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Jaco: Bass players- sell me on this guy

Del_Duio

By Del_Duio,
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Del_Duio

Del_Duio

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Over the weekend I watched the Jaco Pastorius documentary and found it to be really cool. As a bassist myself for 24 years I of course have heard of the guy in passing along the way, but never really listened to his music until it was heavily featured in this thing.

 

So by all accounts this guy was the Babe Ruth of bass, and the doc was loaded with tons of reputable bass players including Geddy saying as much. But.. I don't know if it's just that I'm not into jazz music but was he as good as everybody says or was he just hugely influential like Eddie Van Halen was with guitar? Or Neil on drums for that matter. Most of what I heard sounded like the same sort of thing- technically impressive of course- but all fretless and harmonics on everything.

 

Not trying to troll, just curious to hear what other musicians might think about him here.

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EagleMoon
EagleMoon

Your first sentence is a bit puzzling. "Better" is a relative term. Jaco was an innovator. He was extremely talented and took the the bass from an instrument just being played for background support i

Xanadoood
Xanadoood

Well to be fair, Eddie influenced a lot of dopey bedroom shredder spandex wearing guys, whereas Jaco influenced guys who went to Berklee.

goose
goose

I love just about everything he plays, although I don"t dig all of the material that surrounds his playing. Like you say, he was very technical, but in addition to that he was remarkably creative and

stoopid

stoopid

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Youtube is long on examples of his playing, so obviously that's a good place to start.

 

He was good and very influential. You also need to put him in historical context. He opened many doors for the bass as a 'lead' instrument, and was of a select few bassists who were 'known'. Even now there's still many fewer bassists that music fans know by name versus, say drummers or especially guitarists.

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goose

goose

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I love just about everything he plays, although I don"t dig all of the material that surrounds his playing. Like you say, he was very technical, but in addition to that he was remarkably creative and achieved incredible things in regards to tone.

 

Jaco was an artist as much as a musician, and pushed the bounds of his instrument.

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1-0-0-1-0-0-1

1-0-0-1-0-0-1

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I love just about everything he plays, although I don"t dig all of the material that surrounds his playing. Like you say, he was very technical, but in addition to that he was remarkably creative and achieved incredible things in regards to tone.

 

Jaco was an artist as much as a musician, and pushed the bounds of his instrument.

 

This. And his work with harmonics was extremely influential.

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Mystic Slipperman

Mystic Slipperman

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It's safe to say that guys like Victor Wooten would be different were it not for Jaco. As said above, his playing style opened doors for bass playing in modern music.

 

He was very melodic (something I've always loved about him). Some of his Weather Report stuff and especially his playing with Joni Mitchell is amazing. But, he could get overly busy at times. I've loved his playing for many years, but nowadays I have to be in the right head space to really get into it.

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satchmothesnowdog

satchmothesnowdog

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He's a musician's musician. Never with a huge main stream.following, but every good musician and every fan of music likes or has heard of him. Sort of like George Clinton, you may not dig it, but you know and appreciate what he did to change music.Jaco changed bass playing in a way. A lot of guys did and now these meat whistles have just...arghhh. makes you want to.suck.start a glock sometimes.
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Del_Duio

Del_Duio

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So he's more revered in comparison to bass players today for being innovative over actually being say better than them?

You should've seen Flea on this thing. That guy was ready to grab a shovel and knee pads for Jaco. He loves this guy!

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EagleMoon

EagleMoon

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So he's more revered in comparison to bass players today for being innovative over actually being say better than them?

You should've seen Flea on this thing. That guy was ready to grab a shovel and knee pads for Jaco. He loves this guy!

 

Your first sentence is a bit puzzling. "Better" is a relative term. Jaco was an innovator. He was extremely talented and took the the bass from an instrument just being played for background support into the forefront of modern music. Bassists everywhere today have him to thank for that, over all genres. He was a talented showman as well as a musician. You don't have to love his music to appreciate the influence he had on pretty much every bassist today. Especially bassists who have made a name for themselves for their creative playing, like Geddy, Flea, Victor Wooten, Michael Manring...etc.

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pjbear05

pjbear05

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The local library had a copy of Punk Jazz-The Jaco Pastorius Anthology 2 CD set in its catalogue, so I checked it out. Burned a copy immediately after listening to it. A fantastic retrospective! Edited by pjbear05
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Tombstone Mountain

Tombstone Mountain

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Over the weekend I watched the Jaco Pastorius documentary and found it to be really cool. As a bassist myself for 24 years

 

First off, you're a bad-ass bass player. Love you tone and feel.

 

It's probably a genre, or era thing. Dude was waaay ahead of his time IMO.

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Del_Duio

Del_Duio

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Over the weekend I watched the Jaco Pastorius documentary and found it to be really cool. As a bassist myself for 24 years

 

First off, you're a bad-ass bass player. Love you tone and feel.

 

It's probably a genre, or era thing. Dude was waaay ahead of his time IMO.

 

Thanks, TM!

My plan is not to be innovative though- it's to be outovative. And let history do the rest haha.

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goose

goose

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Over the weekend I watched the Jaco Pastorius documentary and found it to be really cool. As a bassist myself for 24 years

 

First off, you're a bad-ass bass player. Love you tone and feel.

 

It's probably a genre, or era thing. Dude was waaay ahead of his time IMO.

 

Thanks, TM!

My plan is not to be innovative though- it's to be outovative. And let history do the rest haha.

"Out-ovative"! Love it! :clap:
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Maverick

Maverick

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If you don't dig the guy, you just don't dig him. No shame in that.

 

I'm a huge fan of Blues and Blues Rock, and Derek Trucks is totally lost on me. I've tried. While I find his technique to be impeccable, it just doesn't move me.

 

You may find, however, if you keep at listening to him, he will grow on you, and you will hear him differently. That's what happened to me with Hendrix. Yes, Jimi F*cking Hendrix.

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Blue J

Blue J

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I'm a huge fan of Blues and Blues Rock, and Derek Trucks is totally lost on me. I've tried. While I find his technique to be impeccable, it just doesn't move me.

 

:o

 

I'm shocked! Shocked and awed.

 

To each his own, though.

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Del_Duio

Del_Duio

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I listened to Crisis and I don't know how the hell his hand didn't fall off at the end.

That one sounded a lot different than the usual fretless sounds:

 

BaRWEEEEEEEEOOO

BaRWEEEEEEEEOOO

 

I did have a fretless once, back in... 1995 I think. I picked it up at a small music shop for $200. It was some charcoal gray Korean no-name job. Well, it DID have a name on it in white letters: "Lady Luck". It must've weighed 4 pounds, it was awesome haha.

 

BaRWEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOooooo *PiT-TWANG!!*

 

Uh oh, need me a new GUITAR string! Er, bass.

The sketch is too long, yes? You LIKE-A-THE-JUICE???

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Maverick

Maverick

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I read somewhere that Jaco is considered by many the Best Jazz Composer of the 2nd half of the 20th Century.....a genius .Worth listening to his music I guess. :notworthy:

 

He's definitely worth listening to, mos def!

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EagleMoon

EagleMoon

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If you watched the documentary they probably went over the things people are saying. What you need to do now is actually sit down and listen to an album or two. Hearing snippets of songs isn't the best way to get a feel for what a musician is all about.
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