Jaco - The Extraordinary and Tragic Life of Jaco Pastorius

Shortly after he had met Teresa that December night at Seventh Avenue South, Jaco slipped out of town and travelled to Guadeloupe and Martinique in the French West Indies to conduct clinics and play a series of duet concerts with the great drummer (and former John Coltrane collaborator) Rashied Ali. Their performance on December 14 in Martinique was broadcast over French radio. A bootleg CD, pirated off the radio feed, emerged several years later in Japan as Blackbird. The disc was manufactured by Alfa Jazz and distributed by Timeless Records. And even though the recording is far from audiophile quality - particularly when Jaco dials up mondo-distortion on his bass - the duet performances of Ornate Coleman’s “Broadway Blues”, Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze”, and John Coltrane’s “Naima” are often exhilarating and include moments of real clarity and command by Jaco while also demonstrating an uncanny empathy between the two musicians. “We had a really good hookup”, says Rashied. “You take two guys who are really good at what they do and love what they do - they can’t help but sound good together.”

Indeed, Jaco sounds focused, fleet-fingered, and self-assured during the course of his free-flowing presentation with Ali. Along the way he nonchalantly tosses off his now-famous motifs, quoting liberally from “Liberty City”, “Portrait of Tracy”, “Okonkole y Trompa”, “Barbary Coast”, “Teen Town”, and “(Used to Be a) Cha-Cha” while dropping in his usual quotes from such melodic gems as “The Sound of Music”, “The High and the Mighty”, “Alfie”, and “If I Only Had a Brain”. And the drummer deftly fields everything Jaco throws his way, offering sensitive brushwork, insistent swing, or slamming backbeats to suit the prevailing mood of each piece. Ali even serves up and down-home shuffle on “Fannie Maie” (though Jaco’s vocal mic is dangerously hot on this track). On Two tracks - “Donna Lee” and “Continuum” - Jaco and Rashied are joined by some accomplished bass students who had attended Jaco’s clinic earlier in the day.

Back in New York, Jaco continued playing with Rashied Ali at 55 Grand. In a surprised move, he also began playing duets at the Lone Star Cafe at the start of 1985 with former Jefferson Airplane guitarist Jorma Kaukonen. Occasionally, Jaco and Jorma added Rashied to the mix and call the group There Goes The Neighborhood.