The Last Bass Outpost
Main Forums => The Bass Zone => Topic started by: slinkp on November 23, 2015, 01:45:44 AM
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No idea if it's any good, and I can only take moderate doses of Jaco, but I'll probably see this:
http://jacopastorius.com/film/
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Trujillo seems very likable. That wasn't always the case with Jaco. As a person.
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I heard about it from this: http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episodes/episode_656_-_robert_trujillo_flea_aziz_ansari
I've been listening to WTF for quite a while, my favorite interview show... he usually interviews comedians and actors, but there's a fair number of musicians too.
(Rarely bassists, but there's a typically incomprehensible Watt interview in the archives.) Oh, and there was one with the head of some state or other ;-)
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I can't summon up any interest, but then I'm not a Jaco fan.
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Nor am I - I prefer Stanley Clarke when it comes to fusion bass gods -, but Jaco is of course an influence. And 90% of all fretless bass recording sounds in popular music today still borrow from his sound vision.
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(Rarely bassists, but there's a typically incomprehensible Watt interview in the archives.)
I've listened to the Watt one. I didn't learn much that I hadn't already picked up from the We Jam Econo documentary. Does Watt get baked before these shows? He seemed like the guy that was just on the annoying end of being stoned. The stuff about his medical issues wasn't especially interesting, but he blabbered on at length!
As for Jaco, I doubt we will ever see the return of a time when a bass solo can basically comprise endless fidgeting and amp adjustments, interspersed with short licks and runs. I appreciate what Jaco did, but whatever message he was putting in his music is pretty comprehensively lost on me. Far too convoluted and intellectually highbrow to be worth the grief, in my opinion.
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I heard about it from this: http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episodes/episode_656_-_robert_trujillo_flea_aziz_ansari
I've been listening to WTF for quite a while, my favorite interview show... he usually interviews comedians and actors, but there's a fair number of musicians too.
(Rarely bassists, but there's a typically incomprehensible Watt interview in the archives.) Oh, and there was one with the head of some state or other ;-)
Love the story about Lemmy asking Joni Mitchell about the chords in one of her songs. Great imagery.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXiYkOEBv8U
The best rock bass solo ever and people don't even know about it.
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Ewww no. A hopelessly mundane boogie with Jaco adding nothing. :bored:
:mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
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Jaco, shmaco.
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I'm merely repeating Trujillo's sentiments. Best rock bass solo is a completely subjective topic of course. Jaco wasn't the rockingest cat but his proficiency on the instrument was undeniable. It was cool to hear him throw in Hendrix quotes in his solos. Third stone from the sun often I think.
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Can't think why I'd end up with a fretless Jazz... :mrgreen:
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I just got a streaming link to the movie for my magazine. No fan, but curious!
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Always liked Jaco before he got famous...even liked most of the earlier Weather Report stuff. I must have practiced "Teen Town" a zillion times back in the day...also Birdland...note for note.
Anyone who wants to know about Jaco, should look up a Pat Metheny album called "Bright Size Life"...Jaco at his warmest, most beautiful and lucid self. Just Jaco, the bass and a B15N along with guitar and drums...sort of a jazz power trio.
Everything on that album was breathtaking, and appropriately played. Not sure how he got where he ended up...drugs, alcohol, mental illness, and ego problems...point is, if you work at it, there is a wealth of Jaco's recorded playing that is unique and spectacular in the early years. Not so much after he was a star.
Gotta admit I liked Hejira, also. Oh well.
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The best rock bass solo ever and people don't even know about it.
Maybe because it sounds like a jazz solo, not a rock solo
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As much of a 70s prog/fusion guy that I was (and am), I never followed Jaco. Amazing and oftentimes beautiful player, but most of the stuff he played on didn't really click with me. Wasn't into Weather Report. The Joni stuff was nice, but again, not really something I'd find myself reaching for. When I was about 18, my band did a cover of Midwestern Night's Dream off of Bright Size Life. I will see this movie at some point I'm sure, though Percy Jones with Brand X was my big fretless influence.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WsojY2hJbc
there are lots of vids with kids playing this stuff. the comment section brings out all the jazz experts and haters. funny and sad. not my thing but i do like miles davis 'fusiony' stuff like bitches brew and in a silent way. some warmth and soul remains in that music.
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I realise I'm as white as the kid in the video, but I can't tap my foot to that.
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I think Jaco sort of got his start playing rock n roll and R n B in Wayne Cochran's CC riders...
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I think Jaco sort of got his start playing rock n roll and R n B in Wayne Cochran's CC riders...
