Jaco’s Bass of Doom
This is one of the coolest photos of Jaco that I know; especially bearing in mind that Pastorius was killed at a time when most guys looked rather more like this. I’ve written before on NZBC about Jaco’s fretless Fender Jazz and about the sensation and controversy created among fans and bass players when that bass — stolen from Jaco while he was homeless and hanging out around New York’s Central Park shortly before he was murdered — was “rediscovered” last year and given some celebrity substantiation. While reading again through coverage of that event, I stumbled upon Paul Calandrino’s 10-minute play, Sergei Dibbs and The Bass of Doom. It’s wonderful; funny and sad, a three-hander packed with reverential observations any bass-playing Jaco fan will find themselves smiling wryly about:DIBBS
(Angry now.) I am not a petty thief! That’s the furthest thing from the truth! The Bass of Doom has been missing for twenty years. It is the single most important musical instrument to have existed in the last one hundred years, belonging to John Francis Anthony Pastorius III, known as Jaco the world over. He invented a way of playing — multiple ways of playing — that revolutionized the instrument … no, that reinvented the instrument!
It’s the real deal. The epigraph to Calandrino’s play is the famous quote from bassist Neil Stubenhaus, taken from Bass Player magazine which, like the sound of the real Bass of Doom, makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck:
“The music Jaco made on this instrument is the bass world’s Declaration of Independence.”
Who loves ya, baby.
“The music Jaco made on this instrument is the bass world’s Declaration of Independence.”
Who loves ya, baby.
posted by Chris Bell at 9:20 PM
5 Comments:
Paul Calandrino writes:
"I'm actually in the process of expanding the play to a longer one-act, which will include a bassist (sort of the spirit of Jaco) playing live onstage. I'm searching now for someone to compose an original score consisting of several short solo pieces in the style of Jaco. No small task. Until original music is ready, I'll likely use a few Jaco recordings ('Portrait of Tracy', 'Continuum', a solo or two) for any workshop productions."
Well, is there a bassist out there who feels confident enough to impersonate Jaco and play solos in the Pastorius style?
Jaco and James Jameson should have a showdown.
Shades of Sam Shepard's Tooth of Crime. Incidentaly,
Spaulding Grey played Hoss in the outa town Premier.
RIP all Y'all mfuggin greats, SHIIIT.
In fact, Jamerson was one of Jaco's influences and is mentioned in the expanded version of the play. One reason for the expansion was that the 10-minute version didn't adequately cover much of the dialectic surrounding Jaco. Was he the "World's Greatest Bass Player"? What about the players he borrowed from? Mingus, Chambers, etc. What about the cats that followed? Wooten, Miller, Patitucci, Bromberg and on and on and on. There are tons of players today who are utterly spectacular. But would any of them be doing what they're doing now if Jaco hadn't done his thing back then? We all stand on somebody's shoulders. But every so often, someone stands head and shoulders above the rest.
That's right, Paul. And Jaco arguably made almost as much of a mark as an arranger and composer as he did as a bassist ('Reza', 'Forgotten Love'). But after all, it's not a competition - Jaco moves some of us in ways other musicans do not, and the closer I listen the more I'm impressed. That might apply to his successors, too, but I remember the first time I listened to 'Donna Lee'...
"it's not a competition"
Amen to that. And we're all the beneficiaries.
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