Jaco Pastorius
Jaco Pastorius (born John Francis Pastorius III) was one of the most influential electric bass players in all times. He inspired a whole generation of bass players with his unique sound and an extremely good technique. He is most known for his work with fusion pioneers Weather Report and his own band Word of Mouth. He was killed in a bar fight 1987, and is an all-time legend amongst all serious bass-players. He was borned in Norristown, Pennsylvania on December 1, 1951, but the family moved to Fort Lauerdale, Florida when he was about 7 years old. He died September 21, 1987 after the injurys in the bar fight.
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Childhood
Jaco was one of three son's in the family of John Francis Pastorius II and Stephanie Haapala Pastorius. He had Finnish, German, Swedish, and Irish blood in his vains, even though there has been rumours of his afro-american ancestry. In school he was very fond of sports, especially basketball that also gave him his nickname. Jaco and his father used to watch basketball together, and by that time a player named Jocko Conlan was around. Some adopted this and started to call Jaco for "Jocko", which later on was changed to Jaco when a friend from France called him Jaco in a letter. Jaco dug the spelling, and used that instead after this.
Like his father he adopted music at an early age and similar to his father he played stand-up drums, but switched to electric bass at 15 when a foot injury stopped him from playing drums. It is no coincidence that he's outstanding rhytmic approach on the electric bass came from playing drums at an early age.
Another story tells that he actually was a drummer, but got booted by another drummer and the band needed a bass player, so therefore Jaco was switching to electric bass.
His early influences according to himself included James Jamerson, James Brown, The Beatles, Miles Davis, and Stravinsky. Favourite bass players included Jerry Jemmott, James Jamerson, Paul Chambers, Harvey Brooks and Tommy Cogbill. He stated in an interview that singers was his biggest influence - "they have the ability to get personal".
Early career
Jaco started to play with local bands and were jamming late night's with visiting rhythm & blues artist, and soon got a reputation as a "local hero". One of his first real bands was Las Olas Brass, which was a nine-piece brass band playing covers of Aretha Franklin, Wilson Picket, Otis Redding and James Brown.
Jaco was gigging a lot with Wayne Cochran and The C.C. Riders, which he also wrote music for. He was also appearing on local R & B / Jazz recordings with artists such as Ira Sullivan's Quintet and Woodchuck. he also met big-band leader Peter Graves and started to write arrangements for big bands, which later in his career was reflected by his own band "Word of Mouth".
When he was nineteen, his oldest daughter was born and he stated: "I started playing the bass because it was so easy, and then I had to go and make it hard for myself. When I was nineteen, my daughter was born, and I gave up music". That was actually not true, since he continueed to play nearly every night and actually made his living out of music.
Meeting the right people
In 1974 he met Pat Metheny, who was studying at the University of Florida. They became close friends and were jamming a lot together and discussing music late nights until the sunrise. At this time he also met drummer Bobby Colomby (Blood, Sweat & Tears) who was searching for new talents for CBS Records.
Weather Report with Joe Zawinul was playing in Miami, and as stated by Zawinul Jaco came backstage after a show, telling him "It was alright, but I've expected more". Jaco was never a man of small words, neither considered as shy but his friends reported that's the way he was - always telling what he actually thought.
One of the first "real" records Jaco made was with Paul Bley, Pat Metheny and Bruce Ditmas. He was also teaching at Frost School of Music.
When Pat Metheny got the opportunity to record his first album "Bright Size Life", he asked Jaco and drummer Bob Moses, to join him on the record. After this album, which was a breakthrough in the world of modern jazz and were highly acclaimed, Jacos stardom was grewing rapidly.
Weather Report and the golden years
After Pat Metheny moved from Florida, Jaco was invited to New York by Joe Zawinul to rehearse with Wether Report, one of the biggest so called Jazzrock bands at that time. Jaco and Pat Metheny always said that they hated the label "Jazzrock" since none of them liked to put a label on music. Ironically, both was/is considered as leaders of the genre.
Jaco was hired in Wether Report
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Related GMC Lessons
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See also
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