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What do you like about Jaco Pastorius' playing?
- Thread starter bassinplace
- Start date
I remember being a young man that was just starting to get to the next level on bass. I was getting noticed by other musicians but there was this older guy I knew who was really burning and much better than me, so one day I see him in a record store and I just had to introduce myself and say how much I would love to be on his level. He schooled me right there in the checkout line and said "get heavy weather by weather report and memorize it". I had no idea what it was but I took his word. I've been mind blown ever since. And yes eventually years later I replaced him after he left in that band and all the original members told me that I filled his shoes nicely . He still remains one of my good friends.
Yea hung with them a lot. Joe was a great guy. Jaco was funny. I loved how he backed up all his smack talking (Basketball and bassplaying). Hancock would come over Joe and Jaco would rip it up with him. There is a lot of recordings that were made at that house that never made light of day. Hopefully Joe's kid's will release some of them.
While he was an awesome bass player. I'm in the camp who's not really a fan of his tone (during the solo stuff).
Very awesome player though. I'm sure he could outplay me with both hands tied behind his back, while using a bass that only has one string.
The best thing I got from him however is that youtube video of "Jaco pastorius shreds".
That is probably the best youtube I've ever seen. Still kills me after all these years. I dont know if its just watchin the vid, or thinkin bout the person who overdubbed it while im watching it..But I almost pi$$ my self every time. MUST WATCH.
Again though, he's a great player, but the solo stuff ain't for me.
YMMV..
Very awesome player though. I'm sure he could outplay me with both hands tied behind his back, while using a bass that only has one string.
The best thing I got from him however is that youtube video of "Jaco pastorius shreds".
That is probably the best youtube I've ever seen. Still kills me after all these years. I dont know if its just watchin the vid, or thinkin bout the person who overdubbed it while im watching it..But I almost pi$$ my self every time. MUST WATCH.
Again though, he's a great player, but the solo stuff ain't for me.
YMMV..
The beautiful fact is that no matter what anyone's opinion of Jaco's nuances: tone, 'chops', solo stuff (whatever that means,) is this: there is electric bass before Jaco and electric bass after him.
If you play the electric bass at this point in history you are influenced by him whether you like it or not: bass tone and mix placement in modern music, technical standards on the instrument etc. He was a genius by any definition of the word, an innovator and a phenomenon by all accounts.
I am seriously not trolling, but I think one dismisses him at the risk of ignoring maybe the most major chapter in the rich history of your own instrument and the development of American jazz music in general.
p.s. to someone earlier who didn't really like 'jazz' therefore Jaco, then promptly name-checked the Great James Jamerson: Jamerson was originally a jazz upright player who ended up making a living for his family playing electric bass on Motown cuts, his day job. It just happened that in the process he also redefined what being an electric bassist means for us all. You can't play a classic Jamerson line without encountering his idiosyncratic chromatic passing tones that are a staple of melodic/harmonic movement in jazz.
If you play the electric bass at this point in history you are influenced by him whether you like it or not: bass tone and mix placement in modern music, technical standards on the instrument etc. He was a genius by any definition of the word, an innovator and a phenomenon by all accounts.
I am seriously not trolling, but I think one dismisses him at the risk of ignoring maybe the most major chapter in the rich history of your own instrument and the development of American jazz music in general.
p.s. to someone earlier who didn't really like 'jazz' therefore Jaco, then promptly name-checked the Great James Jamerson: Jamerson was originally a jazz upright player who ended up making a living for his family playing electric bass on Motown cuts, his day job. It just happened that in the process he also redefined what being an electric bassist means for us all. You can't play a classic Jamerson line without encountering his idiosyncratic chromatic passing tones that are a staple of melodic/harmonic movement in jazz.
I think it boils down to this, Jaco was an incredible musician that played bass, many others are just bass players, they might be great at it, but they are not incredible musicians.
Since my two favorite bassists are Jaco and Squire, I cannot disagree! Squire's technique is nowhere near the level of Jaco, but he did incredibly creative things with the bass and was a true pioneer of the instrument.
Dead on the money
Don't forget about Jaco's double bass,piano and drumming. He was a complete musician and composer.
