Jaco Pastorius; Birth name: John Francis Pastorius III; Born: December 1, 1951, Norristown, Pennsylvania, United States; Died: September 21, 1987 (aged 35); Genre(s): Jazz fusion, Funk; songwriter, played on the bass (Fender Jazz Bass), drums, piano, saxophone; Years active: 1964 – 1987

John Francis Anthony “Jaco” Pastorius III (1951–1987) was an American musician and songwriter widely acknowledged for his virtuosity of the fretless bass, as well as his command of varied musical styles and his many compositions. His playing style was noteworthy for containing “dazzling solos in the higher register” and “fluid machine-gun-like passages that demanded attention,” often featuring his instrument in lead rather than rhythm section. His unique innovations also included the use of harmonics and the “singing” quality of his melodies. In 2006, Pastorius was voted “The Greatest Bass Player Who Has Ever Lived” by reader submissions in Bass Guitar Magazine.

Apart from his career in the influential jazz fusion band Weather Report, he had two Grammy Award nominations for his self-titled debut album. He was inducted into Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame in 1988, one of only four bassists to be so honored beside Charles Mingus, Milt Hinton, and Ray Brown and the only electric bassist to garner the distinction. Later in life, Pastorius suffered from mental health problems and substance abuse, both of which contributed to his death.


Jaco was born in Norristown to John Francis Pastorius II and Stephanie Katherine Haapala Pastorius, the first of their three children. Consequently, Pastorius was of Finnish, German, Swedish, and Irish ancestry. Shortly after his birth, his family moved to Fort Lauderdale. Pastorius went to elementary and middle school at St. Clement's Catholic School in Wilton Manors, and he was an altar boy at the adjoining church. In his years at St. Clement's, the art he was most known for was drawing.

Inspired by the arrival of the Beatles in the United States in 1964, Pastorius formed his first band named The Sonics along with John Caputo and Dean Noel. He went to high school at Northeast High in Oakland Park. He was a talented athlete with skills in football, basketball, and baseball, and he picked up music at an early age. He took the name “Anthony” at his confirmation.

He loved basketball, and often watched basketball with his father. Pastorius' nickname was influenced by his love of sports and also by the umpire Jocko Conlan. He changed the spelling from “Jocko” to “Jaco” after the pianist Alex Darqui sent him a note. Darqui, who was French, assumed the name was spelled “Jaco”; “Jaco” liked the new spelling. Jaco had a second nickname, given to him by his older brother Gregory: “Mowgli,” after the wild young boy in Rudyard Kipling's classic The Jungle Book. Gregory gave him the nickname in reference to Jaco's seemingly endless energy as a child. Jaco would later establish his music publishing company as Mowgli Music.

Pastorius started his musical career as a drummer (following in the footsteps of his father Jack, a stand-up drummer) but when he was 13, he injured his wrist while playing football . . .


Musical influences included James Jamerson, James Brown, The Beatles, Miles Davis, and Stravinsky.[citation needed] Other musical influences include: Jimi Hendrix, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Paul Hindemith, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, The Band, Santana, Frank Zappa, Bob Marley, Tommy Cogbill, Ray Charles, Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, Otis Redding, James T. Doggington, Cannonball Adderley and Jerry Jemmott. According to Bill Milkowski's biography “Jaco: The extraordinary and tragic life of Jaco Pastorius” he was also heavily influenced by Johann Sebastian Bach. His bass solo “Chromatic Fantasy” is taken from Bach's work.[9]


Pastorius was most identified by his use of two well-worn Fender Jazz Basses from the early 1960s: A 1960 Fretted, and a 1962 Fretless. The fretless was originally a fretted bass (as fretless versions were not yet being manufactured by Fender at the time) from which he removed the frets and used wood filler to fill in the grooves where the frets had been, along with the holes created where chunks of the fretboard had been taken out. Jaco then sanded down the fingerboard, and applied several coats of marine epoxy (Petit's Poly-poxy) to prevent the rough Rotosound RS-66 roundwound bass strings he used from eating into the bare wood. Even though he played both the fretted and the fretless basses frequently, he preferred the fretless, because he felt frets were a hindrance, once calling them “speed bumps.”


In the early to mid-1980s, Pastorius began to experience increasingly prevalent mental health problems, including symptoms of bipolar disorder. These were worsened by heavy drug and alcohol use and he was eventually diagnosed as being manic depressive. Although his on-stage and off-stage antics were already well-documented, his mental health and addiction problems exacerbated his unusual and often bizarre behavior and his musical performances suffered.
. . .
Jaco is buried at Our Lady Queen of Heaven Cemetery in North Lauderdale.


In 1995, jazz author Bill Milkowski published “Jaco: The Extraordinary And Tragic Life of Jaco Pastorius. 'The World's Greatest Bass Player'.” The book was filled with interviews with leading jazz musicians, music executives and Jaco's brother, but Milkowski's first-hand experiences with Jaco were toward the end of his life, when he had deteriorated badly. Jaco's second wife Ingrid has taken issue with many of the claims made in the book, stating that they either did not happen or happened very differently.[1] Guitarist Pat Metheny, with whom Pastorius work on several albums, leveled his own criticism in the liner notes of the reissue of Jaco's first album, calling it “a horribly inaccurate, botched biography.” When the softcover edition of “Jaco” was published, one correction was made concerning an incident supposedly involving Jaco's daughter Mary, but the rest remains unchanged.


Note: Many of the mid-'80s Jaco performances were released in the '90s and this decade as “bootlegs” - meaning illegitimately, usually overseas (Japan, Germany), and without regard for Jaco's family or other musicians performing. Some are haphazard musical performances, and some are poorly recorded. Some offer fresh material, but some are simply re-hashed mid-'80s renditions of the same songs. Please read the discography section in Milkowski's “Jaco” book for important thoughts on this . . .

Tough and real Jaco discography page:
http://www.threeviews.com/jacodiscography.html

“The official web site of the world's greatest bass player”:
http://www.jacopastorius.com/

Further reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaco_Pastorius

Another source on this forum:
Jaco Pastorius - MP3


JACO PASTORIUS - INVITATION (LIVE IN JAPAN) (1982)



CDDA quality / WAV (APE, normal) / CBR 1411 kb/s / 44100 Hz / 16 bit stereo

Track listing
1. "Invitation"
2. "Amerika"
3. "Soul Intro & The Chicken"
4. "Continuum"
5. "Liberty City"
6. "Sophisticated Lady"
7. "Reza & Giant Steps & Reza (reprise)"
8. "Fannie Mae"
9. "Eleven"

Download:
[ Скрытый текст ]
Enjoy! ~ /|\ ~ ~ /|\ ~