Original subtitles

[JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING]

MAN 1: You gotta understand that this was 1976.

James Brown, Stravinsky,

Jimi Hendrix, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra,

all of these people were making music at the same time.

Everybody wore it as a badge,

it was a war crime to be different,

musicians owned the music business,

MAN 2: This guy approaches me.

Then he said, "By the way, I want to introduce myself."

"My name is John Francis Pastorius III.

I'm the greatest bass player in the world."

And I said, "Get the fuck out of here."

MAN 3: I'm saying to myself, "Well, I'm might be selling this little white kid.

I'm gonna have to show him what to play and everything.

I have to tell him that, you know.

I... The only thing I wanted to say was, "Slow down, man."

[LAUGHS]

MAN 4: He could play Fields.

Blues Fields, that people hadn't played in 30 years.

MAN 5: Good Lord, no one was fucking with John Francis Pastorius III.

You kidding me?

You know, many come and few are chosen. He just had that.

WOMAN: He had a mystical face.

You know, contact with the great mind, the divine mind,

that permeates us all.

MAN 6: We were all like, "Man, Jaco!"

And you know, it was like going to a game

and you're rootin' for, you know, Michael Jordan.

MAN 7: There were people who broke the bones in their thumbs

so that they could bend their thumbs back like Jaco could.

MAN 1: Oh, it's just the sound of it.

MAN 2: The sound? I said, "What the fuck is that?"

MAN 8: That's a bass player doing that.

MAN 5: And not in your lifetime are you gonna find another one like that.

[JAZZ MUSIC CONTINUES]

MAN 3: Good evening. Welcome to Oakland Park, Florida, where I grew up.

I had the fortunate experience of growing up with everybody that played music.

I know where I stole every note.

And I was raised by the best musicians in the world.

Thank you, Jesus and God.

[WHISTLE BLOWS]

MAN: Had to be '83 or '84...

How do you feel today, Jaco?

- Okay, Jerry. - All right.

You know, a lot has been said about you.

But the main thing is that people recognise the fact

that you're able to play with real sincerity,

every style of music.

Not only every style, but you can play all parts of a given piece

at the same time, on this one instrument, the bass.

Now, because of this, a lot of people have gone crazy

trying to duplicate what you do.

People who have become great fans of the bass

and given it quite a bit of attention.

How do you, uh, feel about that?

- Give me a gig, you know. - [BOTH LAUGH]

[PLAYS A CHORD]

He said, "Well, heck, you know, give me a gig."

And ironically, at that particular point,

he couldn't get... He couldn't get a gig.

What drove you to this point?

It was all over him. You could see it,

that he was a man who had trouble.

But getting it out was, was very important.

Even, you know, in the shape that he was in.

[BASS GUITAR PLAYING]

It wasn't just notes.

It had feeling, it had meaning to it, it had character.

You can't really teach that,

This is stuff that he learned to play when he was in his heart.

[THUNDER RUMBLING]

[BASS GUITAR PLAYING]

[CROWD CHEERING AND APPLAUDING]

ROBERT: Jaco, four letters. Who is this guy?

And once you actually heard him play,

you know, it was like getting slapped in the face,

you know, just bam! Wow!

FLEA: Everything changed when he started playing,

it was never the same again,

he shredded everything that came before him

and it will never be done again.

He just changed the rules

of what's possible on the bass and what can be done.

That, that dude was the greatest, you know.

I mean, we all say that he's our Hendrix.

[AUDIENCE CHEERING]

[CONTINUE CHEERING]

[SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING]

JERRY: Remarkable talent.

The delivery system was that, yeah, the chops were there,

but the support he needed was pulled away.

For whatever reason.

He was already an artist, you see,

and being an artist, it's hard to, you know,

it's hard to go back.

[ELECTRONIC MUSIC PLAYING]

JACO: I grew up in Florida, where there was no real musical prejudice.

There was all sorts of music. Everything from Cuban music

to symphonic music, everything.

Like, everything you wanted to hear, you could hear it.

And everything was here.

I really wasn't influenced that much by bass players.

To tell you the truth,

I didn't even know who the bass players were most of the time.

The main thing was just the music itself.

Whatever was like hip then, that's what I was checking out.

Mostly, like, all 45s.

[PLEASE DON'T LOVE ME PLAYING]

* Please don't love me

* And please don't step on toes

* It's not too smart To walk on hearts

* So, baby, please go slow...

We moved to Florida in around '58, '59.

There was never a bad record in our house.

Nat King Cole, Tony Bennett, all the big bands.

That was all I would listen to.

* But, baby, please go slow

* And don't be so dark I'm serious

* You could learn to fly...