Yeah he did.
He would sit backstage when possible because he wouldn't dress like the rest of the act in MATCHING JUMPSUITS.
So . . . he's got that goin' for him
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I never even heard of Jaco back in the day, and once I did, never understood the appeal of his tone or technique. Definitely not my kind of music.
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I see there is a thread on TB for Jaco unbelievers to unite. Maybe we need one here. 8)
Some of the upset in the TB thread from Jaco fans is off the scale. To quote a particularly ripe example:
"well maybe one of you genuises that don't 'get' JP will do something remotely approaching innovation. there has been such an emense dumbing down across the whole society that most of you wouldn't even hear the changes to many of the compositions. So, just keep doing what you're doing if it works for you.
I lived through those times and even knew JP. It was exciting as we went to work, 6 nights/week (yep thats right), and always tried to be better every night - we were intense.
I'm extremely open minded so when one of you breaks through the noise make sure to post. I've been waiting."
In my opinion you cannot complain about a perceived mass dumbing down of society (Boomerese for 'things were better in my day', which is the wistful nostalgia I thought y'all were rebelling against in the first place), then misspell "immense", "geniuses" and "that's".
And again, what is with the dick-waving statement of playing six shows a week? All that hard work and you are still an anonymous forum troll? Maybe you weren't that good a musician, otherwise we would have heard of you. You always tried to be better every night? You were wasting your time, because it didn't pay off in any meaningful way. Sorry!
I'm a fan of Chris Squire. If somebody started a thread titled "I don't get the hype surrounding Chris Squire" then I wouldn't make it my life's mission to insult and call out all of those that claimed not to see the appeal in Squire's bass playing. "Come back when you can come up with an original bass line as Long Distance Run Around, cretin". Why bother?
Speaking as an angry millennial, if I am part of a dumber society it is because Boomers kept voting for the political parties that promised to cut education spending. Not my fault in any way! I also find it hard to believe that the best music in all of human history just happened to occur when Boomers were in college. I further fail to see how any of that correlates with my apparent inability to follow the changes in the sort of saccharine, sappy lift muzak that Weather Report and co happened to make. As I've said before, a corner of the bass community, robustly overrepresented on Talkbass, grants tacky '80s jazz fusion music with a completely unwarranted hegemony over all other forms of music and bass playing. Half the videos that get posted over there of up-and-coming bassists are younger guys playing dated-sounding Quiet Storm-style soul/jazz fusion music. Honestly, by the time that every new beginner keyboard had a 'fretless' patch that aped that nasal, chorus'd Jaco tone, the wannabe Berklee crowd should have known the game was up.
All these guys clambering over each other to tell their 'I worked with Jaco' story, but not one of them thought to take him to a shrink or moderate his drink or drugs intake. :rolleyes:
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maybe 'six nights a week' meant working at the local tin can factory. btw you did a great job of explaining the mind set over at tb. :o
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I never fitted in over there. :mrgreen: Too poor, too British/Scottish and I like all the wrong bassists.
The closest I got was a thread some guy started about Ray Shulman from Gentle Giant. I was poised to say all sorts of nice things about a bassist I greatly admire. Instead it turned out the thread starter wanted to talk about his tenuous link to the album artwork of Gentle Giant's Civilian album.
I've not seen that poster over there for a while. He was some complete kook called 'Arthritic Tom' who was apparently infirm, blind, deaf and was presumably typing (a billion forum and blog posts a day) using his nose or something. He had a couple of threads titled 'Interviewing famous bassists', that were mostly filler, promotions for his book (which the mods didn't seem to mind), and tantalising posts to the tune of 'if you are all nice to me I will tell you my Gene Simmons story'. The guy seemed to live for having smoke constantly blown up his ass, but he had some completely bizarre notions on his personal relationship with the handful of bassists he ever interviewed (there were a some disturbingly homoerotic posts about Scott Thunes playing mind games with the OP). Basically Thunes, Gene Simmons, Ray Schulman and some minor league hair metal guys were about the only bassists he ever interviewed.
Joke is on TB though, as his personal website went from documenting ghost cat sightings to some seriously off-the-deep-end pro-Israel conspiracy ranting. His 'evidence' being re-posted across the pro-Israeli blogosphere. Nothing wrong with taking a stance, but this guy was seriously wacko, and I see his posts have been quietly unpinned on TB.
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I love it when jazz guys get on their high horses. They know what good music is, and by God, they're going to let us know all about how much better it is than anything we like!
