what happened to jaco pastorius' bass

Jaco got up with an embarrassed grin and walked out. Because Jaco had listened to jazz on a cheap record player he had won in a Rice Krispies contest, he could never distinguish the background bass from the up-front instruments. Finally, Ingrid had had enough. From sports, he earned the nickname “Jocko,” for “jock,” which he would eventually change to the more exotic “Jaco” when he became a jazz musician. “We swore we’d never be like our parents. He always needed a woman to take care of the details of life. One officer bent down and massaged the mans shoulders while the other looked for witnesses. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. Terry abused Jaco because he was weaker than she and it gave her strength. One night, he put “war paint” on his face and ran down the streets like a madman. I interviewed Jaco Pastorius at a London hotel in summer 1976. Manic-depressives generally use alcohol or drugs as a form of self-medication to mute the demons in their heads. “Twenty-four hours a day for three years. At 13, Jaco became the drummer for Las Olas Brass, a teenage jazz band. Mr. Pastorius's rapid-fire fingering techniques and composing talent earned him a reputation in the late 1970's and early 80's as one of the top electric bass players. But colleagues said he later began to drink heavily and for months before his death was penniless and unemployed, often sleeping in a local park. I can’t honestly mention one person who is a favourite above all others. His innovations have influenced every bass player since and every form of contemporary music, from punk rock to Michael Jackson. Jaco Pastorius Documentary fusing BBC radio audio & Google images.Steven Shepherd produced this radio doc for the BBC. Sure, I drank and occasionally did a little blow, but I liked myself too much to hurt myself. But the next morning Jaco appeared at his door, head down, hands folded, and said, “I want to deeply apologize.” Zawinul forgave him. And in a lot of ways, maybe he wanted to be a singer himself. Decreased need for sleep. One morning, they were late for Mass, so they took a shortcut through the most dangerous part of town. There’s always a purple one, you know? Even then, John was a flamboyant youth who played sports with an intensity that was typical of skinny kids who make up in zeal what they lack in size and talent. Then his music began to slip. He wandered the streets drugged and dazed in torn, filthy clothes and unlaced sneakers, carrying a basketball under one arm and his bass guitar under the other. In Jaco’s hands, the electric bass became small and light, like a guitar. Few people can be attributed to re-defining an entire … So, Jaco didn't invent fretless basses. “Jaco always liked to say he was the greatest,” says Greg, “but he really never thought he could do it alone. You weren't around to listen to jazz in the 80s? On another night, when Jaco was sober and went for a vodka bottle, Ingrid grabbed it from him and poured its contents down the sink. Here, six bass players discuss his life, music and enduring legacy. “A manic-depressive lives an inward-looking life in which he is unable to distinguish fantasy from reality. Often, Jaco would find a pair of his father’s drumsticks lying around the house, and despite his mother’s discouragement, he’d begin tapping them against the sofa, a chair, anything, in imitation of his father. In 1982, Jaco again toured Japan. One night, he told Greg that his greatest fear was that he couldn’t repeat his early success. He’d break into their homes to take musical instruments or albums or, on one occasion, a wedding ring, which he had given to Ingrid as a sign they would get married again. Both eyes were swollen shut. John pulled him into the bushes and hovered over him until they could escape at daylight. “I felt sorry for Luc,” says Jaco’s brother Gregory. Flights of fancy. John Francis (Jaco) Pastorius, an electric bassist whose brief career influenced jazz musicians worldwide, died Monday night at the Broward … “Jaco never slowed down,” says Greg. It was a standard game for Jaco: He abused himself in the presence of those who cared about him and then implied his behavior was their fault. He once played a one-and-a-half-hour solo concert at the Newport Jazz Festival that hypnotized his audience, not only because of the originality of his music but because of the intensity with which he played and the pain he suffered to produce his music. "Although Trujillo currently owns the instrument, the Metallica bassist agreed in writing to relinquish the instrument to the family at any time for the same purchase price." His sound was so unusual that the band became famous throughout south Florida, often playing clubs at which Jaco had to be snuck in through the back door because he was underage. Jaco, as the eldest son, was especially close to his father and so suffered most from his long absences. And then, perversely, he asked Terry to go with him. He immediately signed Jaco to a contract with Epic and brought him to New York to record his first album, with Herbie Hancock. Jaco talked about where he touched the strings, which pickup he used (bridge), and how he recorded. Terry did not attend. Jaco Pastorius was a larger than life personality, with a penchant for hyperbole. Jaco abused Terry because she was the perfect scapegoat for the anger he could not unleash on Ingrid, who had betrayed him by not going to Japan with him years before. The MC, Bill Cosby, apologized to the audience. Now that that’s out of the way, I can concentrate on my music.’”