Jaco never ceases to amaze me...

[MuRd0K]

Before I was a bassist, over a year ago, a lot of people were pimping their favorite bassists....

"You can't go wrong with Flea!"
"Paul McCartney's style is beatiful!"
"Have you listened to the Killers/Strokes bassist? He's so damn good!"

Until I heard...

"Nobody can touch Les Claypool"

So I listened to Primus. And I was blown away. His style was unique. I knew what slap was with him. I knew what a ERB bass was. I knew what a bass can do as a lead, when guitar is on the background.

Everybody kept praising him, and someone went to far as saying:

"Les Claypool is the best bassist in the world"

To which, they received a reply off

"Les Claypool is a great bassist, indeed, but he's not the best one. Go listen to Jaco Pastorius, he's often proclaimed as the god of bass"

So I went to listen to him. Continuum, Portrait of Tracy, Donna Lee, Blackbird. All of them were the first ones I heard...

Whoa! I was a guitarist before, and I had never heard something like that. Jaco made bass seem like such an amazing tool to create music, that I decided to drop the picks, and fingerstyle. I began practicing like crazy, I was already rehearsing Continuum on my acoustic guitar.

I got me a bass (Yamaha RBX170) and kept on practicing. A proffessor at my high school showed me Portrait of Tracy, and I couldn't believe what he was doing. "Those are what sounded on that song? Bass can do that? Wasn't it supposed to be the low-end?" I was godly. I began practicing Portrait of Tracy, and up to today, it is still my favorite bass piece.

A year and some months after, today, I finally decide to go and buy a Weather Report album. It was hit-or-miss. I love virtuosos, but bass in a band environment is miles better than in a solo one. And it's amazing! How the **** can he do a complicated technique like Pinch harmonics sound so good on Birdland? I had never listened to such a beatiful "groove" as the one in "A remark you made", and keep in mind I have listened to a lot of Stu Hamm, Michael Manring and Victor Wooten on this past year. "Teen Town"? Still working on it, it is so amazing that fret wankery can actually be catchy...

I'm blown away This is such a large post... but I'm really blown away by Jaco.

Have you ever had anyone influence you that much? Something that you didn't just said "Ok... it looks bigger and cooler, so I'll pick it up"? Was it Jaco?

Sorry about the long post, but after hearing "Heavey Weather" for the 10th time in this last 3 days, I had never listened to said beatiful stuff.

Next item in my wishlist: Pat Metheny's "Bright Size Life". The Jaco stuff I have heard there is godly.

[Chris K]

heh, Stuart Hamm and Rush blew me away, and continue to blow me away. Such diverse material, brilliant stuff. I wasn't as impressed with Jaco, but he's good yeah. I have to say that at the time, Stanley Clarke was making beter music imo, and has continued to do so. Also, Jonas Hellborg is worthy of mention in this thread, anyone who can make Little Wing sound better on bass than it does on guitar is a master.

I mean, how could anyone not love Jonas? :D

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a47/ChrisKemp/jonasedit.jpg

[albinoblacksheep]

It wasnt until i heard Joni Mitchells "Hejira" Album featuring Jacos Fretless, that I became utterly fond of Jacos playing. I suggest you listen to his Joni stuff, i think its essential if you really want to be exposed to some really great Jaco

[love_Doctorb]

I've always preferred Claypool, but Jaco does have his times, he always manages to hold a groove whilst being ridiculously technical, and the intro to Teen Town still puzzles me, but im getting there. :)

[Az_Holl]

When i inherited my bass i had no idea what it was or what it was meant to do or even what it sounded like. And the first song my Dad told me to listen to was David Lee Roth- Elephant Gun and half way through i hear this really cool solo and im like- OMG thats so aweome, so i found out the bassist name, which was Billy Sheehan and hes been continuing to amaze me ever since.

[katana_manatee]

Jaco was like the light coming on for me in my bass playing. Had I never been introduced to him I wouldn't be here studying bass in London.

