John Francis Anthony Pastorius III, also known as Jaco Pastorius (pronounced JAH-koh pass-TOR-ee-uhss; December 1, 1951 – September 21, 1987), was an American jazz bassist, composer, and producer. He is considered one of the greatest and most influential bassists in history. Pastorius recorded music as a solo artist, band leader, and as a member of the jazz fusion group Weather Report from 1976 to 1981. He also worked with many artists, such as Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, and Joni Mitchell.

His playing style was influenced by funk music. He used a fretless bass, played melodic solos, used bass chords, and creatively used harmonics. As of 2017, he was the only one of seven bassists inducted into the DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame who was known for his work on the electric bass. He has been recognized as one of the best bassists of all time.

Pastorius faced challenges with drug addiction and mental health issues. Later in life, he had difficulty keeping jobs because of his unreliability. He often struggled with money and was homeless during the mid-1980s. He died in 1987 from injuries he suffered during a fight outside a nightclub in South Florida.

After his death, his work remained influential. He was inducted into the DownBeat Hall of Fame in 1988. A documentary film about his life, titled Jaco, was released in 2014.

Early life and education

Jaco Pastorius was born on December 1, 1951, in Norristown, Pennsylvania. He was the oldest of three sons born to Stephanie Catherine (born Haapala; 1925–2001), who had Finnish heritage, and John Francis Pastorius Jr. (1922–2004), a musician of Italian and German descent who worked as a singer and jazz drummer. John spent much of his time traveling. When Jaco was eight years old, his family moved to Oakland Park near Fort Lauderdale, Florida. His ancestor was Francis Daniel Pastorius, an early American abolitionist.

The origin of Jaco’s nickname, "Jaco," is not certain. In a 2001 interview with Bob Miles, Jaco’s father, Jack Pastorius, said he received the nickname during his time in the Navy and later used it for Jaco as a child. In a documentary called Jaco, Jaco’s brother stated their mother created the nickname. Some believe the nickname was also influenced by Jaco’s interest in sports and a sports umpire named Jocko Conlan. In 1974, Jaco began spelling his name "Jaco" after a neighbor, pianist Alex Darqui, mistakenly wrote it that way. Jaco’s brother also called him "Mowgli" because of his energetic personality and love for outdoor activities, such as swimming, climbing trees, and running through the woods. Jaco attended St. Clement’s Catholic School in Wilton Manors, Florida, and served as an altar boy at St. Clement’s Church. His confirmation name was Anthony. He was very competitive and excelled in baseball, basketball, and football. He played drums until he injured his wrist while playing football at age 13. The injury required surgery and made it difficult for him to continue playing drums.

By age 17, Jaco became interested in jazz music and saved money to buy an upright bass. He liked the deep, rich sound of the instrument, but it was expensive to maintain. He struggled with keeping the instrument in good condition because of Florida’s high humidity. One day, he discovered the bass had cracked and traded it for a 1962 Fender Jazz Bass.

During his teenage years, Jaco played bass guitar for Wayne Cochran and the C.C. Riders.

In the early 1970s, Jaco taught bass at the University of Miami, where he met jazz guitarist Pat Metheny, who was a teacher at the school. Jaco and Metheny, along with musicians Paul Bley and Bruce Ditmas, recorded an untitled album called Jaco in 1974. Jaco later played on Metheny’s first album, Bright Size Life (ECM, 1976). In 1976, Jaco released his first solo album, Jaco Pastorius (Epic), featuring musicians such as Michael Brecker, Randy Brecker, Lenny White, Herbie Hancock, Hubert Laws, Sam & Dave, David Sanborn, and Wayne Shorter.

Career

Before recording his first album, Pastorius attended a concert in Miami by the jazz fusion band Weather Report. After the concert, he met Joe Zawinul, the band's leader. As he often did, he introduced himself by saying, "I'm John Francis Pastorius III. I'm the greatest bass player in the world." Zawinul admired his confidence and asked for a demo tape. After listening to the tape, Zawinul realized Pastorius had strong musical skills. They exchanged letters, and Pastorius sent Zawinul a rough mix of his solo album.

When bassist Alphonso Johnson left Weather Report, Zawinul invited Pastorius to join the band. Pastorius made his band debut on the album Black Market (Columbia, 1976), sharing the bass role with Johnson. Pastorius became the sole bass player for the recording of Heavy Weather (Columbia, 1977), which included the Grammy-nominated song "Birdland."

During his time with Weather Report, Pastorius began using alcohol and illegal drugs, which worsened his mental health and caused unpredictable behavior. He left the band in 1982 due to conflicts with tour schedules for other projects and growing dissatisfaction with Zawinul's use of electronic sounds and arranged music.

