Is Jaco Paganini for Young Bassists?

[Dr. Cheese]

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?

Sounding like Henry Mancini orDave Grusin is not a bad thing to my ears. For what it's worth, I think Jaco, on his own, is too hyper and busy to be a great R&B player. I think his key was taking his R&B .influence into Fusion and Jazz. He really created a feel that had not existed before he did it.

 

[DJ Bebop]

 

[phillipkregg]

Good observation! And it's funny that one of Jaco's most technically demanding pieces is a saxophone solo by Charlie Parker.

Victor Wooten has also inspired many folks to try and play his pieces because they are technically difficult, so they work great as exercises - especially regarding slap style playing.

But, IMHO, Jaco's greatness wasn't necessarily in his technical execution, but in his composition skills. For instance, a piano player could play "Portrait of Tracy" and it would sound amazing. He had a great sense of melody, harmony, and emotional projection that I just don't hear from many, otherwise, technically proficient bassists.

 

[Admiral Akbar]

Good observation! And it's funny that one of Jaco's most technically demanding pieces is a saxophone solo by Charlie Parker.

Victor Wooten has also inspired many folks to try and play his pieces because they are technically difficult, so they work great as exercises - especially regarding slap style playing.

But, IMHO, Jaco's greatness wasn't necessarily in his technical execution, but in his composition skills. For instance, a piano player could play "Portrait of Tracy" and it would sound amazing. He had a great sense of melody, harmony, and emotional projection that I just don't hear from many, otherwise, technically proficient bassists.

/\/\ this. /\/\

Jaco was waymore than just technique. He was a composer, period. Like Charles Mingus. Jaco, like James Jamerson, had a voice on the instrument and took it to places nobody had thought of previously. If you haven't already, check him out with Joni Mitchell. Albums like Hejira, Don Juan's Reckless Daughter, Shadows and Light, etc. Mitchell (a virtuosic composer in her own right) had the vision and gravitas to let the bass player become an equal voice, playing leads, chordal accompaniement, overdubbing texture... Jaco had a huge spirit.

 

[Montana Matt]

Jaco, Joni, Wayne, and Herbie playing Mingus.

 

[okcrum]

Sounding like Henry Mancini or Dave Grusin is not a bad thing to my ears. For what it's worth, I think Jaco, on his own, is hyper and busy to be a great R&B player. I think his key was taking his R&B .influence into Fusion and Jazz. He really created a feel that had not existed before he did it.

His best R&B playing, to me, was when he was a sideman, outside of Weather Report. In WR I think he sounded best with any of the several drummers before Peter Erskine, but really that band grew to be about precision playing. Still, I don't think he could keep up with Alphonso Johnson or Victor Bailey in that respect. There are some recordings with Herbie Hancock where he gets pretty funky, but it's kind of hard to avoid with that band. He's comping chords in several places, but I wish they'd played the middle part of the original tune that just takes off.

You and I both know in R&B, we usually live and die with our drummers.

 

[jerry]

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

Back in the early 90's before the web took off Marcus did a slap version of Teen Town on Kenwood Dennard's Just Advance album, it blew peoples minds.

 

[iTzPrime]

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.

I don't think Jaco is of the same level as Paganini. To this day, there are very few people who can play Paganini properly (with the original bowing). There are a lot more who can play Jaco.
I always thought that Jaco is more the Jimi Hendrix or Van Halen of Bass. Setting a new standard for bass and creating extraordinary innovative music, but not in the same technical vein of Paganini.

 

[vilshofen]

Whenever I hear Paganini it's dry and boring.

Nashrakh, maybe try Tartini!

 

[DJ Bebop]

Nashrakh, maybe try Tartini!

 

[DJ Bebop]

Back in the early 90's before the web took off Marcus did a slap version of Teen Town on Kenwood Dennard's Just Advance album, it blew peoples minds.

 

[Dr. Cheese]

Back in the early 90's before the web took off Marcus did a slap version of Teen Town on Kenwood Dennard's Just Advance album, it blew peoples minds.

I used to have that CD. I wish iTunes would carry it now.

 

[Dr. Cheese]

I don't think Jaco is of the same level as Paganini. To this day, there are very few people who can play Paganini properly (with the original bowing). There are a lot more who can play Jaco.
I always thought that Jaco is more the Jimi Hendrix or Van Halen of Bass. Setting a new standard for bass and creating extraordinary innovative music, but not in the same technical vein of Paganini.

As Phillip Kregg noted. Jaco was a composer at a much deeper level than Hendrix or Van Halen. Van Halen and Hendrix were great musicians and Pop performers. Jaco was rooted in R&B, but he was fundamentally a Fusion/Jazz musician who wrote great music like Portrait of Tracy, Three Views of a Secret, Liberty City, Punk Jazz.

 

[TonyP-]

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.

I feel (almost) the complete opposite.

Granted, I know classical is not for everyone I admit that.

I Acknowledge what Jaco has done in our industry, but it stops right there for me.

 

[okcrum]

I feel (almost) the complete opposite.

Granted, I know classical is not for everyone I admit that.

I Acknowledge what Jaco has done in our industry, but it stops right there for me.

In retrospect, I think the biggest thing Jaco's arrival on the scene did for us as far as his playing is make everybody realize "Oh s%^t, I've got to practice!".

 

[Dr. Cheese]

In retrospect, I think the biggest thing Jaco's arrival on the scene did for us as far as his playing is make everybody realize "Oh s%^t, I've got to practice!".

I know that I was sixteen when Jaco made his debut. He was different from anything I had heard, it seemed magical to me. In college, I remember really accomplished bassist's wondering how he got his sound. I remember seeing him on the Midnight Special, not realizing he had a lined fretless, wondering how he got those fretless slides.

Those ten or more years younger than me, grew up with Jaco as simply part of the vocabulary.

 

[Afc70]

Doc, I recently discovered this guy, after listening to a Victor Wooten interview, Victor stated " this guy plays things I can't play" - I thought wow, gotta check him out. Michael Pipoquinha.. look him up if your not familiar, he's astounding.

 

[buldog5151bass]

Jack Paganini? Never heard of him.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

 

[DJ Bebop]

Doc, I recently discovered this guy, after listening to a Victor Wooten interview, Victor stated " this guy plays things I can't play" - I thought wow, gotta check him out. Michael Pipoquinha.. look him up if your not familiar, he's astounding.

If you wanna cry, here's the same guy, at 13

 

[Chrisk-K]

But, IMHO, Jaco's greatness wasn't necessarily in his technical execution, but in his composition skills.

+1. I cannot think of a single decent song that Sheehan or Myung has composed.