I've seen many more than one tribute today for Jaco Pastorius on the 25th anniversary of his death, and I've paused to grasp how much I appreciate his innovations on the bass, if mainly through all the bassists he's influenced.
I stopped listening to Weather Report around the time he joined the group. Then I started to rehabilitate those Mysterious Travelers when Richard Bruton showed me copied videos of performances with Jaco. He was an astonishing force, another horn in the band, florid in style, as a foil to the often terse and cryptic Shorter.
For more than 10 years, I have owned "Weather Report: Live and Unreleased," with great Jaco presence throughout. It's the only Weather Report album I ever go to anymore.
"Portrait of Tracy" has the most astonishing shredding mixed with spontaneous composing of bits you could extract to make additional tunes.
But the track that stays in my mind is "River People," with two implacable lines playing out side by side, Jaco's bassline and Shorter's mini-melody arguing with each other by reiterating what they already said. The tune pops into my head more often than I have realized until now.
1 comment:
As a bass player, I have really mixed feelings about Jaco. He was a genius, but I can't help feeling he chose the wrong instrument--though I can't figure out what else he might have played (maybe baritone guitar). When I listen to his records (which I admit I haven't in a while), I tend to think "that's great--too bad there's nobody actually playing bass." It would have been really cool to have Jaco and Bootsie jamming.
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