Jaco Pastorius - The Essential
Artist: Jaco Pastorius
Title: The Essential
Category Rock/Pop Albums, Jazz CDs, Jazz Instrument, Fusion, Bass
Label: Sony, Legacy
Audio CD (June 26, 2007)
Original Release Date: 2007
Number of Discs: 2
Studio/Live Studio
Source: Original CD`s
CD 1
Extractor: EAC 0.99 prebeta 4
Used drive: HL-DT-STDVDRAM GSA-E10L
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
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Make use of C2 pointers : No
Codec: Flac 1.2.1; Level 8
Single File.flac, Eac.log,
File.cue Multiple wav file with Gaps (Noncompliant)
Accurately ripped (confidence 10)
Size Torrent: 487 Mb
Artwork Incluse
CD 2
Extractor: EAC 0.99 prebeta 4
Used drive: HL-DT-STDVDRAM GSA-E10L
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Codec: Flac 1.2.1; Level 8
Single File.flac, Eac.log,
File.cue Multiple wav file with Gaps (Noncompliant)
Accurately ripped (confidence 10)
Size Torrent: 488 Mb
Artwork Incluse
TrackList:
DISC 1:
01. Donna Lee
02. Come On, Come Over
03. Continuum
04. Kuru/Speak Like a Child
05. Portrait of Tracy
06. Opus Pocus
07. (Used to Be A) Cha-Cha
08. Bright Size Life - (with Pat Metheny)
09. Barbary Coast - (with Weather Report)
10. Hejira - (with Joni Mitchell)
11. Talk to Me - (with Joni Mitchell)
12. Birdland - (with Weather Report)
13. Remark You Made, A - (with Weather Report)
14. Teen Town - (with Weather Report)
15. Havona - (with Weather Report)
DISC 2:
01. River People - (with Weather Report)
02. Punk Jazz - (with Weather Report)
03. Dry Cleaner From des Moines, The - (with Joni Mitchell)
04. Dreamland - (with Michel Colombier)
05. 4 A.M. - (with Herbie Hancock)
06. Teen Town (Live) - (Live, with Weather Report)
07. Slang - (with Weather Report)
08. Port of Entry - (with Weather Report)
09. Soul Intro/The Chicken
10. Three Views of a Secret
11. Liberty City
12. John and Mary
Personnel:
Jaco Pastorius (bass guitar); Edie Lehmann, Petsye Powell, Mary Pastorius, Zedric Turnbough, John Pastorius, Dave Prater, Jim Gilstrap, John Lehman, Alfie Silas, Sam Moore, Myrna Matthews, Marti McCall (vocals); Larry Carlton (guitar); Gerald Vinci, William Hymanson, Stuart Canin, Harold Kohon, David Nadien, Harry Cykman, Paul Gershman, Harry Lookofsky, Joe Malin (violin); Manny Vardi, Stewart Clarke, Allan Harshman, Julian Barber, Denyse Buffum (viola); Ray Kelley, Beverly Lauridsen, Dennis Karmazyn, Charles McCracken, Kermit Moore (cello); Hubert Laws, James Walker (flute); Toots Thielemans (harmonica); Abe Most (clarinet); Tom Scott (bass clarinet); David Weiss (oboe); Robert Cowart (English horn); David Breidenthal (bassoon); Neal Bonsanti, Dan Bonsanti, Gary Lindsay (saxophone); David Sanborn, George Young (alto saxophone); Michael Brecker, Bob Mintzer (tenor saxophone); Randy Emerick, Howard Johnson (baritone saxophone); Chuck Findley, Brian O'Flaherty, Bobby Findley, Melton Mustafa, Randy Brecker, Snooky Young, Warren Luening, Ken Faulk, Brett Murphey, Ron Tooley (trumpet); Jerry Peel, Peter Gordon, Steve Roitstein, John Clark, William Lane, Brad Warnaar (French horn); Russ Freeland, David Bargeron, Dave Bargeron, Jim Pugh, Mike Katz, Charles Loper, Lew McCreary (trombone); David Taylor, Peter Graves , Bill Reichenbach (bass trombone); Tommy Johnson (tuba); Alex Darqui (Fender Rhodes piano); Michael Boddicker (synthesizer); Joe Zawinul (ARP synthesizer); Wayne Shorter (lyricon); Bruce Bransby, Arni Egilsson (double bass); Chester Thompson, Harvey Mason, Jack DeJohnette, Lenny White, Alex Acuna, Narada Michael Walden, Peter Erskine, Steve Gadd, Tony Williams, Bob Moses, Bobby Economou (drums); Manolo Badrena, Bobby Thomas (congas); Paul Hornmuller, Leroy Williams , Othello Molineaux (steel pan); Airto Moreira, Emil Richards, Bill Summers, Robert Thomas, Oscar Salas, Bobbye Hall (percussion); Don Alias (bells); London Symphony Orchestra.
Listen to samples
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpEfvLaFU3Q
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Biography
It seems that I had only just started to hear about this magnificent bass player doing absolutely incredible things with the instrument, and then he was dead. Jaco Pastorius released his first solo album in 1976, Jaco Pastorius, and was dead by 1987. During those nine years he didn't just redefine the role of the electric bass in popular music, he destroyed it and then rebuilt it from the ground up again until it was unrecognizable.
From his tenure in Weather Report; his collaborations with individuals as diverse as Pat Metheny, Herbie Hancock, and Jonnie Mitchell; and to his own too-few solo albums he never stopped looking for new ways of expressing himself through his instrument of choice. Until that time no one had thought of the bass as anything more than a means of playing a song's rhythm, and hardly any music was created with it in mind specifically.
