But don’t get turned off by the seemingly complex material. Music is not math. Music is not friggin’ calculus. Music is philosophy. It’s not about notes at all, as Joe Zawinul once said. The Weather Report leader stressed, "So many people play so good but they still cannot tell stories."
Well, Jaco is a storyteller. Here are 10 of Jaco Pastorius’ essential stories.
1. JACO PASTORIUS — Jaco Pastorius
The album that started it all. Contains Continuum, Opus Pocus Okonkolé Y Trompa, and Jaco’s deconstruction of a Charlie Parker standard Donna Lee. Listen to Portrait of Tracy, Jaco’s harmonics showcase. It’s like hearing strange, otherworldly bells serenading a woman named Tracy.
2. HEAVY WEATHER — Weather Report
Jaco played on the album prior to this, "Black Market," but it was "Heavy Weather" that turned the esoteric jazz group into a monolithic jazz-rock ensemble on the strength of the crossover hit, Birdland. Features Teen Town, Jaco’s blistering bass rampage, A Remark You Made, the bassist’s most lyrical fretless work, and Havona, with its seemingly orchestrated solo.
3. Hejira — Joni Mitchell
Jaco’s first collaboration with Mitchell yielded four smoky, folk-jazz tunes – Coyote, Black Crow, Hejira and Refuge of the Roads. Jaco’s bass sings, laughs, cries, and melts even old solid hearts. The bassist even quotes composer Igor Stravinsky in Refuge. Jaco would go on to play with Joni on "Mingus," "Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter" and "Shadows and Light." Really essential.
4. Bright Size Life — Pat Metheny
Evokes cornfields and orange afternoons with atmospheric guitars, rumbling percussions and meandering basslines. Incidentally, Pat Metheny’s debut album was also released in ’76, same as Jaco’s. Contains Sirabhorn, Unquity Road and free jazzman Ornette Coleman’s Round Trip/Broadway Blues, a quirky, upbeat jazz number.
5. Shadows and Light — Joni Mitchell
The live Joni Mitchell with stellar musicians like Metheny, saxophonist Michael Brecker, keyboardist Lyle Mays, percussionist Don Alias and, of course, Jaco. Never have I heard the bass played as effortlessly, as poignantly and as funky as Jaco does in Edith and the Kingpin, In France They Kiss On Main Street, Free Man in Paris and The Dry Cleaner From Des Moines, among other cuts.
6. 8:30 — Weather Report
The live album from the jazz ensemble fueled by the philosophy "We never solo – we always solo." Weather Report recorded "8:30" as a quartet (Joe Zawinul, Wayne Shorter, drummer Peter Erskine and Jaco) and yet it sounds like a whole goddamn orchestra. Features Jaco’s bass solo Slang and scorching cuts like Teen Town and Black Market where Jaco quotes Jimi Hendrix’s Third Stone from the Sun.
7. Curtain Call — Jaco Pastorius
Post-Weather Report Jaco purveys a legendary performance with Brian Melvin and Jon Davis. The trio does great covers of Hancock’s Speak Like A Child and Miles Davis’ So What. Jaco whips out a bass solo medley where he quotes everything from the Beatles (Blackbird) to Julie Andrews (The Sound of Music).
8. Live in New York Vol. 2 — Jaco Pastorius
Jaco is best heard live and in a trio setting. Here in the "Live in New York" series, Pastorius is complemented well by guitarist Hiram Bullock and drummer Kenwood Dennard. Excellent chemistry. Nasty covers from I Shot the Sheriff (Bob Marley) to Wipe Out (Beach Boys) to Dear Prudence (the Beatles). No one can purvey grooves and fills like Jaco, absolutely no one. You might like to check out the other installations of "Live in New York," especially the volume where Pastorius covers Hendrix’s Purple Haze and Buddy Miles’ Them Changes.
9. Night Passage — Weather Report
Weather Report returns to introspection with this one. Jaco contributes one of his finest compositions, the dirge-like Three Views of a Secret.
10. The Birthday Concert — Jaco Pastorius
Jaco is featured on a gig on his 30th birthday, fronting the Word of Mouth big band. This platter contains the most inspired renditions of Continuum and Amerika I have ever heard.
– Igan D’Bayan