure that it wasnt the OP who wrote "F-Jaco".

That's good to know. I was a little butt hurt at the notion of someone starting this thread AND posting those tags.

I'll bring it up to Robert Trujillow tomorrow morning when he signing Jaco DVDs at my local record store.

Happy thanksgiving to everyone!

 

[David Jayne]

Those guys are all great players, but you're a bit off in your time line: Jamerson, Rainey, and then Jack Bruce, Jack Casady, Macca and Larry Graham were pioneers - arguably the first guys to start doing something new with electric bass, instead of playing it like a small upright. The first P bass come out in 1951. Generally Jaco is considered the last of the pioneers. It took about 25 years to figure out what an electric bass was capable of doing. Same with the electric guitar.

Jaco was the last guy that had something original to say on the electric bass.

A. Jackson.

And yet-
"I'm not a star. I'll never be a Frank Sinatra or Elvis Presley or a Ray Charles. I'm just an imitator, man. I'm doing a very bad imitation on the bass of Jerry Jemmott, Bernard Odum, Jimmy Fielder, Jimmy Blanton, Igor Stravinsky, Jimi Hendrix, John Coltrane, James Brown, Charlie Parker... the cats, man. I'm just backing up the cats." - Jaco Pastorius

Beneath the sometimes over-the-top attitude he had humility and perspective. He knew exactly what he was doing.