Earlier in the same year that Jaco Pastorius joined Weather Report he recorded and released his first solo album, simply entitled "Jaco Pastorius". It was 1976 and Pastorius, virtually unheard of before - except in his home town of Fort Lauderdale Florida - suddenly became the jazz world's worst kept secret. Jaco was "discovered" by ex Blood Sweat 'n Tears drummer Bobby Colomby. The story goes that Colomby happened to be in a bar in Jaco's town and wound up chatting to Jaco's young wife Tracy who was working behind the bar. She proudly informed him how great her husband was and he decided to stay and listen to the band. He was blown away by what he heard that night and afterwards offered to secure and produce an album deal for Jaco with Epic Records.

The then twenty four year old Jaco moved to New York with Bobby for a while to live and worked in his home recording studio to produce what turned out to be one of the great albums of all time. Over the years since he had switched to bass from drums, and thru building his unique skills and technique on the fretless electric bass, complete with his own incredible "sound", Jaco already had a full repertoire of album worthy material. Bobby went about the task of bringing in a huge group of musicians who could do it justice, including Herbie Hancock on keyboards, Don Alias on percussion, Wayne Shorter on sax, Lenny White on drums, Sam & Dave on vocals and a whole host of others including a complete string section for which Pastorius scored some wonderful parts to accompany his own compositions. The resulting album stands as a classic. Every track is powerful in its own way and the masterful bass playing is as mesmerizing now as it was thirty years ago.

Shortly before this album was recorded, struggling to make ends meet with his young wife Tracy and their two young kids, Jaco went to a Weather Report concert and somehow managed meet Joe Zawinul afterwards. He handed him a cassette tape of his stuff (much of which appeared on that first Jaco album). "I'm the best bass player in the world" he pronounced which didn't exactly charm Zawinul by all accounts. However, on hearing the tape, Zawinul was impressed and gave Jaco the chance to join the recording sessions that resulted in the "Black Market" album. Jaco was about to explode on the world in a huge way (and bass players everywhere would be scratching their heads and saying "how does he do that???").

Finally the album cover - a black & white head / shoulders shot of a confident and sure Jaco looking back at you. I had always thought it was a tribute to Joe Zawinul, whose own debut solo album had a very similar cover shot, but apparently it was a Bobby Colomby idea to use the same design approach as found on the Simon and Garfunkel album "Bookends".

There's so much more I could write about this album and about Jaco himself, and the meteoric rise to fame followed by the tragic descent that his life took, but this series is about Weather Report (and I only have so much time!). I'll finish with a comment about his musicianship: what was so incredible about Jaco was that he had it all. Subtlety, tone, dynamics, dexterity, innovation, feel, harmony and passion. He was a complex person, often called "arrogant" and conceited, but if you put all of that to one side and just listen to the beauty in his playing you will appreciate what a special musician he was..

...I've chosen "Continuum" as the showcase track but this whole album is class from beginning to end. If you don't already own it, get the CD reissue with bonus tracks. Essential listening.

Enjoy

MM