Jaco used to come up and watch us.

Believe it or not, we're working in Charlie Johnson's Crab House

and his mother brought him in for dinner.

And I got Jaco up on the bandstand

sat him on the piano.

He sang the whole Come Fly With Me album.

Sinatra album.

That is the first time that I ever thought,

"Man, like, this guy is gonna be something else."

He just sat there like nothing and sang the whole album.

- [BASS GUITAR PLAYING] - [APPLAUSE]

Jaco used to go to bed at night with little transistor radios.

He would listen to Cuba.

He would get Cuba on that radio.

- [CUBAN MUSIC PLAYING] - [PEOPLE CHATTERING]

He was obsessed with good music.

He served papers.

He had 250 papers a day. In the off season.

He was a worker. He was a worker.

So one day he went out and bought a full set of drums.

All the money he saved.

[CUBAN MUSIC CONTINUES]

Jaco was born John Francis Pastorius III,

but my mom didn't want to call him John

'cause that was, you know, my grandfather.

And it wasn't going to be Jack.

And she says she came up with Jaco.

My mom had a really horrific childhood.

Her mother took everything that was wrong in her life, out on my mom.

She was the middle of nine children.

My mom wanted to be the homemaker, you know,

She wanted to take care of somebody.

My dad did not want to be taken care of.

They would go out to dinner

and everybody wanted to buy Jack a drink.

He was an entertainer.

And so, it became pretty evident

when we moved to South Florida

that we were gonna live with my mom

and my dad was gonna float around.

[ENGINE REVVING]

My dad, you know, sent money.

A couple of times where it lapsed.

Clothes got passed down

and you know, I can remember, you know, pancakes and Kool-Aid for dinner.

You know, it was life with mom.

[DRUMSTICKS CLACKING]

[UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING]

[INDISTINCT CHATTER]

Las Olas Brass was based on, you know, the Tijuana Brass,

Herb Alpert's thing.

Soul tunes and anything Motown.

But back then, Florida was,

South Florida was a cracker town, man.

You got the nice white side over here, on the east,

and to the west was what you now call the hood.

We would go ride our bicycles over into, you know, the hood.

And I remember, we used to sit on sacks.

[MUSIC CONTINUES]

[DOG BARKING]

BOB: In the neighborhood there was this club... There it is.

You know, it was like, two houses put together. And a fence around it.

And everyone's howling in the street. [HOWLS]

You know, they got a couple of neon signs.

It's like a makeshift night club in the middle of this neighborhood.

It was wild, you know.

And I'm thinkin', "Okay, you know, I don't wanna"

act like I'm frightened or concerned about this."

We're kids, you know.

But he says, "Park there." He directs me to park

over weeds, in this field.

And he goes, "Listen, man, I'm gonna get ready to play and be cool."

[JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING]

This place was wild.

It's a total black club, of course, and he's already got this like, jive thing,

"Hey, baby, what's happening?"

And you know, it's, "Oh, hey, Jaco."

It's like he practiced with the band, you know.

I mean, he knew the tunes.

Jaco was looking for the best musicians,

searching out the hottest cats.

He loved guys like Little Beaver,

Frank Williams and The Rocketeers.

These guys aren't on records on the stores,

they're been played on black stations only.

Like on WRBD Radio, it was a black station.

By the way, Jaco got three dollars that night.

Three dollars.

[SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING]

JACO: That was it. I just started that simple.

I just went and bought a bass and I was working at night,

just making like I could play it, you know.

R&B or maybe some rock 'n' roll or whatever.

Just to get some work, you know.

Have some fun.

And I had no ambition whatsoever in life, at all,

except for just, um, play tonight.

That's it. I'm gonna go play tonight over at this club, you know.

[ROCK 'N' ROLL MUSIC PLAYING]

[ENGINE REVVING]

* Can't Turn You Loose...

I love, rot gut, stomp, kick, blues, rhythmic blues.

Over the years, I was know as the king of Blue Eyed Soul.

See, up to then people toured, that's what you did, you toured year round.

I toured 48 to 50 weeks a year for 25 years.

And if you walk off with any energy left then you didn't give your all.

I mean, you had to be the best amongst the most exciting, the baddest that ever lived.

It was hell on any musician.

They just didn't believe when you come into band that you could cut it.

Because they believed they were the baddest kickers in the world.

They could chew a little kid like Jaco up.

And he comes in to audition, of course,

the band put charts in front of him

from what I gather, he didn't read much at all.

All that mattered to me was can he play a field.

I just give him a chord and say "I'm gonna count to four, we're gonna play a blues."

Play some lead blues right now.

