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Jaco, Jaco or Jaco??

#21
Originally posted by XavierG
The thing is, I'm Spanish, and as Dave Castelo and Caracas Bass will attest, there is only one way to pronounce the "a" in Spanish. Jaco is Jah-koh and taco is Tah-koh. End of story!
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Well, yeah--that's exactly what I'm trying to say! I'm not Spanish and don't claim to be, but I did grow up in an environment with a lot of Spanish speakers (SoCal)--as did Jaco--so I know what it sounds like.

What you may be missing is that for many US folks, taco and jocko are *exact* rhymes. No difference at all. Many of us make no distinction between short "o" and "ah".
 
#24
Originally posted by 4FaTStRInGs
On the recordings I've heard, he introduces himself as Jaco (pronounced "Jah-co") Pastorius. He should know...
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That's right - I've got loads of recordings and hear it as this! So as I said (I don't speak Spanish) it sounds like the French "Jacques" with an O.

On the "misreading" thing - well read it again! Nowhere does Milkowski mention how the name was actually "pronounced", but rather is talking about the origins of this nickname!
 
#25
Originally posted by Bruce Lindfield


That's right - I've got loads of recordings and hear it as this! So as I said (I don't speak Spanish) it sounds like the French "Jacques" with an O.

On the "misreading" thing - well read it again! Nowhere does Milkowski mention how the name was actually "pronounced", but rather is talking about the origins of this nickname!
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Bruce, surely it would be a laborious interpretation to think that someone would derive a nickname from the name Jocko yet would not pronounce it that way. Apply Occam's razor here. If I derived my nickname from someone named, oh, Nigel, surely the natural assumption would be that I'd pronounce it NIGH-jel unless I explicitly say that I pronounce it some other way, such as, say, nee-ZHEL. And nowhere in the passage cited does Milkowski say the name is pronounced as anything other than Jocko.

And you're still missing the key pronunciation point, which is that in many if not most American dialects, -ahco and -ocko are *exactly the same sound.* In other words, the Jock-o people and the Jah-co people are both right (at least in a US context), and the Jack-o people and the Jay-co people are mistaken. The Jacques-o people we can let slide!;)
 
#26
Well I have read through the Milkowski bio a few times and this is part of a section which mentions how Jaco and his father Jack used to hang around together a lot when Jaco was young - so it says how they considered themselves to be a couple of Jazzbos! ;)

So my reading of it was that people saw them as big Jack and little Jack-O. So the derivation, was from Jocko, but nowhere does Milkowski say it was pronounced the same way and if it was, then why did Jaco bother to change the spelling? The only reason I can see for this, is to indicate how it was pronounced differently!!
 
#27
Originally posted by Bruce Lindfield
Well I have read through the Milkowski bio a few times and this is part of a section which mentions how Jaco and his father Jack used to hang around together a lot when Jaco was young - so it says how they considered themselves to be a couple of Jazzbos! ;)

So my reading of it was that people saw them as big Jack and little Jack-O. So the derivation, was from Jocko, but nowhere does Milkowski say it was pronounced the same way and if it was, then why did Jaco bother to change the spelling? The only reason I can see for this, is to indicate how it was pronounced differently!!
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Bruce, I'd say this passage from the Milkowski book explains the spelling change pretty clearly. You notice, not a hint of any change in pronunciation; it's about orthography, not sound:

"Apparently it wasn't until years later that he began spelling it J-a-c-o. As Gregory explains, "It was when he met Alex Darqui [the pianist who would later play on Jaco's 'Continuum']. Being French, Alex figured it was spelled like 'Paco.' One day he left a note with the name spelled J-a-c-o; Jaco must've liked it, because from that point on he started spelling it that way himself."

Occam's razor again: if the derivation of the name had been from his father Jack, surely he would have spelled it Jacko from the beginning, and his parents would not BOTH have said, on the record (see the Milkoski book), that the derivation was from Jocko Conlon. In the absence of any supporting evidence, it makes no sense to think that Jaco would initially spell his name Jocko but pronounce it Jacko. I grew up listening to basball games umpired by Jocko Conlon, and I can assure you his name was never pronounced Jacko.

Besides, as I said, I heard Jah-co (which, again, rhymes exactly with Jocko for most Americans) from his own mouth. You're still assuming that to go from Jocko to Jahco was a pronunciation change for Jaco; it may be for a Briton, but for an American, which Jaco of course was, it generally isn't. There isn't a shred of evidence in the Milkowski book that the pronunciation changed when the spelling did.

Also, Jacques does not rhyme with Jack for most US people; it rhymes with rock. Or Jock.

Believe it or not, we're saying almost the same thing--you just don't know it!
;)
 

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