Weather Report Before recording
his debut album, Pastorius attended a concert in
Miami by the jazz fusion band
Weather Report. After the concert, he approached keyboardist
Joe Zawinul, who led the band. As was his habit, he introduced himself by saying, "I'm John Francis Pastorius III. I'm the greatest bass player in the world." Zawinul admired his brashness and asked for a demo tape. After listening to the tape, Zawinul realized that Pastorius had considerable skill. He left Weather Report in 1982 because of clashes with tour commitments for his other projects, plus a growing dissatisfaction with Zawinul's synthesized and orchestrated approach to the band's music. In 1982, Pastorius toured with Word of Mouth as a 21-piece big band. While in Japan, to the alarm of his band members, he shaved his head, painted his face black, and threw his bass guitar into
Hiroshima Bay. Pastorius had shown signs of bipolar disorder before his diagnosis, but these signs were dismissed as eccentricities, character flaws, and by Pastorius himself as a normal part of his freewheeling personality. Despite attention in the press,
Word of Mouth sold poorly. Pastorius and Word of Mouth had finished recording
Holiday for Pans by 1982, but while this was intended to be his next solo album, Warner Bros. was unimpressed by the demo tapes and refused to release it. In 1985, while filming an instructional video (
Modern Electric Bass), Pastorius told the interviewer,
Jerry Jemmott, that although he had been praised often for his ability, he wished that someone would give him a job.
Stage presence and bass techniques Until about 1970, most jazz bassists played the upright bass, also known as the
double bass. At the time, with few exceptions (such as the bass players in the trios
Bill Evans led), bassists typically remained in the background with the drummer, forming the rhythm section, while the saxophonist, trumpeter, or vocalist handled the melody and led the band. Pastorius had other ideas for the bass player. He played an electric bass from which he had removed the
frets. He played fast and loud, sang, and did flips. He spread powder on the stage so he could dance like
James Brown. He joked around and talked to the crowd. A self-described Florida beach bum, he often went barefoot and shirtless. He was tall, lean, and strong, and for someone who played sports the nickname "Jocko" fit. His thumbs were
"double jointed" and his fingers were long and thin.) An often-cited example is the bass line on the introduction to "Birdland". He used virtuosic bass lines which combined
Afro-Cuban rhythms, inspired by the likes of
Cachao Lopez, with R&B to create 16th-note funk lines syncopated with
ghost notes. He played these with a "movable anchor" thumb technique on the right hand, anchoring on the bridge pickup while playing on the E and A strings and muting the E string with his thumb while playing on higher strings. Examples include "Come On, Come Over" from the album
Jaco Pastorius and "The Chicken" from
The Birthday Concert. Another characteristic of Jaco's playing was his use of the octave technique which is very often used with
slap bass. Jaco's use of the technique with fingerstyle was revolutionary at the time, since previously it had only really been used on
guitars. Another aspect of his playing was the heavy use of chromatic runs; these were played with immense speed and precision and became very characteristic of his style. == Influences ==