* 'Cause the old folks

* The old folks Keep on dying, yeah... *

He was straight, he could play fields, blues fields,

that people hadn't played in thirty years.

If he heard it one time, he could play it authentically,

but not only where the notes right, the field was right.

And that was the one thing that impressed me.

I knew it, I knew somebody in the band gonna teach him to read.

RANDY: Jaco had two pairs of corduroy jeans and three t-shirts

and everything he owned fit in his Fender bass case.

The tux was way to big for Jaco so he left all his clothes on

and put the tux on over it so he's got

two layers of clothes to make his tux fit

[LAUGHING]

He kept all his money and cash and put it in his sock

and he put it in his Fender bass case.

And uh,

he spent very little money.

If we ate in a restaurant, he ordered the cheapest thing on the menu.

Usually a hot dog. That's what he ate.

Put the rest of the money in his sock, kept it, and sent it home.

He was, he was a great road father.

[BIRDS CHIRPING]

[MELLOW MUSIC PLAYING]

I was instantly comfortable with him.

You know, he had that kinda power over people.

Instant charm.

He was a junior, I was a sophomore.

And he and I just sat on a beach bench

and just talked for a couple of hours.

Both our fathers were Jazz musicians,

both our families had broken up, the fathers drank to much,

you know, I, I didn't have to put on any errors.

He had it figured out mathematically.

That when I was a senior in high school,

"You know what, I think it's time for us to have a baby."

He had places to go.

GREGORY: When Mary was born.

The day she was born, Joc and I went to the hospital

and where looking at her through the glass.

She's in there in a bassinet.

Jaco looks at me and goes, "Gregory",

I got to do something on that electric bass that's never been done before."

And he pointed at Mary.

I was like, "Well, okay I get it."

You know, he's got to support this kid and...

I mean, you know, he was a working musician.

But, working musician around town, that's, that's tough.

And so, it just, the way he said it,

I got to do something that's never been done before.

Well, he did.

[PLAYING BASS GUITAR]

That voice,

was the voice of music, it was the singer and the horn.

It's not the rhythm section. The rhythm section is there doing the work to support it.

We're the, we're the setting of that ring.

We made that diamond shine brilliantly.

In the right setting the gem is beautiful,

in the wrong setting, you can't see the brilliance of it.

So, our job is primarily to support that stone,

but he was able to become the stone also.

First thing, was to learn to melody to every tune.

- Um-hmm. - Which I feel is like ultra important.

- Uh-huh. - The melody is always designated

let's say to a horn player the piano or the guitar.

- Um-hm. - But it's nice to play it on the bass, too.

Certainly. And a fretless bass.

The fretless, I, I took the frets out of my bass

after I was, you know, getting into jazz a lot and to have that,

that upright sound, you know, so I had an upright.

Took me years and years to get enough bread to get it.

One morning when I woke up,

in the corner the base is in, like, a hundred pieces,

you know, 'cause the humidity is so bad, I mean, the upright just blew up.

I said, "Forget it, I can't afford this any more, so I went out",

got a knife,

and took all of, you know, frets out of my Fender. That was it.

And the rest is history.

[BOTH CHUCKLE]

Careful, don't cut yourself.

Don't cut me.

Yeah.

It's closer to the the, the sound of a voice, the flexibility of a voice.

The inflections. This, this adds to, to sort of a

metallic tone to the, to the quality to the sound.

That's right, it's less metallic.

[LAUGHING]

Using a fretless bass

gave the instrument a resonance

not to similar to a cello.

That resonant rich warm tone that sounds like a cello.

I think, every bass player in the world having heard that

was... their world was suddenly re-calibrated.

What about harmonics?

That's something that you, like you pioneered.

I mean, this must have had harmonics on them forever, but you have like,

almost like you went to a mine

and you know, gotten gold out of something that wasn't there before.

Well, when I was first playing

a friend of mine

I saw him just tuning his guitar with harmonics which everybody does and uh,

so I was just doing this,

it sounded like music to me so I just kept, kept exploring it.

That's all there was to it.

He explored the harmonic range of, of the instrument by, by playing harmonics

that uh, gave the bass suddenly a symphonic range.

Which again was ming blowing.

[PLAYING BASS GUITAR]

I think they gave me a cassette of Jaco playing.

And I'm listening to this wondering who in the heck is this?

Nobody plays like this.

I was hard to describe.

Jaco, married to Tracy with his two kids John and Mary.

Definitely a family man, almost like uh, like uh like a farmer.

His own personality is so in much what he does.

You're not even aware of the influences.

You're hearing something new.

What I heard was him.

And that's one of the most important elements that a musician must have.

