By the end of his career Jaco Pastorius's feel and instinct for the music was to the point where he was capable of doing things other musicians wouldn't even dream of trying. Playing an instrument normally associated with keeping the rhythm and nothing else, he was able to innovate and accomplish more in nine years of recordings then many so called lead players did in careers three times as long.
In this era of mega basses that can break a sternum at twenty paces it seems like nobody remembers that a bass can be subtle instrument; an instrument of delicate harmony and precision that doesn't have to be loud to be effective. Listening to half the music produced today it's as if the work Jaco accomplished exists in a vacuum, and nobody outside of that bubble heard anything he did. Perhaps it's just a matter of the rest of the world still being so far behind him that they have yet to catch up to where he was when he left us.
There is a wonderful booklet that accompanies the two discs with a great appreciation and history of Jaco's music written by his biographer Bill Milkowski. There are full credits for each song, right down to who is playing second violin in the string section. But the part I liked the most was a forward written by Carlos Santana, and I'm going to give him the last word.
I can say without hesitation that Jaco changed the music world that we live in, and he changed it for the better. Is there any better or more significant legacy a musician could hope for than that? Carlos Santana
Article comments
1 - Pico
Very well done, Richard.