Jaco pulled the bass out of the background where it was buried in the mix alongside the kick drum and placed it out front with the guitars, horns, and keyboards. Well you say, so what, look at funk were the bass line was front and centre from its earliest days, pushing the beat and the song ahead of it. True but it never led, Jaco wasn't just out front slapping out the beat for the big boys. In his hands the bass became a melodic instrument playing everything from leads to harmonies for vocals.
Jaco Pastorius.jpg
I don't know if it's a coincidence, but probably not, that in this the twentieth year anniversary of Jaco Patorius' death, Sony/BMG Legacy has released a two-disc package that traces his whole mercurial career. The Essential Jaco Pastorius being released on the 26th of June contains excerpts from his major collaborations, his years with Weather Report, and his incredible solo career.
From the start of disc one to the end of disc two they lovingly record his progress almost every inch of the way. It still takes my breath away that a young bass player not only would have the audacity and the bravery to release a solo album, but that it would feature his own compositions as well as standards. From the very first cut on his first album, he let the world know what was coming.
"Donna Lee" was an old Charlie Parker be-bop standard that Jaco took on accompanied only by Don Alias on congas. I can imagine old Jazz guys looking at this and thinking to themselves, "Who the hell does this kid think he is?", and then listening and finding out exactly who he was. To hear a song played on solo bass that had previously been played on tenor saxophone is still astonishing today so to have it heard an unheralded kid playing it back in the seventies must have been mind-blowing.
The song that impressed me the most from this album was his solo composition "Portrait Of Tracy," written for his first wife. It's here that he shows the true potential, in my mind, for a bass to be melodic instrument. At times he sounded like a keyboard, with fat, fuzzy notes, and other times he created harmonic chords that resonated with a harp sound reminiscent more of Ireland than Jazz.
Jaco.jpg
As we move down the years with him through the two discs of this collection we hear every single bit of the potential demonstrated on his first album realized and expanded upon in each of collaborations. From playing in the Pat Metheny trio exchanging licks and leads, pummelling out funk lines with Herbie Hancock, laying down ethereal counterpoint to Joni Mitchell's vocals, leading Weather Report into places in Jazz fusion that nobody could have imagined, to heading up his own small orchestra on his penultimate album Word Of Mouth.
Just when you think you can't be amazed anymore, he pushes the envelope a little further. Dropping an homage to Jimi Hendrix into the middle of a song by riffing on the lead from "Third Stone From The Sun", complete with feedback and distortion, and not taking anything away from the song or sounding like he's showing off. The seamless blending of songs and styles into one harmonious moment is indicative of a mind and a talent that can recognise potential and act upon it simultaneously.
By the end of his career Jaco Pastorius's feel and instinct for the music was to the point where he was capable of doing things other musicians wouldn't even dream of trying. Playing an instrument normally associated with keeping the rhythm and nothing else, he was able to innovate and accomplish more in nine years of recordings then many so called lead players did in careers three times as long.
In this era of mega basses that can break a sternum at twenty paces it seems like nobody remembers that a bass can be subtle instrument; an instrument of delicate harmony and precision that doesn't have to be loud to be effective. Listening to half the music produced today it's as if the work Jaco accomplished exists in a vacuum, and nobody outside of that bubble heard anything he did. Perhaps it's just a matter of the rest of the world still being so far behind him that they have yet to catch up to where he was when he left us.
There is a wonderful booklet that accompanies the two discs with a great appreciation and history of Jaco's music written by his biographer Bill Milkowski. There are full credits for each song, right down to who is playing second violin in the string section. But the part I liked the most was a forward written by Carlos Santana, and I'm going to give him the last word.
I can say without hesitation that Jaco changed the music world that we live in, and he changed it for the better. Is there any better or more significant legacy a musician could hope for than that? Carlos Santana
reviews
One of the most influential electric bassists of all time--in either jazz or rock--Jaco Pastorius virtually redefined the instrument during the 1970s and '80s. Pastorius pioneered a dynamic, agile style that emphasized melodic invention over steady, rhythmic pulses, and brought the bass line to the forefront in all his ensembles. Though his career and output were cut tragically short by his death in 1987, his influence has been immeasurable.
THE ESSENTIAL JACO PASTORIUS is the perfect introduction to Pastorius's style. The two-disc set also serves as an overview of the bass wizard's diverse output, covering his solo releases, his tenure with Weather Report, and his dates as a session musician (including two stunning tracks from Joni Mitchell's HEJIRA). There's an avalanche of dazzling playing on this generous, superbly selected compilation; it gives a brilliant, comprehensive testament to a legendary musician.
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The Essential Jaco Pastorius collects tracks the innovative jazz bassist recorded during the '70s and '80s. Included here are cuts off Pastorius' two studio albums as well as some of the work he did with the seminal fusion outfit Weather Report. Also featured are recordings he made with other artists including Herbie Hancock and Joni Mitchell. As a two-disc anthology, this is a hard collection to pass up and certainly includes all of the most well-known of Pastorius' recordings, not the least of which are his 1976 take on Charlie Parker's "Donna Lee," Weather Report's "Birdland," and the Mitchell tune "Hejira." You also get such stellar tracks as the frenetic "River People" and the iconic "Punk Jazz" both from Weather Report's 1978 album Mr. Gone. As a well-rounded representation of Pastorius' unique genius during the high-point of his career, The Essential Jaco Pastorius is superb listen.