Jaco had developed his own sound.

[UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING]

[MAN VOCALIZING]

* There's days in my life When I drift through my mind

* Thinking about the good times The kind I left behind

* Next, I'm aware...

This was I think, 1974.

My band was Blood, Sweat and Tears.

He was doing a residency down there,

a Bachelors III in Fort Lauderdale.

[CHATTERING]

The softball team for Bachelors III asked me to play

and center field was a blond woman and she had her mid on and her hands on her knees.

She went, "Badder, badder, hey, badder, badder!"

I just said, "Who are you?" And she said, "Oh, I'm Tracy."

I said, "Well, how are you affiliated with this group?"

She said, "Well, I work at the club." I said, "I never saw you at the club."

She said, "I don't hang out much, I just kinda go home."

And she was really cute, really, really sweet girl.

I said, "Are you married?" And she said, "Yes."

Uh... Pause. "To the greatest bass player in the world!"

This fellow shows up, thin guy with kind of plastic glasses.

And he said, "I'm Tracy's husband, Jaco."

I said, "Oh. I understand you're the greatest bass player in the world."

He said, "I am." And I went, "Okay."

And then of course, the arrogant New York side of me came out.

And I said, "Well, why don't you get your bass and just play a little bit?"

Just play."

[BASS GUITAR MUSIC PLAYING]

He played Donna Lee, that's a Charlie Parker song with a solo.

[PLAYING THE SAXOPHONE]

[PLAYING THE DRUMS]

[PLAYING THE SAXOPHONE]

He played it with the facility and the phrasing

and nuance as a saxophone player.

He wouldn't go... [VOCALIZING]

He'd go... [VOCALIZING]

Which I had never heard before in that instrument.

And I said, "You know, look, I'm gonna try and get you a record deal."

[JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING]

I brought Jaco to New York

and he lived there with me while we were doing this album.

Luckily the head of A&R was a bass player.

And I thought, you know, there is no one that's gonna hear this who plays

a stringed instrument that isn't gonna go,

"All right. Let's just start all over and figure out what's going on."

And Jaco had a tremendous sense of loyalty.

His friends in Florida meant a lot to him.

And he wanted to keep them involved as much as possible.

He comes to my house and he says, "We got signed!"

As soon as he said "we" like we was like Simon and Garfunkel or something.

He said, "Come on, you gotta fly up here to New York."

And he says, "Do not come up if you're not gonna deliver."

He didn't tell me a lot of what we were walking into.

My first day there, I walk into Columbia Studios,

Hubert Laws is the first one I see

and then I turn and there's Lenny White sitting by the drums,

and Jaco's eyes have lit up 'cause he knows he's found home.

This is the level that he belongs on.

[JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING]

Word got out really fast around the New York scene.

Jaco was able to handpick whoever he wanted.

If you look at the pictures, from that recording,

my hair was all over my head and you know, it was wild.

And basically, what would happen is, we would go play, take a take,

and go outside and play basketball.

I mean, we could have done this on bicycles

with microphones and he would have played it perfectly.

I don't think there were a lot of takes on anything. And there were no expectations.

This wasn't a hit record, pop radio, sort of thing.

My goal was to bring Jaco to as many people as humanely possible.

To just have them listen and recognize this genius.

And then from there, whatever happens, happens but that's the goal of a first record.

And that's what I wanted to happen

and I'm absolutely confident that's exactly what happened.

[BASS GUITAR MUSIC PLAYING]

Everybody was interested in working for Jaco.

I went over there with Ronson.

"We've got to see this guy, you know."

And Jaco just sat us up there in Bobby's house playing...

Kind of like a performing seal or something.

Enormous ego, but innocent.

He was 21 years old at that point.

He knew about dope, he knew about all that stuff. He was too clever for that.

He would sit on top of a hill and meditate.

He had it all down, you know.

I'm just about to do All American Alien Boy so he said, "I'll do that."

He was totally immersed in whatever he did.

In my case, it was the record I was doing.

But like three months later, he was totally immersed in something else.

* Well I was born On the line

* And I was raised On the line

* Oh, I was schooled On the line

* And I was fazed On the line

* And I was used On the line

* And I was dazed On the line

* Just had to split Off the line

* 'Cause I was crazed Off the line

* But I remember All the good times

* Me 'n Miller enjoyed

* Up and down the M1 In some luminous yo-yo toy

* But the future has to change

* And to change I've got to destroy

* Oh look out Lennon Here I come

* Land ahoy-hoy-hoy

* All American Alien Boy All American Alien Boy

* All American Alien Boy All American Alien Boy

* All American Alien Boy All American Alien Boy *

Hello. Tonight's South Bank Shows are filled with American jazz band, Weather Report.

[JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: Josef Zawinul was born in 1932.

And he grew up in a village in Vienna woods.

His music still draws on his memories in Austria.

There was a guy, he played the piano and he played something, uh...

I never heard even the name... Jazz.

But there was something about the name jazz...

And I was kind of ego tripping on this.

You know, I said, J-A-Z-Z,

somehow I saw, I saw my name in there.

NARRATOR: Zawinul began with Wayne Shorter

in Miles Davis' great band of 1969.

At that time, Davis was gathering a number

of the most talented young musicians around him.

Men like John McLaughlin, Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams and Chick Corea.

Together, they were forging a completely new kind of electronic jazz.

In getting into the 1970s,

and we knew there was a hell of a change happening,

and that we would be somehow responsible for it.

When we went to Florida, we were leaving a theater and walking down a street.

Someone from Florida walking with us said,

"The guy Jaco is right behind you, he's right behind you."

Jaco brought his album

and he'll throw it as a Frisbee to Joe...

And say, "Hey Joe, check this out! Ba!"

You know, throw it like that. And Joe, um, got it.

Then he said, "By the way, I wanna introduced myself",

"My name is John Francis Pastorius III,

I'm the greatest bass player in the world."

And I said, "Get the fuck outta here."

I mean, that's the way I said it.

That evening after we finished playing,

I can hear music coming out of a room,

I kinda stop, and it's Joe's room.

You know, I peep in and I... I didn't see Jaco,

I saw his back, his back was to the door, but I could hear this recording and I go,

"Wow, who's that?" you know? So Joe said,

"Come in, come in. I want you to meet this guy. He's a bad motherfucker."

So he introduced me to Jaco and listened to the record. It was incredible.

I started putting two and two together, you know? [LAUGHING]

Here's this phenomenal bass player Joe's interested in,

what are my chances of my being around much longer?

So I just kind of went for the other gig and just worked out perfect.

All of a sudden, here come the news, Alphonse Johnson,

gonna quit the band because he's gonna make

George Duke and Billy Cobham, a band.

It was July, 1975 exactly.

We just came back from Boston, Cannonball Adderley had died.

It was a very hard thing for me.

And I wrote a song which is called, Cannonball.

I had this little melody in the beginning,

which I thought this guy's tone would be perfect for this kind of thing, you know?

So we started writing this particular tune.

And in the beginning, he was busy, you know?

So I just stopped the band for a minute

and I said, "You know what? We already know you can play."

"Forget about that. You are here with us now, you know better now.

You have a beautiful tone, use that tone."

And what happened at that point is on the record.

[JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING]

Joe told me he wanted that Florida sound on Cannonball.

- That Florida sound. - Yeah.

[BASS GUITAR MUSIC PLAYING]

For Wayne and me, he was the third.

You know if you have a triangle,

this was three forceful personalities.

Totally different and nobody giving an inch.

Joe, when we finished that tune, he called his wife.

"Maxine, Maxine, please tell so and so to cook tonight,

"blah, blah, bring a lot of food and wine and this and that.

"We're having a banquet tonight because we're gonna celebrate.

A new guy has come, a genius."

And Jaco right there told Joe, "I need to talk to the managers of Weather Report."

And Jaco talked to them,

"Okay, I wanna know if I can put one song in the album?"

And they laugh at him.

They guys were telling him on the phone, they said,

"Hey Weather Report out of recording...

Those are the best writers in the whole world!"

I said, "That's right but I want to put a tune in there."

And that's uh... [VOCALIZING]

[BASS GUITAR MUSIC PLAYING]

He knew how serious it is

to leave a piece of your soul

in a recording 'cause it's gonna stay there forever.

It's not about bass playing. He was being a storyteller.

We said we played music with hills and valleys

and streams and confrontations.

People think that playing jazz is just a couple of chords, you know.

They call Earth, Wind and Fire jazz,

and they call Kenny, cheap jazz.

It's not, it's deeper than that.

Jazz is a challenge to improvise and be in the moment.

That one moment equals eternity.

The sound of the music that is produced

is really the greatness of the human being.

[BASS MUSIC PLAYING]

[APPLAUDING]

[CLAPPING AND WHISTLING]

We were just new, it was fresh, there was nothing like it.

You know, and we were all like, "Man, Jaco, man! It was like..."

It's like going to a game and you're rooting for, you know, Michael Jordan.

You know, it's impossible or difficult not to like someone who

uh, we all identify with at that point.

You know, we're all rooting for him.

It pushed the envelope. It pushed you to do your best.

