Is Jaco Paganini for Young Bassists?

[Dr. Cheese]

I was just looking at video of a young bassist at Berklee playing a bunch of Jaco riffs, and it occurred to me that a Jaco is like Paganini for young bass guitarists. Competently playing his music is a benchmark of being a technically accomplished bassist.

 

[Scottgun]

Yeah, I suspect Jaco is standard repetoire in many jazz bass programs.

However, I'm not familiar with classical violin programs and while Paginini seems natural, I tend to think more emphasis is put on orchestral excerpts.

 

[Nashrakh]

Jaco's got a leg up on Paganini though: you can actually listen to his music. Whenever I hear Paganini it's dry and boring.

 

[Dr. Cheese]

Jaco's got a leg up on Paganini though: you can actually listen to his music. Whenever I hear Paganini it's dry and boring.

It would be fun if there were recordings of Paganini doing his thing!

 

[flojob]

I think yngwie cites him as a major influence, and has modeled some of his playing from that composers style

 

[Dr. Cheese]

I think yngwie cites him as a major influence, and has modeled some of his playing from that composers style

Paganini?

 

[Scottgun]

Jaco's got a leg up on Paganini though: you can actually listen to his music. Whenever I hear Paganini it's dry and boring.

Not much of a Paganini fan either, but at the risk of blasphemy: As much as I've admired and learned from Jaco, the number of Jaco/Weather Report songs I Iisten to just for enjoyment I can count on one hand.

 

[charlie monroe]

Not much of a Paganini fan either, but at the risk of blasphemy: As much as I've admired and learned from Jaco, the number of Jaco/Weather Report songs I Iisten to just for enjoyment I can count on one hand.

You are not alone. We are many.

All three of those guys have this in common.

 

[flojob]

Paganini?

Yeah I've seen a few interviews where he talks about that

 

[matthewbrown]

Marcus Miller said he learned how to play all of Heavy Weather with his thumb, as I recall.

 

[Doublesixes]

Up until Jaco there were good, even outstanding bass players but no magic. That all changed in 1976.

 

[bassrique]

The Jazz Jimi Hendrix of electric bass guitar. He can't be ignored if you want to be a literate bassist.

 

[design]

See for yourself!

 

[DirkP]

Not much of a Paganini fan either, but at the risk of blasphemy: As much as I've admired and learned from Jaco, the number of Jaco/Weather Report songs I Iisten to just for enjoyment I can count on one hand.

I never really got into Pastorios. I might have started on the wrong leg, listening to his solo stuff. I grew up with Kraftwerk, Punk and Post-Punk. And compared to New Order, Kraftwerk, OMD, the way Weather Report used synths sounds soooooo cheeeesy. I don't like Jaco's effects and sound. Besides one thing: using the bridge pickup and turning the tone down. This was really a great invention and kind of counterintuive.

Last year after decades (!) I started to really like some Weather Report albums like Black Weather. Jaco's playing is really great in the corset of these studio albums.
But for me Jamerson is still much much more important as a musician and bass player. I hardly ever met someone who really likes Jaco and is NOT a bass player. But if you ask people, who just love music, to listen to what Jamerson did, it moves them. The only comment I ever got about Pastorius is: wow, this he plays fast. It's like commenting on an athlete, not on a musician or artist.

PEACE! I think his skills and the way he brought the rock-music kind of stardom to jazz kind of burdened his talent as a musician. He was great as a musician.

 

[Dominic D]

Jaco's got a leg up on Paganini though: you can actually listen to his music. Whenever I hear Paganini it's dry and boring.

Funny. That's kind of how I feel about Jaco's music.

 

[thewildest]

Both people from another space time that came to give us how things could be in the distant future; yet I feel (from his work) that Paganini was more about showing the world how amazing he was, while Jaco kinda knew how amazing he was.

All of this before social media and googleplexebytes of terrible music contaminating the spectrum....

 

[okcrum]

I never really got into Pastorios. I might have started on the wrong leg, listening to his solo stuff. I grew up with Kraftwerk, Punk and Post-Punk. And compared to New Order, Kraftwerk, OMD, the way Weather Report used synths sounds soooooo cheeeesy. I don't like Jaco's effects and sound. Besides one thing: using the bridge pickup and turning the tone down. This was really a great invention and kind of counterintuive.

Last year after decades (!) I started to really like some Weather Report albums like Black Weather. Jaco's playing is really great in the corset of these studio albums.
But for me Jamerson is still much much more important as a musician and bass player. I hardly ever met someone who really likes Jaco and is NOT a bass player. But if you ask people, who just love music, to listen to what Jamerson did, it moves them. The only comment I ever got about Pastorius is: wow, this he plays fast. It's like commenting on an athlete, not on a musician or artist.

PEACE! I think his skills and the way he brought the rock-music kind of stardom to jazz kind of burdened his talent as a musician. He was great as a musician.

Jamerson raised the profile and role of bassists every bit as much as Jaco did.

Check out some Jaco with Wayne Cochran & The C.C. Ryders - it's a whole different thing from Weather Report. Some of it sounds like Henry Mancini or Dave Grusin.

The question is: Yeah, you can play it, but can you play it with SOUL?

 

[Dr. Cheese]

See for yourself!

Cool, but that’s not what I meant. I said bassists should learn Jaco like violinists learn Paganini.

 

[bassrique]

The only comment I ever got about Pastorius is: wow, this he plays fast. It's like commenting on an athlete, not on a musician or artist.

I think the opposite. Jaco was more tasty than anything. Exact. The first I heard of him was "Birdland", which was a big hit. The false harmonics at the start blew me away. Then "Teen Town". It transcended the bass guitar. Nothing fast, just tasty, tone and in tune.

 

[Dr. Cheese]

I never really got into Pastorios. I might have started on the wrong leg, listening to his solo stuff. I grew up with Kraftwerk, Punk and Post-Punk. And compared to New Order, Kraftwerk, OMD, the way Weather Report used synths sounds soooooo cheeeesy. I don't like Jaco's effects and sound. Besides one thing: using the bridge pickup and turning the tone down. This was really a great invention and kind of counterintuive.

Last year after decades (!) I started to really like some Weather Report albums like Black Weather. Jaco's playing is really great in the corset of these studio albums.
But for me Jamerson is still much much more important as a musician and bass player. I hardly ever met someone who really likes Jaco and is NOT a bass player. But if you ask people, who just love music, to listen to what Jamerson did, it moves them. The only comment I ever got about Pastorius is: wow, this he plays fast. It's like commenting on an athlete, not on a musician or artist.

PEACE! I think his skills and the way he brought the rock-music kind of stardom to jazz kind of burdened his talent as a musician. He was great as a musician.

You confused Black Market and Heavy Weather. Non-bassists probably know more Jaco than they realize since so many bassists use bits and pieces of his work in what they do, and some of his music, like Portrait of Tracy, has been adopted by Pop groups. Still, I cannot argue with your love of Jameson. I think James Jameson and Anthony Jackson are the two most incredible studio bassists of all time.