In Memoriam

Jaco Pastorius died twenty years ago today. I no longer remember how I first heard him, but for a brief period it seemed like he was everywhere: a key member of Weather Report, recording with Joni Mitchell and others, doing solo work, on and on. He was that rarest of things, a truly original artist with deep knowledge of those who had gone before. For an electric bassist in 1975 to begin his first solo album with a lightning-fast version of Charlie Parker's "Donna Lee," then in his onstage solos to include a quote from Jimi Hendrix's "Third Stone From the Sun," spoke volumes about who he was and how he saw himself. Here is a clip of a solo performance, and his mastery of technology (in this case, an MXR digital delay) is obvious, as are his hyper-technical skills. But he was also excellent as one element in an ensemble--check out "A Remark You Made" from Weather Report or "Refuge of the Roads" from Joni Mitchell. I never understood people who thought Stanley Clarke was a better bassist. Clarke was amazing, but Jaco seemed able to tap into a different plane of existence altogether. His eventual emotional decline and sad death were, for many of us, a tragedy in the original meaning of the word: a series of events that remind us how fragile are the restraints that keep even the greatest of us successfully living in this world. RIP. With Joe Zawinul now gone, the past slips even further away.