And I think, uh, in doing that, it helped push that whole era

in reaching and there was no boundaries.

It was like, "Wow, if he could do that, then maybe I can do this."

I'm gonna take you there, baby. Got ya!

[BASS GUITAR MUSIC PLAYING]

There was a musical movement going on. And we were in it.

So google it, baby. [GIGGLES]

[BASS PIANO MUSIC PLAYING]

A lot of promotion, sold out shows across the country.

Uh, people going crazy. It was really exciting.

'Cause prior to that, that didn't exist.

You know, rock was rock and jazz was jazz, there wasn't a lot of fusion going on.

[BASS GUITAR MUSIC PLAYING]

Back then, you went to see Van Halen

and then you would go see Jaco Pastorius

with the Weather Report or Stanley Clark with Weather Returned Forever.

It was the outrageous virtuosity.

[BASS GUITAR MUSIC PLAYING]

[VOCALIZING] You know, like playing all this crazy shit.

And I was a kid and I was just like,

"This guy is the coolest motherfucker that ever lived!"

[BASS GUITAR MUSIC PLAYING]

The so called jazz police were having fits.

These same people that were going to Ozzy Osbourne concerts,

were now coming to see Returned Forever and Weather Report.

And you go out there and you play everything at 99 miles an hour,

as loud and as fast as you can.

[BASS GUITAR MUSIC PLAYING]

[BASS DRUMS MUSIC PLAYING]

[BASS PIANO MUSIC PLAYING]

[BASS SAXOPHONE MUSIC PLAYING]

The band hired me pretty much, just purely on the strength of Jaco's recommendation.

Jaco and I were half the age of Joe and Wayne.

We were the kids and we were the elders.

And yet Joe and Jaco would compete like brothers.

He could go toe to toe with Zawinul where anyone else would fear to tread.

[BASS GUITAR MUSIC PLAYING]

[APPLAUDING]

- Thank you. - [CHEERING]

- How you doing? - [CHEERING]

- That's Peter Erskine! - [APPLAUDING]

- Jaco Pastorius! - [APPLAUDING]

- Joseph Zawinul! - [APPLAUDING]

Joe Zawinul would come and say,

"Oh man, we are the greatest band in the world, man, you know.

"I mean, like please, everybody's playing this stuff,

but we play it the real deal, we play good stuff."

And Jaco considered himself the greatest bass player in the world.

So he had the greatest bass player in the world getting the greatest band in the world.

Oh man, those two...

were like two cobras.

Two cobras in a very small cage,

with no where to go but they have to make this relationship work.

That's what it was like watching them on stage.

And I can remember, Zawinul with his speed

and in between the cracks, there would be Jaco with something sick.

- [PLAYING THE PIANO] - [PLAYING THE BASS GUITAR]

And I remember sitting there, hearing this conversation come in and out,

that's when I realized, "Man, this is like a boxing match."

It would always surprise me when I'd hear him criticize Jaco.

"You know, Jaco sounds like a trombone sometimes.

You know, teen talents, this is not really a Weather Report song."

Jaco hated that.

He didn't want to hang around for any of that so he would disappear.

Jaco respected his jazz elders.

And yet, he wasn't above ruffling their feathers.

In these photos, you can see Wayne in the background.

He was drinking, had his cigarette, he's just watching,

Wayne never said anything, Joe was doing all the talking.

Jaco used to say, me and Frank Sinatra, we're Sagittarians.

I'm a Sag, he's a Sag. [CHUCKLING]

He met my mother and said, "You're a Sag!"

My mother said, "I'm a Sag, too!"

And she always talked about courage and guts to get through the damn day and everything.

And, um, she would say this about Jaco, "That child", she'll call him "that child".

"That child", she said, "that child, he knows what he's talking about."

Then she'll say, "He's mighty wild though, ain't he?"

His identity in music and theater was coming out.

That's what Jaco had, a history, not just a library but a history,

of being open and not shutting out many kinds of music.

The bass almost became incidental.

[BASS GUITAR MUSIC PLAYING]

[BASS GUITAR MUSIC PLAYING]

[APPLAUDING]

[BASS TEMPO INCREASES]

[THUD]

[APPLAUDING AND CLAPPING]

[CHEERING AND WHISTLING]

For this next song, I have to go into a rather funny tune.

This is a song about a daydreamer.

And daydreaming can get you into a lot of difficulties sometimes,

if not used properly.

[GUITAR MUSIC PLAYING]

[JOAN SINGING]

It took me a long time to find a rhythm section that could play my music.

So I went through a lot of players,

I'll put them on the record and take them off.

So it was until my sixth album,

that one of the guys in this section, Ruskunkel, the drummer said to me,

"Joannie, you know, you're gonna have to play with jazz musicians."