Never spent much time at TB but I've seen that "my friend Jaco" and "I played with Jaco" crap at various forums over the years. Amazing how many friends he had. ;)
I also find it hard to believe that the best music in all of human history just happened to occur when Boomers were in college.
I'm one of the oldest boomers and I never believed that. It's just the usual arrogance of older generations, just as many adults in the 50s never tired of telling us how their music was superior and rock 'n' roll was just noise.
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There's all kinds...
You just have to be open-minded and tolerant...like here, the guys just a little bit younger than me like different stuff (Kiss Metallica etc.) than I do...
Maybe it's my imagination, but it seems like the guys from Europe also have different tastes (more metal?)...
That's what makes it fun...
Not all jazz is good music. Not all jazz is boring and irrelevant. Some is sublime.
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Wow, it's like these guys read my mind. Yeah Alanko, who solos with a loop pedal anymore? ;)
http://www.notreble.com/buzz/2015/12/01/jaco-pastorius-third-stone-from-the-sun/
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jaco fans seem to approve of this guy as well. from mars volta.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3porbdLOIjc
i assume he can play without pedals. ???
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^^^ I made it to the 45 second mark.
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I made it a bit longer, it's okayish, but I'd take his compressor away. Why so many bassists insist on playing with one and feel that is benefits their sound is beyond me, to me it's a music deadener. I don't even use one with an octaver (as is always recommended).
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I made it a bit longer, it's okayish, but I'd take his compressor away. Why so many bassists insist on playing with one and feel that is benefits their sound is beyond me, to me it's a music deadener. I don't even use one with an octaver (as is always recommended).
I use the Diamond bass compressor and think it's great. Just adds a bit of something quite nice without it being squishy.
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I'm not a Jaco fan, but I watched the movie. I think it's great. Normally such movies are full of famous people saying how great/good/awesome the guy in question is. This movie of course has Geddy Lee, Flea, Trujillo and Sting in it, yes they say some good things, also some bad things, but it's all about his music, old videos, home videos and they create a great mood with some vids of New York city in the early eighties, Florida in the seventies or eighties. I think it's very well made and I recommend it.
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^^^ I made it to the 45 second mark.
Eh, it was a decent little wah bass/drum jam. People need to grab a drink or pee at some point... 8) :toast: Not knocking Juan at all, he can play his ass off.
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Whether you like the guy and his playing or not, he was of course a pivotal figure and not just in the fusion scene either. There can never be enough pivotal bassists in my view. I would imagine that the documentary is interesting, he was after all an interesting, complex man. And he stuck to his guns with his unorthodox playing style. It's not bass playing as we know it (or knew it, he certainly left his mark), but then in a band with Zawinul's right hand giving sufficient low frequencies support, you were allowed to go off on a tangent. No Weather Report line up I remember ever had a guitarist, Jaco used that to take a guitar-type role and Zawinul let him - it's all good then.
Jaco's style and approach is a million miles from mine - fretless, effects-drenched, finger player, that bony just before the bridge playing, fusion background, a timing- and groove approach that could have suited an (albeit rhythmically suave) jazz guitarist or even horn player, AND THEN ALL THAT ON A FENDER PRODUCT!!! -, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate the guy. If your playing manages to impress people as diverse as Joe Zawinul, Joni Mitchell and Ian Hunter and you set off a generational craze (count me in!) with bassists yanking out their frets and covering their fretboards with bowling paint or boat varnish (or whatever it was), you must be doing something right.
I think that was a very balanced view of someone an aging nostalgic boomer who is not really attracted to Jaco's style at all and will forever prefer Return to Forever's more adolescent, muscular jazz rock to the esoteric academia of Weather Report. :mrgreen:
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Nothing against Jaco, I'm just not interested in him or his music.
As for those people on TB and elsewhere who deify Jaco, that's their problem, not mine.
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I had bought Jaco's instructional vid back in the 80s - still have it in a box somewhere. VHS. Probably toast now... but Jerry Jemmott hosted it, and it was fun watching him play.. as well as the live jams w/Scofield and Kenwood Dennard at the end.
Someone told me that Jemmott appears in this movie as well, and they had some behind the scenes discussion about that video? I'll have to check it out at some point.
I liked Jaco better in his R&B mode... ala "Come on Come Over". I was always more inclined towards Rocco than Jaco :)
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Rocco makes you feel good when he plays...makes the time feel good...
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Yes, it has some outtakes of Jerry and Jaco. And Jerry himself is in it. Met him last year. Nice guy!