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Jaco Pastorius
The Essential Jaco Pastorius
(Epic/Legacy)
First Appeared in The Music Box, July 2007, Volume 14, #7
Written by Douglas Heselgrave
It’s hard to find a jazz fan or a bass player who is ambivalent about the
music of Jaco Pastorius. An aggressive and egoistical performer, he has left
behind a legacy that still is capable of igniting arguments, a full 20 years
after his death. There are those who speak his name in hushed reverential tones
and leave it at that — as if the truth of his greatest accomplishments requires
no explanation or defense. Others can’t stand his playing, finding it overly
busy and believing he reveled in virtuosity for its own sake. Early in his
career, Pastorius defined himself as the "world’s greatest bass player," and
he spent his all-too-brief life trying to prove it. Fusing a generous selection
of cuts from his two solo albums with an array of carefully chosen moments from
his work with Weather Report, Pat Metheny, Herbie Hancock, and Joni Mitchell, The Essential Jaco Pastorius should allow listeners to decide for
themselves.
Unfortunately, many of the selections that are compiled on The Essential
Jaco Pastorius — especially those from Pastorius’ work with Weather Report
— have not aged very well. The compositions frequently sound like the kind of
argument where the loudest person wins. The notes fly so thick and fast that
it’s often hard to grasp the ideas that are being explored. Weather Report’s
fabled players are all highly skilled, but they beat every theme into a bloody
pulp, until there’s no life left in them. Individual sections of the music dance
and sway, but then a kind of amphetamine sludge inevitably pours into the mix.
The result is that grace and poetry are smothered.
A few of the tracks — such as Portrait of Tracy and Donna Lee,
both of which are from Pastorius’ solo debut — show a level of warmth and
humanity that is missing from much of the material on The Essential Jaco
Pastorius. Here, in a setting where all of the individual parts are not
drowned out, there is room to feel the depth and tone of Pastorius’ playing.
Some of his most celebrated work was undoubtedly the trio of albums and live
shows he performed with Joni Mitchell. A sampling of their collaborative
pursuits, including Hejira and the stellar The Dry Cleaner from Des Moines,
demonstrates how much rhythm and swing Pastorius was capable of mustering. With
Mitchell, he struck a perfect balance between melody and outside exploration
that he never again managed to achieve.
To be fair, jazz fusion is an acquired taste, and Jaco Pastorius embraced,
to the fullest possible extent, the excesses offered by its intellectually and
musically dense form. There is no doubt that Pastorius mastered his instrument
at a very young age. It’s equally undeniable that he had to go far afield in
order to find new musical challenges for himself. Still, like guitarist John
McLaughlin and the countless others who have shared his musical ethos, Pastorius often plays in a way that leaves very little room for the listener to
breathe. Every phrase is jam-packed with ideas that are executed at lightning
speed. The resulting question that often comes to mind is this: What end are
these explorations hoping to achieve?
Dexterity and virtuosity are important, of course, but as Bach demonstrated
with his solo cello sonatas, the most technically challenging pieces are
intended to be exercises, not music that is offered up for public consumption.
Often, Pastorius’ work sounds like devilishly clever and tremendously difficult
warm-up routines rather than finished compositions. While the 20th
Century proved to listeners that there are many other virtues in music aside
from melody, Jaco Pastorius was no Igor Stravinsky or John Coltrane. Both of
these pioneers knew when to pull back. They knew when to leave breathing room.
Had Pastorius survived longer, he undoubtedly would have transcended the
limitations of his chosen musical form. Sadly, there is no way of knowing where
his creativity would have taken him. Instead, we are left to ponder the riddle
of how to appreciate the music he left behind when a 21st Century
context has yet to be found that makes sense of the appeal of ’70s fusion. 
The Essential Jaco Pastorius is available from Amazon.com.
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Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2007 The Music Box
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