My dad one day said to me, you wanna hear some reeeeealy good playing? All I was listening to at the time was punk and metal, this was about 2 and a bit years ago, and my dad puts on slang off of 8:30 and I was like, "That's bass?!?!"

A few weeks later I saw a transcription of Blackbird in Guitar World's Bass Guitar magazine and from there I started listening to more Jaco and playing more Jaco. He is my favourite bass player, he is just such an icon and wrote and played on some wonderful stuff.

I could YSI Bright Size Life for you if you want? Just email me at katana_manatee at hotmail dot com and I'll upload it and send you the link. Hopefully it will upload without crashing... I have about 17 albums with Jaco on. :p

[Riouken]

I'm not into Jaco a whole lot. But I am influenced by him through others and Portrait of Tracy and Teen Town continue to be fantastic pieces that I enjoy playing and listening too.

The "light" for me on bass, was really Victor Wooten.

[katana_manatee]

Wooten was my second light, he got me into a greater concept of solo bass pieces, but noone had the impact on me Jaco had when I first heard him, simply because I hadn't listened to anything of the sort before. If I heard Wooten first it would be different.

[Chameleon]

For me it was Wooten...i'd seen bits and pieces of 'choppy' things and in a way that's why I HATE this forum sometimes. The first things I saw here were people going "OMGZ WOOTENZ NU CLIPZICLE" and it was a slapped chop fest, which was impressive and cool...

But (as a drummer) I then bought the Drummers Collective (bass day 2000 or 2002, can' tremember) DVD with Wooten's solo set. He opened with the jam that became Ari's Eyes and it was beautiful...absolutely stunning playing. That was the first 'representative' stuff of Wootens I saw and it was stunning.

Jaco was good and did a lot of amazing things, but I don't "like" him that much. Some of his stuff is really good, but a lot of it is naff for me.

[the101er]

Songs like "Come On, Come Over" make me wanna dance

[BassPlayingPineapple]

Stu Hamm? Wankery? Go listen to Love Thing, Flow my Tears, linus and lucy and many others. :p

[the101er]

Stu Hamm? Wankery? Go listen to Love Thing, Flow my Tears, linus and lucy and many others. :p


...

:upset:

I got names mixed up, I meant Sheehan

[Linkinbassist]

I heard 'slang' by jaco Pastorius, and that solo hooked me forever. It sent shivers up my spine with the use of the distortion, and it was just so milky...

[Radiobass81]

He was a big influence early on, but not so much now.

[Naveed Afzal]

Barbary Coast, Cannonball, and Mercy, Mercy, Mercy, are in my opinion the greatest tunes Jacos ever done.

[BassPlayingPineapple]

...

:upset:

I got names mixed up, I meant Sheehan

Ah, that explains it. Had me worried there :lol:

[Sade]

Jaco bores me to the brink of death.

[BassPlayingPineapple]

Sade never ceaes to amaze me... :lol:

[trumpeter]

Good story

[TheBassman238]

I'll sya Yeah, Jaco was a genious and a AWSOME bassist, but i prefore the more inovative part of bass and a totally original approch to bass, thats there Wooten Claypool and Hamm appeal to me more. I mean Pastorious has harmonics(the reason i got big into them) but other then that he is pretty normal. but dont get me wrong he was genious.

-TBM

[Chameleon]

^ he invented fretless bass.

[BassPlayingPineapple]

invented? Pioneered maybe, but i am pretty sure he did not invent fretless bass. I may be wrong of course..

[Akira]

^ he invented fretless bass.
Um, no he didn't? I think the fretless bass guitar came before the fretted bass guitar. Even if it didn't, I know Jaco did not invent the fretless bass.



Right now I am tryign to learn his version of Blackbird. Awesome song.

[TheBassman238]

^ he invented fretless bass.

Eh... I was aware of that but I concider the Stand Up the 1st fretless... And he didnt go anywhere that thoughs guys didnt. But he was the 1st to master it as a eletric. Ill give him that deffinatly.

