Premonitions and Precursors of Jaco Pastorius

Jaco Pastorius had a very unique Bass Guitar sound. It defined him. When you heard Jaco, immediately, you know it was Jaco.

However, in the years immediately preceding his emergence on the scene, there were three other instances of Bass Players playing somewhat in the style of Jaco, as if these artists had some sort of psychic premonition (***) of his arrival.

First, let's listen to Jaco's signature sound. This is a track called Continuum, from Jaco's self-titled first album, which was released in 1976:



Now, to the three examples of precursors in the Jaco style.

First, from 1973, For The Love Of Money, by the O'Jays:



From 1974, Rock On, by David Essex:



And finally, from 1975, Eberhard Weber, Yellow Fields:



*** In fact, I don't think there was any psychic premonition involved. While these Bass Guitar performances presented here do sound eerily like Jaco before Jaco even entered the scene, the truth is, the sound these players used was a simple studio trick called a "Chorus Effect".

The sound of a Chorus Effect occurs when individual sounds with roughly the same timbre and nearly (but never exactly) the same pitch converge and are perceived as one. While similar sounds coming from multiple sources can occur naturally (as in the case of a choir or string orchestra), it can also be simulated using an electronic effects unit or signal processing device.

It is the use of this signal processing device we are hearing, in all three cases, which creates the Jaco-like sound the Bass players produce.

The chorus effect can be simulated by signal processing equipment. The signal processor may be software running on a computer, software running in a digital effect processor, or an analog effect processor.

Regardless of the technology or form factor, the processor achieves the effect by taking an audio signal and mixing it with one or more delayed, pitch-modulated copies of itself.

This "Pitch-modulation" creates a slightly detuned effect, which gives the instrument a fatter sound, with a slight shimmer to it.

This is essential to the Jaco sound.

However, Jaco wouldn't have stuck out in history the way he has, if his sound was merely the creation of technology. There were other aspects of his sound which were created by the way 1) by the reconstruction work he did to the actual Bass Guitar he played (which he called The Bass of Doom), and 2)  the percussive way he used his hands

First, the instrument he played. Jaco claimed removed the frets himself[. He then finished the fretboard with marine epoxy (Pettit's PolyPoxy) to protect the wood from the roundwound Rotosound Swing 66 strings he used. It has been said the almost glass-like density of the marine epoxy went a long way to creating Jaco's signature singing sound.

And now, to the way he used his hands. He played with his fingers,  not with a pick. And while I think this created a mellow attack, and allowed him to be more melodic, I think it was the fingers of his left hand which really set him apart. He never quite played the pure sweet note the whole way. He'd darken the note, add a little poison to the pitch. He'd slide up or down to the note and then continued playing with the pitch throughout the duration of the note. He made the Bass sing, almost like a human voice, pronouncing vowels and consonants, rhyming, crying, longing.

I also noted that his playing was percussive. In fact, Jaco Pastorius began as a drummer. And while he was a Jazz Bassist, known for a melodic, and yet funky style, his drumming was decidedly more Rock oriented. I had the pleasure of hearing him play drums with Weather Report on their 1980-81 tour. It was a shock. The concert began with a lot of electronic noise, and the sound of a radio attempting to find a station suitable for listening. And then there was an explosion of keyboards and drums. I'm thinking to myself, what the fuck am I hearing. This sounded more like the beginning Pink Floyd's The Wall, then it did Weather Report. And the guy on the drums, he's POUNDING ON THEM, not wasting his energy on nuance. Just pounding.

But as I listened more closely, I realized the drummer with the same bizarre bombast and vision that I was used to hearing out of Jaco. Hallelujah, it was Jaco pounding away on the drums, like Dave Grohl possessed of an odd time signature demon.

You can hear Jaco laying into the drums on this track (indeed, this is the track Weather Report opened with that fateful night)



Jaco's drumming was powerful, grandiose, and almost malevolent, but it never gave you what you expected. Dude wouldn't stick two and four to save his mother. Fuck two and four, I got cymbals to break, and they break better on off beats. Fuck yeah!

Anyway, Jaco rarely played drums, because of an accident he had while a teen, where he almost totally severed his hand. I suspect it must have continued to give him nerve pain even as he got older.

But why have I gone off into this tangent about his drumming in a post that started with a discussion of his unique Bass sound?

Thing is, Jaco was an original, through and through. He couldn't do anything right. He could only do it Jaco-style. Whether the guy was talking, swimming, walking, drumming, or playing Bass, Jaco's individuality was going to be the topic. He was going to give you a new way of seeing things. The Jaco way.