Weather Report Weekend #15 – A Change In The Weather Is Coming (Jaco part 1)
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Just as Weather Report were cementing their worldwide reputation as one of the premier influences on the modern jazz fusion scene (winning the Downbeat "best jazz album" award of the year with "Tale Spinnin'"), a young bass guitarist out of Florida was beginning his ascent to greatness - and he already has his sights firmly set on playing with Weather Report even before they knew about him.
Weather Report were about to evolve, yet again, but this time with a third compositional and instrumental presence that would push them beyond the bounds of being mere "jazz giants" into the musical consciousness of a much broader audience. This presence was Jaco Pastorius, a once in a lifetime musical phenomenon who single handedly changed the face of "planet bass".
Jaco was originally a drummer growing up in high school, but suffered a wrist injury while playing football and had to find another instrument to play. Somehow or other he found that could play string bass (who knows, the injury may even have given him some additional flexibility with which to address the bass neck). Legend has it that, when his first upright bass "collapsed" into matchstick pieces in the humid Florida climate, he urgently needed a cheap solution to replace it. Unable to afford a new upright bass he took his existing Fender Jazz electric bass and removed the frets (so that he could retain the jazzy sound of the double bass with its fretless fingerboard), filling the gaps with wood putty (though this may not be completely accurate, as other stories suggest he bought a cheap Fender Jazz that had already had the frets removed). Either way, because of his unique style and ability a revolutionary new sound was born, and articulated in genius fashion during the course of the next decade.
In 1974 Jaco exploded seemingly out of nowhere to start his meteoric rise in the music world. Early in '75 he appeared with another young jazz protégé, guitarist Pat Metheny, as part of the trio that recorded Metheny's first solo album "Bright Size Life". This weekend's post features the closing track from that album, the medley "Round Trip / Broadway Blues". Already Jaco was displaying supreme genius on his fretless precision bass, and blending with beautiful musical sensibility. This was a gem of a debut album by Pat Metheny, made all the more so by the incredible talent and unique sound that was Jaco Pastorius.
Enjoy.
MM
Comments (4)
Fender Precision vs Fender Jazz - a quick footnote, 'cause it's kind of important ;-)
Jaco was famous in no small part for the unique sound he got out of an electric bass. That sound came from a Fender "Jazz" bass. The Jazz model was distinct from a Fender Precision in that it had two pickups as compared to the Precision's one split pickup in the middle. One pickup was very close to the bridge and that was the one Jaco used mostly - with the tone control dialed right back.
However, to confuse things, it seems that Jaco's first Fender electric bass purchases were Precisions which subsequently he would modify, combining Fender Jazz bodies with Precision necks.
More Precision vs Jazz...
Just spent a happy half hour scanning a wealth of Jaco interviews and I'm now convinced the Precision thing is wrong :-). He's pretty clear in saying he bought a '62 Jazz and took the frets out himself. He also had a '60 jazz with the frets left in. Main post edited accordingly.
MM
First time I heard Jaco was on Joni Mitchell's "Hejira" album. What a sound! Then I saw a show on PBS about (of all things) eggs - and the soundtrack was "Birdland". I freaked at that bass sound, like most of us at the time. I tried for about 2 months to find out who dod the damn soundtrack! That was the first time I heard Weather Report.
Nice intro to the J.Y. - looking forward to how you're going to navigate thru so much music, with each record representing a significant evolution...
Cool!
Weird. "Birdland" was the first time I ever heard them also. When you start digging into the Jaco stuff there's just a ton of things I want to write about...but I'm thinking of saving most of it for a future series and limiting the follow on posts to his amazing solo debut album & maybe one Joni example. Everyone says how bad the Bill Makowski biography of Jaco is. I might just take on the task of creating an alternative "Mogography" at some point :-)
Thanks for continuing to read & listen! Appreciated.
MM