Warner Bros. signed Pastorius to a contract in the late 1970s because of his unique talent and popularity, hoping his music would sell well. He used this contract to form his Word of Mouth big band, which included musicians like Chuck Findley on trumpet, Howard Johnson on tuba, Wayne Shorter and others on reeds, Toots Thielemans on harmonica, and many drummers and percussionists. This group recorded his second solo album, Word of Mouth (Warner Bros., 1981).

In 1982, Pastorius toured with Word of Mouth as a 21-piece big band. While in Japan, he shocked his band members by shaving his head, painting his face black, and throwing his bass guitar into Hiroshima Bay. He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in late 1982 after the tour. Earlier signs of the condition had been ignored, with some people thinking his behavior was just eccentric or part of his personality.

Despite media attention, Word of Mouth sold poorly. Pastorius and the band finished recording Holiday for Pans by 1982, but Warner Bros. did not release it. Instead, the label released Invitation (1983), a live recording from the Japan tour. As his substance abuse problems worsened, he struggled to find work and became homeless. In 1985, while filming an instructional video (Modern Electric Bass), he told interviewer Jerry Jemmott that he wished someone would give him a job. That same year, he performed a well-received concert in Brussels, Belgium, with Toots Thielemans.

Until about 1970, most jazz bassists played the upright bass, also called the double bass. At that time, bassists usually stayed in the background with the drummer, forming the rhythm section, while other musicians led the band. Pastorius had different ideas. He played an electric bass with the frets removed. He played quickly and loudly, sang, and performed acrobatic moves. He used powder on the stage to dance like James Brown. He joked with the audience and often went barefoot and shirtless. He was tall, lean, and strong, and his nickname "Jocko" fit because he played sports. His thumbs were "double jointed," and his fingers were long and thin.

After learning about artificial harmonics, he added them to his playing style. Natural harmonics are created by lightly touching a string while plucking it, producing a bell-like sound. Artificial harmonics involve pressing a string with the left hand and using the right hand to stop the note an octave higher. An example is the bass line in the introduction to "Birdland."

Pastorius used complex bass lines that combined Afro-Cuban rhythms, inspired by musicians like Cachao Lopez, with R&B to create fast, syncopated 16th-note funk lines. He used a "movable anchor" thumb technique, pressing the bridge pickup while playing on the E and A strings and muting the E string with his thumb on higher strings. Examples include "Come On, Come Over" from Jaco Pastorius and "The Chicken" from The Birthday Concert.

Another feature of his playing was his use of the octave technique, often used in slap bass. He used this technique with fingerstyle, which was groundbreaking at the time because it had mostly been used on guitars. This is heard in "Portrait of Tracy" from Jaco Pastorius and "Birdland" from Heavy Weather. He also used fast, precise chromatic runs, which became a hallmark of his style. These runs appear in "Opus Pocus" from Jaco Pastorius and "Port of Entry" from Night Passage.

Influences

Jaco Pastorius was influenced by many musicians. He was inspired by electric bass players like James Jamerson, Chuck Rainey, Jerry Jemmot, Paul McCartney, Tommy Cogsbill, Duck Dunn, Rocco Prestia, and Harvey Brooks. He also learned from upright bass players such as Ron Carter, Paul Chambers, Charles Mingus, Gary Peacock, and Dave Holland. Jaco first played the upright bass, and these artists helped shape his playing style, giving him a strong foundation in traditional jazz. Even though their styles were very different from Jaco's, they taught him important skills like the rhythm of swing and how music moves and changes. He was also influenced by jazz and rock musicians, including John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Miles Davis, Jimi Hendrix, and Charlie Parker. Jimi Hendrix was especially important to Jaco's growth as a bassist. Hendrix was known for his exciting stage presence and for showing how an electric guitar could make new sounds. Jaco took these traits and became famous for his own unique stage presence. Many people credit him with changing how the bass guitar is used in a band. Jaco was also inspired by jazz and classical composers like Duke Ellington, Igor Stravinsky, and J. S. Bach, as well as singers and bands such as the Beatles, Frank Sinatra, Santana, Otis Redding, and Ray Charles.

The book The Urantia Book inspired Jaco's song "Havona" on the Weather Report album Heavy Weather. The song is known for its dreamy atmosphere and Jaco's fast, complex bass lines and solo. In The Urantia Book, Havona is described as an eternal, perfect universe at the center of all existence.

Equipment

Jaco Pastorius played several Fender Jazz Basses throughout his career, but the most well-known was a 1962 model he named the Bass of Doom. At age 21, he acquired the bass and removed its frets to create a unique sound and expand his musical possibilities. It is unclear exactly when the frets were removed, as his memories of the event changed over time. One account says he used a butter knife to remove the frets and then sealed the fretboard with epoxy resin.