I heard this guy, he played what he was gonna play

and I said, "Well, could you play this note?"

And he went, "I'm not playing that. That's not the route of the chord."

I said, "Well, it will be when you play it. I mean..."

And he rebelled on another issue and finally he said,

"There's this really weird bass player in Florida

you'd probably like him."

I said, "Well, would he play these things I'm asking you?"

"He's already doing that weird stuff." Right?

So I sent for Jaco, excited on seeing him.

[SERENE INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING]

* I'm traveling in some vehicle

* I'm sitting in some cafe

* A defector From the petty wars

* That shell shock love away...

[BASS GUITAR PLAYING]

I'd set up this architecture in me,

he just kind of instinctively, played figuratively...

You know, you're inviting another painter to join you on your canvas.

It's very conversational.

* It's just as natural

* As the weather in this moody sky today

* In our possessive coupling

* So much could not be expressed *

Jaco came into work one night and he said, "Look at my neck."

And I looked at it and on this side, there was a bruise and a redness

and a hollow like that... It looked like it had been made by a pipe.

And he was driving home the night before from the studio,

straight up Sunset Boulevard

to this motel where he was staying.

And the cops pulled him over.

And I don't know what he said to that cop, but the next thing he knew,

the cop had his pistol shoved into his throat.

You know, deeply because the impression of it was still there 24 hours later.

Or 20 hours later.

And while the cop had that pistol at his throat,

he said I said to myself, "It's not my time to die."

And he apparently seemed to know when his time to die was.

I mean, this was side to him that not many people knew about.

I remember he took me up to the bar in Keio Plaza to have a drink.

And so we get the Sake and we have a drink and he starts crying.

And I said, "Well, what's wrong? What's wrong, man?"

And he says, "Well, listen, I'm gonna die when I turn 34."

"And I would like you to look after my babies."

So I said, "You got it. You got it."

Sometimes you see things you don't wanna know.

Especially about yourself. And this was one of those times for Jaco.

[JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING]

[CHILDREN LAUGHING]

MARY: My vision of my dad in my mind's eye always goes to that period.

He has no shirt on, he's in corduroy cut-off Levi shorts

and he's barefoot and his hair's long and he's tan.

He was so young when I was born and he wasn't famous yet.

If he had gigs, you know, outside Calypso bars, whatever, we weren't so...

I had him there every day.

- He would point out, you know, bird sounds... -[BIRDS CHIRPING]

- Wind blowing through leaves or chimes. -[CHIMES TINKLING]

He heard music in everything.

[SEAGULLS SQUAWKING]

It's a gift and I mean, it's a burden, too.

My father was my hero. And still is my hero.

You know, every dad should be their son's hero.

He bought like a Yamaha, what was it? 750?

-[ENGINE REVVING] - And we'll just jump on and ride all the way up the coast.

[ENGINE REVVING]

I would never tell him, I'm scared.

And I'll be holding on, terrified,

but holding on, that's what I miss the most.

[ENGINE REVVING]

I mean, he was a great dad, man.

I mean, but I know he wanted to be there more.

[JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING]

You know, I remember postcards he'll always send to John and Mary.

Every postcard, he'll either point out the historical fact,

or he'll post a question, get the kids thinking.

Almost every morning, without fail.

He knows his important part of the routine

when we travel, to find postcards

to get stamps for those postcards.

Any city we went to, no matter how tired we were,

we were gonna hit the streets, we were gonna see

the best that Florence or Rome or Milan had to offer.

Venice... "Come on, let's ride in the gondolas."

"Let's go on the canals." When are we gonna get a chance to do that?

Um, we had fun.

I never saw him on those first tours

act high or drunk, it was all good times.

Um, but it was present.

He was like a kid, you know, he would do things,

like hide on the bus while it's moving.

And Zawinul will be looking for him for 30 minutes and nobody could find him.

And then he would give up and then Jaco would come out laughing.

And these are the kind of things he would do, just very playful.

Going on stage, "No prisoners!"

was the last thing you would hear him say. "No prisoners!"

[BASS GUITAR MUSIC PLAYING]

[ENGINE WHIRRING]

KRIS KRISTOFFERSON: March, 1979, 200 singers,

musicians and technicians and 70 tonnes of equipment

to arrive at Jose Marti airport, Havana for the Havana jam.

Okay, Havana here we are.

It's really happening for the first time ever.

Looking out the window of this car,

I'm feeling more like Christopher Columbus than Kris Kristofferson.

The Havana Jam, Kris Kristofferson,

Rita Coolidge, Stephen Stills, Billy Joel... It was odd.