I think this hits the nail on the head.
Before Jaco showed up, Stanley Clarke was the young "superhero" on bass, and it was unimaginable that anyone could go farther. Yet, he was merely a bass player with great skill.
Jaco transcended every other bassist, because he was a musical genius who happened to play that instrument. One obvious example is "Portrait of Tracy"-- everyone else knew about harmonics, but only he thought of taking them and crafting a beautiful, advanced composition out of them. At the time, it inspired countless other players to stretch their imaginations and rethink the instrument itself, in other new ways... but no one really has, even though we've had so many other fantastic players.
I am fairly new to bass, but have been into Jaco for a long time. He is really the first bass player I would consider listening to as a soloist and not be bored. I agree with others that he was a one of a few game changing musicians that every generation produces. He just happened to do it on bass, a pretty unlikely instrument at the time to bring to such high levels.
I am long past the point where chops alone impress me. My guitar hero worship is worn thin. But when someone brings a unique voice into the world it transcends genre or the instrument itself. I guess I can see that in today's world, Jaco's style of playing has become common, that someone hearing him for the first time might not be impressed, but when you listen to bass playing before and after Jaco, then it's obvious what his legacy is.
I am long past the point where chops alone impress me. My guitar hero worship is worn thin. But when someone brings a unique voice into the world it transcends genre or the instrument itself. I guess I can see that in today's world, Jaco's style of playing has become common, that someone hearing him for the first time might not be impressed, but when you listen to bass playing before and after Jaco, then it's obvious what his legacy is.
That was me and that's great that Jamerson was a jazz upright player and it should tell you something that he had to get a day job w/ Motown. Jazz isn't something that everybody likes... Including me.
I maintain that I prefer the subtle genius of Jamerson to the out front and not at all subtle genius of Jaco. I also maintain that virtuosity, on any instrument, plays a way back seat (remember the way back seat? Backward facing in the station wagon...) to songwriting and pocket playing. It's a skill to know when to shut up. Jaco didn't have that skill... At least as far as I've heard.
Jaco's bio is an interesting read. As far as Jamerson-style pocket playing; he toured on the bus with Wayne Cochran & the C.C. Riders before he established himself as the greatest innovator on the bass guitar since James.
There are countless examples of Jaco killing the groove, so deep in the pocket. so locked in-
It's NUTS that anyone could play as well and be as complete a player as he was!
It's also OK to not like Jazz! Whenever I want to "punish" someone, I can play "OM" by Coltrane!
To me it's DEEP! Others...not so much; hurts their ears.
There are countless examples of Jaco killing the groove, so deep in the pocket. so locked in-
It's NUTS that anyone could play as well and be as complete a player as he was!
It's also OK to not like Jazz! Whenever I want to "punish" someone, I can play "OM" by Coltrane!
To me it's DEEP! Others...not so much; hurts their ears.
Didn't have the SKILL to shut up? Serious?!
Probably more than any other attribute he possessed, the fact that he was arguably the first jazz COMPOSER that played the electric bass NOT simply as a bass, but as an extension of the music he heard inside his mind. He didn't/wasn't constrained by the accepted technical limits of the instrument during the time period he played it and certainly there are people who can play circles around him by todays standards ... but they have him to thank for smashing through the door.
The first time I ever heard Coltrane was when someone played Sunship for me. I ran away screaming in fear "Abba save me! Abba save me! gimme a normal chord!"
LOL; Probably better to start listening to Coltrane's Jazz on something like "Green Dolphin Street" or a Blues, etc.
Even 'Trane didn't start playing outside like that until later in his career!
Jaco was, arguably first and foremost, a songwriter and a trail-blazing one at that. A bass was simply the tool he used to express his music, and that's where I think people get turned off. They see four strings and think 'bass line', not harmony and melody; the electric bass not a lead instrument in a lot of people's eyes. All the same, it's precisely because Jaco used the bass in a different way that you cannot compare a Jamerson line to a Jaco line - they weren't using the instrument for the same purpose. It's like saying you prefer Christian McBride on double bass to Gary Karr, simply because Karr is playing too many notes, isn't taking the backseat, isn't playing in the pocket. or something. Apples and oranges.