-TBM

[sixner]

Jaco bores me to the brink of death.
Im kinda with sade on this one.. I think jaco is an amazing bassist, but i just get bored listening to it...

Im not real influenced by solo bassists in general... I think they're really amazing, but it gets boring after a while (just in general).. It'd be cool to be able to play all that stuff.. but, i'd much rather make it as a bassist in a rock band.. And learning to double thumb, well... i just dont see that going on behind a guitar solo.. maybe it's just me, but... meh.

Manring has been probably my favorite and most inspirational though, among solo'ists

-sixner

[Chameleon]

Edited for truth.

[katana_manatee]

Jaco was a pioneer of the style of fretless bass he played, using strong vibrato and that fretless sound a lot of players these days have.

Ampeg actually made a fretless bass at the end of the fifties with a very double bass like tone. Believe it or not, Bill Wyman used a fretless on the first few Rolling Stone's albums. A fretless P-Bass but he didn't use any vibrato or slides.

Basically Jaco popularised the electric bass and went deeper into it than anyone else had at the time.

[Chameleon]

Eh... I was aware of that but I concider the Stand Up the 1st fretless... And he didnt go anywhere that thoughs guys didnt. But he was the 1st to master it as a eletric. Ill give him that deffinatly.

-TBM

Of course he did. The very first solo bass track to be recorded - EVER - was a transcription of a horn part on a fretless bass.

It hadn't been done before...that sort of thing wouldn't even work on an upright.

[Naveed Afzal]

Jaco did not invent fretless bass.

[katana_manatee]

Bah, it won't let me edit my post, I meant to say he popularised the electric fretless bass.

[ak50324]

Double bass=fretless

They changing the it to fretted since no one wanted to carry around a giant double bass with them...so they turned it into a "guitar" and added frets.....

[Pastorius]

My greatest influence was, and is, Symphony X.

Michael Romeo is my favourite composer ever. Sorry for bringing a filthy guitarist into the bass forum, but The Odyssey was really a mind**** when I heard it for the first time in it's entirety.

[PERFECTXDARK]

The first music I listened to was punk and metal,then my dad gave me some of his soul c.ds/tapes and I got really into the bass playing in that,then I heard stuff like jaco,rush,dream theater,primus,pino palladino,r.h.c.p,a.a.f,and got really into stuff like that and learned to slap,pop,tap etc of off stuff like that.

[GeddyMe]

Paul McCartney got me really into bass but I say Geddy Lee is my biggest influence.

[Visti]

Jaco solo never interested me much. Neither did Weather Report, actually..

But his work with Joni Mitchell is just pure taste.

[MuRd0K]

Jaco didn't invented it. I know that. But nobody was doing fretless bass the way Jaco was. He was the pioneer.

And I understand what you say about some Jaco things boring you. As I said, the best material I have heard from him is in a band environment, and his solo album can be a bit.... meh.

[katana_manatee]

Murdok, I need to do each song seperately so I'll be mailing you a bunch of links for each song.

[kilian]

I never listen to any solo bass except for some Coffee, Sheephead and sometimes a bit of Jaco. I heard Wooten's Classical Thump and thought: nice intro. But later on I thought: wankery. Seriously, it doesn't amaze me anymore because it's too damn fast and doesn't sound right to me.

Sooo my biggest influences are still: Flea, Freeman and other random bassists which I like.

I'm a bassist for a band, not a soloplayer.

[mastrrbasser]

Im kinda with sade on this one.. I think jaco is an amazing bassist, but i just get bored listening to it...

Im not real influenced by solo bassists in general... I think they're really amazing, but it gets boring after a while (just in general).. It'd be cool to be able to play all that stuff.. but, i'd much rather make it as a bassist in a rock band.. And learning to double thumb, well... i just dont see that going on behind a guitar solo.. maybe it's just me, but... meh.

Manring has been probably my favorite and most inspirational though, among solo'ists

-sixner

jaco isn't really a solo bassist. He has solo songs, but his grooves are rock solid in a band situation.