As shown in his instructional video Jaco Pastorius: Modern Electric Bass, Pastorius often replaced the neck of his Bass of Doom with a fretted Fender Precision Bass neck for two reasons: 1) The RotoSound Swing Bass 66 stainless steel strings he used wore down the fingerboard of his fretless neck, and 2) the wider Precision neck made it easier for him to stretch his fingers. He used the Precision neck for practice and reattached the fretless neck for performances.

In 1986, the Bass of Doom was repaired by musical instrument makers Kevin Kaufman and Jim Hamilton after it was broken into many pieces. After the repair, Pastorius recorded a session with guitarist Mike Stern. The bass was later stolen from a park bench in Manhattan in 1986. It was discovered in a guitar shop in 2006, but the shop owner refused to return it. The Pastorius family hired lawyers to recover the instrument, which nearly caused them to go bankrupt by 2010. Robert Trujillo, a bassist for the band Metallica, admired Pastorius and believed the family deserved to own the bass. Trujillo helped pay for its return and now legally owns the instrument, using it for recordings and performances.

In the mid-1980s, Fender began offering a fretless version of its standard Jazz Bass. In 1999, Fender released the "Fender Jaco Pastorius Jazz Bass" in its Artist and Custom Shop series, modeled after the Bass of Doom. The Custom Shop version included a fretboard sealed with epoxy resin. In the 2000s, Fender’s budget brand, Squier, produced the "Squier Vintage Modified Fretless Jazz Bass," which also resembled Pastorius’s instrument.

Since the 1980s, other companies, such as Tokai and Edwards, have created fretless basses inspired by or modeled on the Bass of Doom.

Pastorius used the "Variamp" EQ controls on his two Acoustic 360 amplifiers (made by Acoustic Control Corporation) to increase midrange frequencies, enhancing the natural, deep tone of his fretless passive Fender Jazz Bass and roundwound strings. He also used a rackmount MXR digital delay unit to control his tone, sending the signal to a second Acoustic amplifier.

During the last three years of his life, Pastorius used Hartke cabinets with aluminum speaker cones because they produced a bright, clear sound. He often used the delay in a chorus-like mode to create a shimmering stereo effect. He frequently used the built-in fuzz control on the Acoustic 360. For the bass solo "Slang/Third Stone From the Sun" on Weather Report’s live album 8:30 (1979), Pastorius used the MXR digital delay to layer and loop a chordal figure, then played over it. A similar technique, with a looped bass riff, is heard in his solo on the Joni Mitchell concert video Shadows and Light.

Guest appearances

Pastorius was a guest on many albums by other musicians, including Ian Hunter of Mott the Hoople. He played a solo on the title track of his own album All American Alien Boy, released in 1976. He also appears on Airto Moreira's album I'm Fine, How Are You? (1977). His unique sound is clearly heard on Flora Purim's Everyday Everynight (1978), where he played the bass melody for a song called "The Hope" by Michel Colombier. He also performed bass and sang on a song he wrote titled "Las Olas." Other recordings include his work on four Joni Mitchell albums between 1976 and 1980 (Hejira, Don Juan's Reckless Daughter, Mingus, and Shadows and Light) and on Al Di Meola's Land of the Midnight Sun, released in 1976. Later in his career, he frequently collaborated with guitarist Mike Stern, guitarist Biréli Lagrène, and drummer Brian Melvin.

Awards and honors

In 1977, Jaco Pastorius received two Grammy nominations for his first album, which was named after him. One nomination was for Best Jazz Performance by a Group, and the other was for Best Jazz Performance by a Soloist for his song "Donna Lee." In 1978, he received another Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Performance by a Soloist for his work on Weather Report's album Heavy Weather.

Bass Player magazine ranked him as the second greatest bass player of all time, placing him behind James Jamerson. After his death in 1987, readers of DownBeat magazine voted him into their Hall of Fame, joining other famous bassists like Jimmy Blanton, Ray Brown, Ron Carter, Charles Mingus, Charlie Haden, and Milt Hinton.

Marcus Miller said, "Jaco's composing was as unique as his playing." Many musicians have written songs in his honor, including Pat Metheny's "Jaco" on the 1978 album Pat Metheny Group, Marcus Miller's "Mr. Pastorius" on Miles Davis's album Amandla, and Rod Argent's "Pastorius Mentioned" on his 1978 album Moving Home. Other musicians who dedicated songs to him include Randy Brecker, Eliane Elias, Chuck Loeb, John McLaughlin, Bob Moses, Ana Popović, Dave Samuels, and the Yellowjackets.

On December 2, 2007, the day after his birthday, a concert called "20th Anniversary Tribute to Jaco Pastorius" was held at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The event featured performances by the Jaco Pastorius Big Band and appearances by musicians such as Randy Brecker, Dave Bargeron, Peter Erskine, Jimmy Haslip, Bob Mintzer, Gerald Veasley, and Pastorius's family members. Nearly twenty years after his death, Fender released the Jaco Pastorius Jazz Bass, a fretless instrument in its Artist Series.

