Fred,
A few years ago, a new found friend and fellow musician said to me, "If you
are serious about pursuing music, you must buy Joni Mitchell's, "Shadows and
Light," and you must listen to the song, "Black Crow." Though I had been a
Joni Mitchell fan from my college and her "Court and Spark" days, I had lost
touch with Joni's music. The first time I heard Jaco play his bass solo at
the end of the song, I remember jumping up and down screaming because of the
awesome creativity and talent of this "guy" I'd never heard of! (Not taking
anything away from Michael Brecker's awesome sax solo on the song either!) My
friend was a bassist whom I respected immensely. When I told him my ultimate
joy of finding Joni again and discovering Jaco Pastorius, words could not
describe the look of pure satisfaction on his face for having someone really
"get" Jaco's musical style. Truer words by Pat Metheny were never spoken
concerning Jaco Pastorius. I am a fan for life!
Sherelle
In a message dated 03/19/2002 6:25:47 PM Pacific Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
writes:
> Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2002 04:11:29 EST
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Jaco
>
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] transcribed:
>
> >Pg 48 Quote from Pat Metheny...
> >.....If you just took Hejira and Heavy Weather and Bright Size Life and
> >his first couple of records - just that little body of work right there
> >sort of significantly changed the course of music in the last quarter of
> >the 20th century, certainly in terms of the role of the bass, bass
> >playing in general and without question the electric bass itself.
>
> There have been precious few instrumental musicians that are as readily
> identifiable and as pervasively influential as Jaco; in naming others very
> quickly you're mentioning the likes of Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Lester
> Young, Jimi Hendrix, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Pat Metheny. To have
> such a clear, strong voice ("voice" being an especially apt word since
> their
> instrumental sound is as recognizable as a singing voice might be) and to
> say
> such substantial things with it is so utterly rare.
>
> The above quote from Metheny is absolutely right on, and as I ponder it
> over
> and over in my mind like some kind of Zen koan, it just gets more and more
> mind-blowing, but also more and more sad that Jaco's comet burned as bright
>
> as it did but was here for only a minute.
>
> - -Fred