[Son of Magni]

Well, the thing with Victor is that he's great at what he does, but he doesn't often show that he can be versatile. I mean I think he can walk a mean line, but he almost never does it. He just wants to slap like a MF. And it doesn't take too long before it gets old.

Jaco, on the other hand, while he gets (got) roped into doing lots of solos, that aren't always all that inspired, his back-up bass playing is just totally amazing. And it doesn't matter if it's a ballad, a funk tune, walking jazz, or anything else. His musicianship was just supurb. Plus his writing and arranging skills were unquestionably top notch.

Between the Weather Report, Joni, Live in NY, and solo albums, there is so much diverse and impecable bass playing. I think he deserves the "Greatest Bass Player" self proclaimed title :smoke:

[MuRd0K]

Murdok, I need to do each song seperately so I'll be mailing you a bunch of links for each song.

:thumb:

Well, the thing with Victor is that he's great at what he does, but he doesn't often show that he can be versatile. I mean I think he can walk a mean line, but he almost never does it. He just wants to slap like a MF. And it doesn't take too long before it gets old.

Jaco, on the other hand, while he gets (got) roped into doing lots of solos, that aren't always all that inspired, his back-up bass playing is just totally amazing. And it doesn't matter if it's a ballad, a funk tune, walking jazz, or anything else. His musicianship was just supurb. Plus his writing and arranging skills were unquestionably top notch.

Between the Weather Report, Joni, Live in NY, and solo albums, there is so much diverse and impecable bass playing. I think he deserves the "Greatest Bass Player" self proclaimed title :smoke:

123 all the way.

Victor Wooten wowed the hell out of me too. The moments before I was a bassist, I learned about Wooten, and he impressed me quite a lot. But there was something lacking. I have heard Bela Fleck's albums, but he has not inspired me as much as he Jaco did. His solo albums aren't my piece of cake. If I wanted fret wankery, I would have remained a guitarist.

[BassVirtuoso]

http://jacop.net/images/jaco_jonas4.jpg

Jonas Hellborg and Jaco Pastorius

Bass players aren't famous for their looks I guess :upset:

[Chris K]

His solo albums aren't my piece of cake. If I wanted fret wankery, I would have remained a guitarist.

he has one solo album that you could say has "wanking" in it.

The rest are pretty damn musical. I find it a shame that this "wanking" puts people off, they hear the fast playing, the intimidation sets in, they feign lack of interest...a great shame.

[katana_manatee]

Just two more files to upload and then I'll mail the links to the songs.

[katana_manatee]

One more...

[Son of Magni]

Regarding Jaco...
Thing that is really most impressive is that he could play things that from a bass player's perspective were just delightful to listen to. And I could listen to over and over and only hear his playing. But at the same time, it would not detract from the tune, or from the other musicians, or from the lyrics. Listening to Joni's albums you will hear this, she gave him lots of freedom and he used it so tastfully, sounding amazing, but not detracting from the whole of the band!!!

[Chris K]

http://www.stanleyclarke.com/scrapbook/photogal/graham_clarke2.jpg
http://www.markbass.it/gallery/foto_23.jpg
http://www.markbass.it/gallery/foto_33.jpg
http://www.markbass.it/gallery/foto_24.jpg

Jonas AND Stuart hamm? Score!

Jeff Berlin...alright, as long as he keeps his opinions to himself and puts up a security barrier to keep the angry TB'ers away...

[BassVirtuoso]

Jeff Berlin wants to know who took his stapler.

[Moon Flavor]

I agree with Sade's post.

[Chris K]

Jeff Berlin wants to know who took his stapler.

he has that "oh dear, I'm being shown up!" look about him.

nah, he's alright, but I know he's had a lot of trouble in the past and damaged his fanbase because of it.

