By Glenn Astarita

Where were you, the first time you heard Jaco’s solo bass performance of Charlie Parker’s bop classic, “Donna Lee”? Jaco Pastorius’ first solo record and celebrated stint with the groundbreaking fusion band Weather Report rapidly elevated him to near superstar status as his stature rose well beyond the classification of being the new-kid-on-the-block.........Pastorius reinvented the electric bass, period! Harmonically, chromatically, compositionally or whichever way you look at it, Pastorius’ musical gifts are well documented while meeting an untimely and altogether tragic death at the hands of a bouncer in his home State of Florida.

During the mid 80’s Pastorius befriended folks at Jazzpoint records which included the then young wunderkind Gypsy guitarist, Bireli Lagrene. At the time, Lagrene was an inspiring young guitarist profoundly influenced by the great Gypsy guitarist and jazz pioneer, Django Reinhart. On these three 2-Disc sets, we are treated to Lagrene and Pastorius letting their hair down and performing in raucous style whether in the studio or on tour. Lagrene, previously known for his prodigious talents as a young mainstream jazz stylist demonstrates his equally adept faculties as a roaring electric guitarist. With a seemingly limited repertoire under their belts during these studio sessions or live dates, they seldom failed to generate excitement mainly within the Trio setting or Jaco’s masterful solo bass performances.

Producer and estimable bassist, Jan Jankeje was one of several who befriended Jaco while also performing synth bass on the 1986 studio date titled Stuttgart Aria which has been packaged in 2 CDs as Heavy’n Jazz & Stuttgart Aria. Heavy’n Jazz was recorded live in Rome, Italy featuring drummer Serge Bringhof supporting Pastorius & Lagrene during this 1986 tour. Here, Lagrene vividly demonstrates how he can probably blow most rock guitarists off the planet, with blazing and often gut-wrenching hard edged electric guitar performances of Hendrix’ “Purple Haze” and Deep Purple’s garage band classic, “Smoke On The Water”. On Jaco’s classic composition “Teen Town” and Ornette Coleman’s “Broadway Blues”, Pastorius pulls out the stops via corpulent, thumping bass lines, disciplined linear phrasing and shrewd utilization of harmonics. Additional highlights on Heavy’n Jazz are; Jaco’s fuzz-distortion bass soloing on “Broadway Blues” as he quotes Miles’ “So What” much to our delight. Lagrene’s turbo mode single note runs, sweeping chord progressions and charging crunch-chord attack on Broadway Blues coupled with Singhof’s well-constructed drum solo on Pastorius’ “Reza” are captivating. Pastorius’ remarkable technique and musical acumen is vividly demonstrated via his superb if not staggering performance on the composition titled, “Honestly”. Here, Jaco articulates 16th notes incorporating various motifs while demonstrating incredible improvisational skills without sacrificing the melody.

Stuttgart Aria was recorded in 1986 at Melody Tonstudio Stuttgart in Germany. Along with a multi-national cast which also includes Lagrene, the music here borders funk-fusion and jazz featuring Pastorius’ gorgeous composition titled, “Teresa”, Charlie Parker’s “Donna Lee” and pleasant rendition of Henry Mancini’s “Days Of Wine and Roses”. At times this date suffers from the cheesy synthesizer sounds of the day and perhaps a lack of tenacity although there are some bright moments despite the staid or sometimes overly slick ensemble work.

Broadway Blues & Teresa feature many of the same titles as the other 2 CD sets; however, Disc 1 was recorded in 1986 at Melody Tonstudio Stuttgart as Pastorius and Lagrene are joined by drummer Peter Lubke. Lagrene’s amusing mimicry of Eddie Van Halen on his composition titled, “Bluma” is a gas as the band this time render a somewhat “jazzier” version of Coleman’s “Broadway Blues”. Here, Lagrene’s clean, melodic phrasing is enhanced by his propensity to infuse swift chord changes and triple time lead solos, backed by the swinging duo of Pastorius and Lubke. Lagrene picks his strings hard while emphasizing the lush melody in a somewhat animated fashion on Jaco’s “Teresa”. On the obvious rehearsal track of “Jaco Reggae”, we hear Jaco asking drummer Peter Lubke if he can lay down a reggae beat while announcing the chord progressions to Lagrene........... Disc 2 features Pastorius alone with his 4 track recorder, DX7 keyboard and an analog delay unit. As the liners state, this disc is “documentation of a work in progress” as we hear Jaco (in lo-fi) composing the gorgeous waltz-like “Teresa”. Admittedly, this is of historical value and will not warrant repeated listens; although, this writer could not help but reminisce of Jaco’s unlimited potential as a composer besides his supernatural technical capacities.

Live In Italy & Honestly are perhaps the most enduring of the lot, as Lagrene’s opening improvisation on Disc 1 is flat out awe-inspiring! Here, Lagrene’s classical style picking on his heavily amplified electric guitar runs the gamut from Segovia to James Brown funk and some more “Smoke On The Water”. (he seemed infatuated with this composition!) Lagrene’s nasty reckless abandon is highly entertaining as he puts on a mini clinic here and throughout. On this rendition of “Teen Town” Jaco utilizes just about every conceivable register his electric bass permits. Pastorius sings a song with each note! The Trio air it out on On Bob Marley’s “I Shot The Sheriff” as the boys have some good-natured fun on the straight up rocker “Fannie Mae”. The analog recording on Live In Italy & Honestly holds up fairly well; although, hiss from the beads of Thomas Borocz’ snare drum is fairly evident on disc 1 which is partially due to the lack of filters or sophisticated recording equipment. Disc 2 features excerpts of Jaco performing solo bass, which were extracted from live performances. As one would expect, Pastorius is magnificent over 10 pieces culled from various venues. The bootleg quality recording does not mar the often-amazing solo work, which includes Jaco quoting familiar tunes such as “Blackbird” and “Purple Haze”. Pastorius works his thick bass strings as if he were performing on a nylon stringed acoustic guitar......simply amazing!

Pastorius’ influence and legacy is that of “Ruthian” proportions as Jaco was a true genius, who provided an entirely new and previously unheard of outlook and mindset for the electric bass and performers alike..........”Jazzpoint” indicates –in subtle fashion- that there may be some more tapes in the can from Jaco’s tenure in Europe during the mid-80’s. In any event, Jazzpoint deserves high marks for capturing Jaco’s European performances complete with smart packaging, informative and at times candid liners.

Jazzpoint on the web: www.jazzpages.com/jazzpointrecords

Jazzpoint email: jazzpointrecords@t-online.de