“There's a real rhythm in Florida," Jaco Pastorius says in a voice saturated in matter-of-fact. “Because of the ocean. There's something about the Caribbean Ocean, it's why all that music from down ...

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Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo is a busy man these days. He's working on completing a documentary film about bass legend Jaco Pastorius, who was a major influence on his playing, and beginning work ...

A transcript of the first meeting between Joe Zawinul, keyboardist/leader of the jazz fusion group Weather Report, and a young player. Young Man: My name is John Francis Pastorius III, and I’m the ...

If only every jazz artist had an advocate like label owner/project producer Bob Bobbing. Bass wunderkind Jaco Pastorius seemingly leapt into the jazz scene in 1976 with the quadruple punch of his ...

Jazz legend Herbie Hancock knows when he is in the presence of genius, something revolutionary, a new way forward. He witnessed it as a young pianist with the Miles Davis Quintet, and again the first ...

As sideman, bandleader or composer, Jaco Pastorius is one of those rare players who can legitimately be said to have revolutionized their instrument. With his lyrical, melodic fretless work, growling ...

It seems inevitable that no matter how brilliant an artist, the specter of an untimely death always hangs heavy over any and all accomplishments. Take Janis, Jimi, and Kurt, for example — each was an ...

Jaco Pastorius was a one-off, a highly gifted bassist, composer and arranger whose death at the tender age of 35 in 1987 left the world of contemporary jazz bereft of perhaps its foremost free spirit.

Before he was recognized as a culture-changing, once-in-a-lifetime artist, before the comparisons to Picasso and Michael Jordan, before the world tours with Weather Report, before Miles Davis wrote a ...

Robert Rutherford thought he had a pretty good idea. A way for Oakland Park, where he lives, to honor its most famous native son, storied jazz bass player Jaco Pastorius, by naming a small new city ...