[katana_manatee]

Here is bright size life:

hxxp://s54.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1JO6061VHHRMD35NIMDS5058WF

hxxp://s54.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2O1XYVNDGB9ED34MXWSFZ5HF2M

hxxp://s54.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=23AWTEY25U17U3MID3JQ5QVSBF

hxxp://s54.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0A7S2SVAYNPTF2XBXODFNIOFTY

hxxp://s54.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1RFIOT43RENA20ZJJS7Y65QHYJ

hxxp://s54.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=11KCQUREOOVLI12ZNZO2GBSCYB

hxxp://s54.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=274VG9ZS6YRHL3K1ULX7MTT0RL

hxxp://s54.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2O2EFZIF89POY31RIRZ1962JR6

[kilian]

Jonas Hellborg and Jaco Pastorius

Bass players aren't famous for their looks I guess :upset:
JEEEEEEEEEZ :amaze:

I think that counts the most for solo bass players :p

[Luchesi]

I wasn't as impressed with Jaco, but he's good yeah. I have to say that at the time, Stanley Clarke was making beter music imo, and has continued to do so.



123. Not only was Stanley Clarke a major influence on me, but his guitarist in Return To Forever, Al Di Meola. The two of them had such an astounding playing chemistry in songs like "Duel of the Jester and the Tyrant". In fact, Al Di Meola's solo in that song was the first guitar solo I learned on bass. Amazing stuff.

[Son of Magni]

...Stanley Clarke was making beter music imo, and has continued to do so...
Alas, Jaco did not have the chance...

[FenderSRX]

Double bass=fretless

They changing the it to fretted since no one wanted to carry around a giant double bass with them...so they turned it into a "guitar" and added frets.....
your post doesnt make sense, but no a fretless isnt a smaller version of the upright, upright bass is so much different, if you ever you played one you'd probably see what I mean.

[godzillarator]

Well, the thing with Victor is that he's great at what he does, but he doesn't often show that he can be versatile. I mean I think he can walk a mean line, but he almost never does it. He just wants to slap like a MF. And it doesn't take too long before it gets old.

Jaco, on the other hand, while he gets (got) roped into doing lots of solos, that aren't always all that inspired, his back-up bass playing is just totally amazing. And it doesn't matter if it's a ballad, a funk tune, walking jazz, or anything else. His musicianship was just supurb. Plus his writing and arranging skills were unquestionably top notch.

Between the Weather Report, Joni, Live in NY, and solo albums, there is so much diverse and impecable bass playing. I think he deserves the "Greatest Bass Player" self proclaimed title :smoke:

I dont think you have ever been to see a Wooten show before

It has so much grove its not even funny

And he doesnt just slap the hole time he plays just as groovy as Jaco ever did on any of his songs that wernt all bass

[Sade]

Jonas Hellborg looks like he has down syndrome.

[Naveed Afzal]

why do people hate on berlin? because he's against tapping, slapping and all that jazz?

[fingerstyle]

I'm half and half with Jaco. The idea behind what he was doing is great, and something every self resepcting bass player since should think about. But often, he seemed to indulge in his own playing, which leads invariably to the listener and audience feeling abit alienated. I really only listen to Donna Lee, Amerika, Teen Town and his Weather Report stuff because I simply like it more than the other stuff. I'd like to hear some of the stuff with Pat Metheny, that guy is a genius.

As for Victor Wooten, his skill IS amazing, but there does tend to be a lot of 'wankery' in his work, IMO. It fun to listen to and watch a few times though.

I think that Marcus Miller has done an excellent job of bringing the elctric bass into the realm of lead playing. The album Silver Rain is an excellent disaply of his mastery of the instrument and the way it can be used to lead a song and group, but doesn't overstep the line into wankery, much.

No one single player has really influenced me heaps, its more like a group of players with a similar approach to music has inspired me to follow them. I don't neccessarilly want to play like Jaco or Miller or Wooten, but the idea of bass stepping out of its traditional role in music is something I agree with.

[irishslappop]

well put^

[Mailman]

Jaco had **** tone. Wooten is a mad c*nt though, just listening to him speak. I'll take him over that free jazz, washed up rummy Jaco anyday.

However, I'd rather listen to Battlestar Scralatchtica than Classical Thump.