When he started playing with Joni....
He was catapulted into the forefront of pop music...
Brilliant and nothing but...
He was catapulted into the forefront of pop music...
Brilliant and nothing but...
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This is why....
- Thread starter LowBSix
- Start date
- Jun 25, 2007
- 4,531
- 135
- 63
- Disclosures
- Artist:TC Electronic RH450 bass system (original test-pilot)
Shadows and Light is, in my ever-so-humble opinion, one of the greatsest live albums of all time. Recorded and filmed in my back yard.
J!
J!
THAT displays the essence of the joy I hear in his playing during that period. Listening to that stuff hits me like a ton of bricks. It really saddens me that we couldn't have gotten more of it. Just great stuff.
When I was at Columbia, Jaco was widely revered among students in the music department. This was before fusion became vintage. Word would circulate that Jaco was at some basketball court in the city and students would cut class to go play hoops with him. This was when the wheels were starting to come off, I believe. I saw Jaco at the Bottom Line with the Word of Mouth Small Band. Great venue - I was probably in line early and within 10 feet of the stage. I bumped into Jaco in the men's room before the show and he said "hi." I remember he spent the whole first tune fiddling with one of his amps or cabs with a screw driver - I don't know if it was one of his Acoustics or one of the new Hartke cab set-ups. He was a legend even then; both his playing and personality were larger than life and charged the atmosphere around him. And I'm not given to mysticism when it comes to this kind of stuff. I wasn't even a bass player at the time.
eggfan...
I had the honor of meeting him face to face at the very 1st L.A. Guitar show in 1986. He was in a room by himself, as he was pretty far gone by then... I stood there by myself listening to him play. He stopped, hit a harmonic and slid it up the neck on the fretless, I asked him, "How do you do that?" He showed me and I've used it since!!! I always think of that moment, when I use the technique!!!
A good friend of mine went to high school with him and saw him on a basketball court with his bass and an open case that had a few bucks and change in it, down in Florida, a few months before he passed...
I had the honor of meeting him face to face at the very 1st L.A. Guitar show in 1986. He was in a room by himself, as he was pretty far gone by then... I stood there by myself listening to him play. He stopped, hit a harmonic and slid it up the neck on the fretless, I asked him, "How do you do that?" He showed me and I've used it since!!! I always think of that moment, when I use the technique!!!
A good friend of mine went to high school with him and saw him on a basketball court with his bass and an open case that had a few bucks and change in it, down in Florida, a few months before he passed...
I only got to see him once, in 1986 with Kenwood Dennard and Hiram Bullock at Blues Alley in Washington, D.C. I was very young, and Jaco was past his prime at that point. It wasn't until later that I came to know and fully appreciate his contribution to music and the bass. IMO, the world of music really needs another revolutionary like Jaco or Hendrix to come along.
LowBSix - thanks for sharing that.
By the time I saw him his playing was a bit up-and down, and everyone pretty much knew he was struggling (we knew about the substances, but didn't understand the mental health component.) You never quite knew what you were going to get, but I seem to recall that when I saw him (in '83 I think) he was pretty strong. But he was always prone to doing something goofy or unusual musically, and you never knew whether that was Jaco's muse or his dark side. At least that's my recollection. When Jaco died I was at Berklee, and the universal reaction was shock, even though by then Jaco's decline was widely known. I'd love to be able to re-listen to that Bottom Line show with fresh ears.
By the time I saw him his playing was a bit up-and down, and everyone pretty much knew he was struggling (we knew about the substances, but didn't understand the mental health component.) You never quite knew what you were going to get, but I seem to recall that when I saw him (in '83 I think) he was pretty strong. But he was always prone to doing something goofy or unusual musically, and you never knew whether that was Jaco's muse or his dark side. At least that's my recollection. When Jaco died I was at Berklee, and the universal reaction was shock, even though by then Jaco's decline was widely known. I'd love to be able to re-listen to that Bottom Line show with fresh ears.