. Fretless electrics were rare and not particularly optimised at that time. He accused Terry of being unfaithful. “Lithium causes tremors of the hands,” says Alper. I told my record guy Jaco was clean. Of course, guitar is way more popular than bass is to aspiring musicians. After each game, they’d throw themselves into the ocean to cool off, and then go play again. “Maybe both.”. They beat each other up.”, “I don’t know whether they were trying to save each other or destroy each other,” says Jaco’s good friend guitarist Randy Bernsen. But by far, this Jaco Pastorius bass nails it the closest of the 5. On a whim, he called Terry, whom he hadn’t seen in a few months. Unlike the ’80s, these days we don’t see the fretless bass too often in pop bands, but it’s still very present in jazz and progressive rock. Jaco spent the next couple of years touring with various acts—BS&T; Charo; Joni Mitchell, with whom he was reported to have had an affair—while waiting for his album to appear. He said he wanted to buy it. ‘I can still write.’”. “He got strange after two drinks,” says Zawinul. “So, you see,” said the investigating officer, “the victim was not unknown to us. Another time, he called Peter Graves collect and kept him on the phone for thirty minutes while he played his bass for him, Finally, one night Jaco was awakened by falling rain while he slept on railroad tracks. He used me—our love—as just another kind of addictive behavior. “He pushed people to their limits and then turned them around. Throughout his teens, Jaco lived the kind of clean, mischievous, energetic life often associated with small-town boys of an earlier era. Luc Havan, 25, a Vietnamese refugee, said that the man had tried to kick in the bars door after he had been denied entrance because he w… Jaco persisted. The rest is history. See the article in its original context from. [Photo Credit: Pino alpino via Wikimedia Commons]. It came as almost a blessing after years of suffering, both his and theirs. They also found Jaco, drunker than Terry had ever seen him. She found a bewildered, soft-faced man who could only say “I’m sorry,” without looking her in the eyes. Jaco Pastorius was a larger than life personality, with a penchant for hyperbole. While she was gone, Jaco called Joe Zawinul in Los Angeles and began to cry over the phone. In 1980, Ingrid went with Jaco on tour in Japan with Weather Report. Often, he spent his afternoons at the West 4th Street park in Greenwich Village, disturbing the basketball games being played there. Don’t be stupid.’”. I didn’t know what ‘egomaniac’ meant, so I said, ‘But Jaco is the greatest.’ I worshiped him. He was born on the first of December 1951 in Norristown, Pennsylvania, to a Finnish mother and a German-Irish father who could trace his ancestry back to one Francis Daniel Pastorius, who, in the year 1688, was among the first in America to call for the abolition of slavery. It depressed me. When the bouncer chased the man down the alley, the man threw a glancing blow at him. When he was released, calmed by medication again, he told Terry that he was going home to Florida to see his kids, to get his Florida sound back and “to patch things up with Ingrid,” from whom he’d been divorced in 1985. Jaco saw in me a place to get away from what he knew he was getting into. This time, however. “Those were the last words I ever spoke to him.”, On the last day of his life, Jaco Pastorius woke up sober. We didn’t know who to blame.”. Jaco relied on tricks he had done before.”. He used his drinking as an excuse to let things happen to him. The bass is sitting in Metallica's well-guarded lockup, but he'll return it to Pastorius' family if they pay him back the money he spent getting it. Jaco was the greatest thing to happen to the band. The man chased Jaco with a knife. Then she played a tape she had made of a Christmas night in Germany when Jaco had come home drunk and abused her. Birds sang in chorus. “He was a fully developed creative genius at 16. She went back to her apartment and rummaged through some of Jaco’s old letters to her. “My name is Jaco Pastorius and I’m the greatest bass player in the world.” This was the way Jaco introduced himself to Joe Zawinul, Weather Report founder and übermensch. They kept themselves from that brink by abusing each other for three years. He’d say, ‘Help me!’ As long as I was there, I could control him. Soon Jaco began to take Ingrid everywhere. His friends back in Fort Lauderdale assumed someone had beaten him up because by then he was getting drunk regularly and provoking people to hit him. A few months after that, Jaco was living the life of a bum in New York City. He said to call him in a few months if Jaco was still clean. After I broke up with him the last time, I saw him one day with nail polish all over his face. Jaco spent most of the summer of 1986 in the psychiatric ward of Bellevue Hospital. Zawinul told him to loosen up a little. He shaved off all his hair and painted his face black. Jaco played with a number of local bands, building a reputation as an uncompromising musician who was impatient with other players who couldn’t keep pace with his genius. He stood up and did flips off the instrument. The bass, which was stolen from a Manhattan park bench in 1986, resurfaced in early 2006 in a New York guitar shop. He got a verbal contract from a CBS guy, and another record guy put up $5,000 bail for him once. Colomby was stunned. On those rare occasions when Jack Pastorius had a gig near Fort Lauderdale, he often took his eldest son with him to the club. “Jaco had no interest in it either, except every once in a while when he’d pick it up and play it beautifully. When Jaco appeared outside his hotel room the next day, with his head down and his hands folded in front of him, Zawinul was impressed by his persistence. Jaco worked out the strings, nut, pickup settings and all that setup stuff so that it sounded great. He was 35 years old. By then, he was drinking heavily on the band’s bus. So many things came easy to him. Twenty-five years ago today, the world lost a man many say was the greatest bass player ever. He threw his bass guitar into Hiroshima Bay. “Can you believe it!” he’d say. Another showed a man with lank shoulder-length hair and exhausted heavy-lidded eyes. The instrument has had its ups and downs since the mid ’70s, when Jaco Pastorius made it popular. At the peak of his career he toured with Weather Report, Joni Mitchell, Herbie Hancock and Blood, Sweat and Tears. When Weather Report passed through Fort Lauderdale in 1975, Jaco approached Joe Zawinul for a job. Although his loved ones cried at his death, they were not surprised by it. For Pastorius, it seems to be very important for more than one reason. He asked her to meet him for lunch at the Bangkok Inn, a Thai restaurant. On December 2. It was as if he felt estranged from the town of his innocence, and so he blamed the town for his own loss. At Bellevue Hospital, Jaco Pastorius was told he was manic-depressive, confirming an earlier diagnosis. He walked offstage one night in the middle of a set. The news comes via a statement on Metallica.com. She looked up and said, “Jaco’s hurt.” One officer bent down and massaged the man’s shoulders while the other looked for witnesses. His last girlfriend. Before the cop could react, Jaco threw his arm over his shoulder and told the cop he was “beautiful.”, “Jaco was an actor,” says Ingrid. “l always had to be there for him,” she says. But when the band returned, Zawinul didn’t fire Jaco. Often, Jaco would appear, ragged, filthy and bruised, at the Musician’s Exchange jazz club and ask to play the piano. He died for no reason.”. It made Jaco impotent, for one. Finally, Jaco wore the woman down, and she sold him her shirt. Early in his career, Mr. Pastorius had disdained drugs and alcohol, saying they impaired his playing. He found a broom and began sweeping the city’s streets. And to me. Once Jaco took his first drink, that energy source began going haywire. Jaco let himself get beat up and put in jail so we’d all feel guilty. I only touched that nerve three times in my life. And Jaco began to doubt his gift for the first time. We all thought Jaco was back. A tense, nervous, excruciatingly thin girl who seemed constantly about to disintegrate before one’s eyes, Terry used drugs and was a self-described “mean drunk.” The relationship she formed with Jaco was based on a mutual desire to stagger to the brink of destruction without falling off. Excessive involvement in destructive activities such as drug-taking, drinking or attempting dangerous physical feats. Pastorius originally removed the frets with a butter knife, filling the slots and missing chunks with �plastic wood� and covering the fingerboard with several coats of boat epoxy. I tried to distract him with sports, pool, anything.”. Of her absent husband and his four children when Terry and her boyfriend to... Understanding even then that we would never what happened to jaco pastorius' bass, yet we both alcoholics.”! €œBut we already had a great bass player months after that, Jaco,. Was furious and threatened to fire Jaco looked like the band us one.. 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