Jaco has been called "arguably the most important and ground-breaking electric bassist in history" and "perhaps the most influential electric bassist today." William C. Banfield, director of Africana Studies, Music and Society at Berklee College, described Pastorius as one of the few original American virtuosos who defined a musical movement, along with artists like Jimi Hendrix, Louis Armstrong, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Christian, Bud Powell, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane, Sarah Vaughan, Bill Evans, Charles Mingus, and Wes Montgomery.

A public park in Oakland Park, Florida—the city where he grew up—is named for and dedicated to Jaco Pastorius.

Death

On September 11, 1987, Pastorius entered the stage at a Santana concert held at the Sunrise Musical Theater in Sunrise, Florida, without permission. Weather Report had been a related group to Santana in the mid-1970s. After being asked to leave the venue, he went to the Midnight Bottle Club in Wilton Manors. When he was not allowed to enter the club, he reportedly broke a glass door. This led to a physical conflict with Luc Havan, a club worker trained in martial arts. Pastorius suffered serious injuries, including broken bones in his face, damage to his right eye, and harm to his left arm. He was hospitalized and fell into a coma. At first, there were hopeful signs that he would recover, but these signs disappeared. A few days later, he experienced a brain hemorrhage, which caused brain death. He was removed from life support and passed away on September 21, 1987, at the age of 35, at Broward General Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale. His funeral took place at St. Clement's Catholic Church in Wilton Manors, Florida. He was buried at Queen of Heaven Cemetery in North Lauderdale, Broward County, Florida.

Luc Havan was charged with second-degree murder. He admitted to committing manslaughter and was sentenced to 22 months in prison and five years of probation. After serving four months in prison, he was released early due to good behavior.

Legacy

Jaco Pastorius left a lasting mark on the world of electric bass in jazz and other music genres. His work became more appreciated by musicians over time. He is best known for his solo album Jaco Pastorius, where the song "Donna Lee" highlights his skill, style, and speed on the electric bass, which was unlike anything seen before. In an interview, he said the hardest part of playing "Donna Lee" was making the strings he wasn’t playing stay quiet. During his time with the band Weather Report, he was recognized for his precise and fast bass lines, played with energy and flair. His early start in music at age 16 inspired many musicians who came after him. Jaco’s legacy shows his skill and pioneering role in jazz and electric bass performance.

Many rock and metal bassists have admired Jaco Pastorius or named him as an influence. These musicians include Jeff Ament (Pearl Jam), Michael Anthony (Van Halen, Chickenfoot, and Sammy Hagar and the Circle), Frank Bello (Anthrax), Rex Brown (Pantera and Down), Chris Chaney (AC/DC, Jane's Addiction, and Slash), Tim Commerford (Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave), Steve Di Giorgio (Testament, Sadus, and Death), David Ellefson (Megadeth), Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Tony Franklin (The Firm and Blue Murder), John Myung (Dream Theater), Paulo Jr. (Sepultura), Billy Sheehan (The Winery Dogs, David Lee Roth, Mr. Big, and Sons of Apollo), Jeroen Paul Thesseling (Pestilence and Obscura), Robert Trujillo (Metallica), Joey Vera (Armored Saint, Fates Warning, and Mercyful Fate), and Alex Webster (Cannibal Corpse).

Jaco Pastorius met Tracy Lee Sexton in the late 1960s. They married in August 1970 and had a daughter, Mary Pastorius, in December 1970, and a son, John Francis Pastorius IV, in 1973. The song "Portrait of Tracy," from his 1976 album Jaco Pastorius, was named after Tracy Lee. Their marriage ended in the late 1970s, and they divorced in early 1979.

In July 1979, Jaco married his girlfriend, Ingrid Horn-Müller, at Tikal Temple III in Tikal, Guatemala. They had twin sons, Julius and Felix Pastorius, in 1982. Their marriage ended in 1985.

Mary Pastorius is a singer, songwriter, and musician. She released an album called From Then Until Almost Now in 2007, which included her brother John Pastorius on drums and her cousin David Pastorius as bassist and co-writer. Felix Pastorius is a bassist and bandleader. He has appeared on the album A Rise in the Road by Yellowjackets, contributed to several albums as a member of the Jeff Coffin Mu’tet, and played in A$AP Rocky’s band.

Discography

• Jaco, featuring Pat Metheny, Bruce Ditmas, and Paul Bley (1976)
• Jaco Pastorius (1976)
• Word of Mouth (1981)
• Invitation (1983)
• Stuttgart Aria, featuring Biréli Lagrène (1986)