And when on those rare occasions greats come together, each in their prime, something magical happens. He made other players better players by his presence. Like all greats, he raised the bar – both of the possibilities of the instrument, but also of the music itself and those that played with him. There isn’t a point at which the man stops and his instrument begins. They don’t just put it on and take it off. That is one way the truly great ones emerge from a crowd of excellent peers. It is a matter of hearing him speak to us and tell us his story in every note and every gesture that emanates from the instrument that became a part of him.
– Pat MethenyĪs with all really great artists though, getting to know him is really a matter of getting know his art. Everywhere you go, sometimes it seems like a dozen times a day, in the most unlikely places you hear Jaco’s sound from the latest TV commercial to bass players of all stripes copping his licks on recordings of all styles, from news broadcasts to famous rock and roll bands, from hip hop samples to personal tribute records, you hear the echoes of that unmistakable sound everywhere. Jaco Pastorius may well have been the last jazz musician of the 20th century to have made a major impact on the musical world at large. (And, in case you don’t know who that is-he’s really important.)įrom the liner notes for the reissue of Jaco’s debut album:
What I can write about Jaco is really something that, well, was written by the great Pat Metheny. Even his biography is considered a sham by some, and I’m not sure that that accusation is all that accurate, either. So, it’s hard to say what can really be said about him. The words that describe his life form a perfect stereotype of “artist”: genius, friend, husband, alcohol, drugs, anger, bipolar, human, loving son, early death.There swirl around his greatness many stories of dubious authenticity. I think you’ll still hang with the analogy.)
I’ve never even been to L.A.The 405 is in L.A., right? Well, whatever. (Actually, I have no idea if the 405 has potholes or not. And not just because his wiki entry has more potholes than the 405. Yet, it’s impossible for me to summarize here the complex and tragic life that was Jaco’s. So much could – and deserves – to be said about this complicated man, this artist. He played with Joni Mitchell, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, David Sanborn he was a pioneer of electric bass playing. He played like no other had played before him. I don’t know many musicians, if any, who do not recall with jaw-slacking stupor the first time they heard Jaco Pastorius play his Fender Jazz Bass (which he painstakingly customized by removing its frets, wood-filling the subsequent gashes, and applying coat upon coat of epoxy).
0 kommentar(er)
