Naughty or Nice, here's some Weather Report & Jaco

[Dr. Cheese]

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cH-WXR-Y2xs

This was the first I saw Jaco. I was totally stumped by his artificial harmonics and I had no idea how he played such high notes on a standard Fender neck. I know that is his bass of doom, but he really sounds fretted at times.

 

[bucephylus]

Nope. That's the fretted '60.

Nice early take. Band sounds tight.

 

[DiabolusInMusic]

Great vid, that bass definitely appears to have frets though. You can see the reflection off them at the start. I love that fill around 1:30

 

[bucephylus]

Especially dig the bell-bottoms.

 

[Dr. Cheese]

Nope. That's the fretted '60.



Nice early take. Band sounds tight.

I actually thought it was fretted, but I was shy about saying so.

 

[Dr. Cheese]

Jaco did a great job on the wordless vocals. I especially dug how he was perfectly in pitch during a wicked descending fill that made him smile. I bet even Esperanza Spalding would be jealous!

 

[Dr. Cheese]

I don't know if it ever gets better than Jaco. He was truly an original. In terms of sheer chops, there were lots of contemporary bassists that could hang with him, but Jaco had a one in a million vision of how to play the instrument, and that is very rare indeed.

 

[CJ Shearn]

Great performance! So so great, I really like how the Complete Columbia albums collection set with the Jaco years gives a more complete picture of just how much he added to the band. I love Alphonso Johnson's playing with them too, I mean, he just gets knee deep into those grooves on "Sweetnighter" and "Tale Spinnin'" but Jaco truly was special.

CJ Shearn
Jazz Writer
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[Basshappi]

The Midnight Special was such a cool show!

I've always loved that performance, Weather Report was at the top of their game then.

 

[pfox14]

The first time I heard Jaco's solo album I almost quit playing. I figured no matter how much I practiced or how long I played, I would never come close to his level. Truly awe inspiring.

 

[hasbeen]

not widely known is that Jaco preferred to play Birdland on a fretted....for better intonation.

Strange but true.

 

[CrashClint]

I remember in 1980 my high school jazz band instructor bringing me the Heavy Weather album and told me to listen to Birdland as he wanted to play it at regionals. That was the first time I had ever heard Jaco. I was totally blown away. I think I wore that album out on my Marantz turntable going through my old Fisher 400 tube amp driving two Pioneer tower speakers. Ah, the good ole days.