His confirmation name was Anthony, thus expanding his name to John Francis Anthony Pastorius. Clement's Catholic School in Wilton Manors and was an altar boy at St. His brother called him " Mowgli" after the wild boy in The Jungle Book because he was energetic and spent much of his time shirtless on the beach, climbing trees, running through the woods, and swimming in the ocean. When he was a boy, he was ridiculed for the name because there was a cartoon monkey named "Jocko." In 1974, he began spelling it "Jaco" after it was misspelled by his neighbor, pianist Alex Darqui. įrom his parents he was given the nickname "Jocko", a variation of John and Jack. His family moved to Oakland Park in Fort Lauderdale when he was eight. He was the oldest of three boys born to Stephanie, his Finnish mother, and Jack Pastorius, a charismatic singer and jazz drummer who spent much of his time on the road.
John Francis Pastorius was born December 1, 1951, in Norristown, Pennsylvania. He was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame in 1988, one of only seven bassists so honored (and the only bass guitarist). John Francis Anthony " Jaco" Pastorius III ( English pronunciation: Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character " His bass playing employed funk, lyrical solos, bass chords, and innovative harmonics. Pat Metheny, Joni Mitchell, Weather Report, Word of Mouth, Trio of Doom, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Cochran and the C.C.
This is a necessary package for anyone interested in the development of electric jazz in the 1970s and 1980s.Jazz, jazz fusion, big band, folk-jazz, funkīass guitar, drums, percussion, steel drums, keyboards, guitar, mandocello, autoharp, vocalsĮpic, Warner Bros., Columbia, ECM, CBS, Elektra The set closes with him in trios with Mike Stern and Brian Melvin. The solo "Amerika" offers a more intimate view of Pastorius as a seeker of texture and sonic subtleties.
Disc two concentrates on Jaco's innovative work as a composer for his own bands, as evidenced by "Word of Mouth," "Liberty City," "John and Mary," "Chromatic Fantasy," and "Blackbird." Four live tracks with the big band showcase his role as a bandleader and arranger of true authority and vision. The more pop side of Jaco's work is highlighted on the first disc with his contributions to Joni Mitchell's Mingus and Shadows and Light albums, as well as his more exotic, atmospheric work with Airto and Flora. Even in abstraction, Pastorius had a groove. Even those well acquainted with Pastorius will be surprised as to how well the sequencing of these tracks offers such a prismatic view of Pastorius' growth as a bassist - check out the silky funky grooves on Little Beaver's "I Can Dig It Baby" and the gutbucket greasy R&B of "Amelia," as they give way to adventurous early fusion of "Batterie" with Metheny, Bley, and Bruce Ditmas. Casual listeners will be astonished by the sheer multi-dimensional nature of his limitless musicality and vision. Pastorius fanatics will no doubt already have everything here in one form or another. Two other cuts, "Foreign Fun" and "Okonkole y Trompa," are on CD in the United States for the first time. There are three unreleased cuts - "Amelia," an unreleased home demo of "The Chicken," and "Good Morning Annya" from his unfinished steel drum project, Holiday for Pans. Riders and home playing the Cochran standard "Amelia," to his work with underground R&B act Little Beaver and such artists as Pat Metheny, Mike Stern, Joni Mitchell in and out of the studio, Paul Bley, Airto and Flora Purim, Michel Columbier, Brian Melvin, and his diverse projects - including "Birdland" with Weather Report. This two-CD, 28-track collection ranges across the fretless bass inventor's earliest recordings, documented by a live appearance with Wayne Cochran's C.C. Thankfully, there is finally a definitive Jaco Pastorius anthology that offers an accurate portrait of the breadth and depth of his innovative artistry beyond what his contributions to Weather Report and his own Word of Mouth and Trio of Doom (which many would argue are sufficient in and of themselves) would suggest.