Jaco movie

[Blackbird]

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.

[Chris P.]

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.

[gearHed289]

^^^ 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...  Not knocking Juan at all, he can play his ass off.

[uwe]

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. 

[Dave W]

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.

[chromium]

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 

[patman]

Rocco makes you feel good when he plays...makes the time feel good...

[Chris P.]

Yes, it has some outtakes of Jerry and Jaco. And Jerry himself is in it. Met him last year. Nice guy!