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Jazz Articles about Jaco Pastorius
Jaco: Original Soundtrack
by John Kelman
With so many compilations already out there, it might be easy to question why a soundtrack to JACO is even necessary. But one look at the track listing renders its raison d'être clear: JACO: Original Soundtrack is, in some ways, the most comprehensive document of the bassist's career, even if it doesn't contain as much music as previous double-disc sets. Yes, there is plenty of time given to his leader debut, Jaco Pastorius (Epic, 1976), with everything from the soul/funk ...
Continue ReadingJACO (The Film)
by John Kelman
Jaco Pastorius JACO (The Film) Slang East/West 2015With author Bill Milkowksi's extraordinarily detailed and honest accounting of Pastorius' life in his biography--first published in 1996 but reissued nearly a decade later as Jaco: The Extraordinary and Tragic Life of Jaco Pastorius: Deluxe Edition (Backbeat Books, 2005), with a hundred pages of additional footage garnered when those close to the late bassist were, with the passage of time, ready and willing to talk more openly about ...
Continue ReadingThree Views of Jaco: Weather Report: The Legendary Live Tapes 1978-1981 / JACO: The Film & Original Soundtrack
by John Kelman
It's hard to believe that, despite being gone for 28 years, bassist/composer Jaco Pastorius remains not just an important figure in the world of jazz, but beyond its broadest purview as well. His seemingly sudden appearance on a series of four albums in 1976 demonstrated that this was an artist with virtually no restrictions. In addition to his first contributing to two tracks on fusion supergroup Weather Report's Black Market (Columbia)--leading to his replacing former band bassist Alphonso Johnson through ...
Continue ReadingJaco Pastorius: Modern American Music…Period! The Criteria Sessions
by John Kelman
1976 was, for electric bassists, the year where everything changed. Jaco Pastorius hadn't quite emerged from nowhere, and the few prior recordings on which he could be found may have provided some hint of what was to come, but it was the quadruple punch of fellow legend-in-the-making Pat Metheny's leader debut Bright Size Life (ECM, 1976), singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell's classic Hejira (Elektra/Asylum, 1976), fusion super group Weather Report's Black Market (Columbia, 1976) and, most notably, the bassist's own Jaco Pastorius ...
Continue ReadingJaco Pastorius: Back in Town
by AAJ Italy Staff
Jaco Pastorius vive. E lo fa attraverso le folte schiere di bassisti che si ispirano alla sua figura e tramite i molti musicisti che si sono appassionati alla sua musica, al suo inconfondibile stile. Back in Town documenta un concerto in trio del gennaio '78 al Players Club di Fort Lauderdale, in Florida, (città nel cui hinterland viveva, ad Oakland Park, e dove nove anni più tardi sarebbe stato ucciso dal buttafuori di un bar) nel quale il bassista è ...
Continue ReadingJaco Pastorius: The 60th Anniversary Collection
by John Kelman
Jaco Pastorius The 60th Anniversary Collection Warner Music Japan 2011 It's hard to believe that it's been nearly a quarter century since Jaco Pastorius died at the outrageously young age of 35. At a time when other electric bassists like Stanley Clarke were redefining the role of the instrument--no longer playing only a supporting role, but becoming a front-line partner--Pastorius still managed to shake an already fusion-quaked world with the one-two-three punch of his ...
Continue ReadingJaco Pastorius: Donna Lee Live at Budokan ‘82
by AAJ Italy Staff
Il bassista americano Jaco Pastorius è stato un artista straordinario che ha caratterizzato la sua esistenza con comportamenti impulsivi spesso bizzarri ed incomprensibili, ma sempre sostanzialmente generosi, anche se spesso autodistruttivi. Questo altalenarsi esistenziale ha segnato anche il suo percorso artistico, pieno di alti e bassi, specialmente negli ultimi anni della sua tormentata esistenza. L'avventura con la big band è certamente una delle esperienze artistiche più riuscite di Jaco, assieme alla sua lunga e proficua militanza nei Weather Report. Questo ...
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