Billy Joel and Jaco giving each other attitude.

With all the bands kind of there to support each other, yet were dissing each other.

It's gonna be a face to face confrontation between people who

had best only heard of each other over 90 miles of Caribbean water.

For three nights, the stage of the Karl Marx Theater

here in Havana, Cuba will be shared by American

and Cuban musicians in a unique cultural exchange.

First of its kind since political, economic

and philosophical differences separated our country 20 years ago.

[APPLAUDING]

That distinctive pulse at the heart of Cuban music is an African heartbeat.

I think you'll hear it in the work of the astonishing Tata Guines.

[CHEERING AND WHISTLING]

[TAPPING ON THE PERCUSSION DRUMS]

[TAPPING ON THE PERCUSSION DRUMS]

Jaco was like a kid getting the autograph of Tata Guines.

Many of the patterns that Jaco played on the bass were really Congo patterns.

You know, Jaco's whole Florida beat, his whole Caribbean thing, it's that.

[TAPPING ON THE PERCUSSION DRUMS]

Coincidentally, I mean, the Havana Jam was the first sign of things going wrong.

Jaco got into a thing

with one of the musicians who was the Fania All-Stars.

I think these guys were also from Puerto Rico.

And I don't know if there was some Cuban, Puerto Rican musical dynamic,

but the guy definitely was giving Jaco short shrift.

I mean, Jaco almost got into a fist fight. I think Joe had to break it up.

And then Jaco lost face and I think, uh,

part of that mechanism of his losing face and this whole humiliation thing,

and it played out and This Trio of Doom,

which had tremendously successful rehearsals in New York.

[BASS MUSIC PLAYING]

It was the buzz talk of the whole trip, The Trio of Doom.

The Jazz, rock, whatever you want to call it were equivalent to the three tenors.

[CHEERING]

Tonight, we have visiting Tropicana of a group of American artists...

It could have been great.

But once Jaco kind of went into his little self-destruct mode,

which unfortunately occurred during their set.

The concert was pretty much considered a disaster.

I mean, Jaco was just not himself.

Playing Portrait of Tracy,

and turning the bass up really loud, just not playing the tunes.

Tony never forgave him.

And it was an odd pattern. I mean, whenever Jaco would lose face somehow,

there would be this odd acting out.

I don't know what the dynamics are, you know.

My dad was psychiatrist and he tried to help Jaco.

Maybe my father didn't pass along too much

of that wisdom to me but...

You know, there was some complicated stuff going on.

[APPLAUDING]

[DRUMS BEATING]

[JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING]

* Watching the dry cleaner Do it

* Like Midas In a polyester suit

* It's all luck! It's just luck!

* You get a little lucky And you make a little money! *

[BASS GUITAR PLAYING]

He played in Santa Barbara. Jaco came out on tour. He came late for rehearsals,

shoved my mike off the center, widened his space, powdered the floor,

and you know, took long solos where he danced around a lot.

[BASS DRUMS MUSIC PLAYING]

[BASS SAXOPHONE PLAYING]

[BASS GUITAR MUSIC PLAYING]

[APPLAUDING]

[LAUGHING]

On bass, Jaco Pastorius!

[CLAPPING AND CHEERING]

In Santa Barbara where we filmed, his wife and his mother showed up.

I don't know what those women did to him in the back room... [LAUGHING]

But it was a good thing because when he came out that night and took his solo,

he opened up by quoting, I was High and Mighty.

[JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING]

It was starting to fall apart.

Jaco and the kids and Tracy and fame, and all that.

It was just you know, some things changing.

[BASS GUITAR MUSIC PLAYING]

[APPLAUDING AND CLAPPING]

Jaco took the fame hit.

I can't imagine walking, you know, out or doing something,

then all of a sudden, all these people congregate around you,

and wanna know you and talk to you

and be part of you know, what's going on.

I just... It frightens me.

Suddenly, he was entering some kind of challenges that didn't exist before.

Certainly, Tracy's relationship was home for him.

And it pained him and it saddened him that

that relationship ended, you know.

I think that was a huge loss for him.

You know, failure in the life of a guy who had experienced so much triumph.

[DRUMS BEATING]

[BASS GUITAR PLAYING]

He was conveying his inner self on his canvas.

Everything came out on the instrument

as if he was on the psychiatrist couch

and revealed everything about who he was.

[INCREASED THE TEMPO OF THE BEAT]

[LOUD CHEERING]

[BASS GUITAR MUSIC PLAYING]

[BASS GUITAR MUSIC PLAYING]

[MUSIC STOPS]

[APPLAUDING AND CLAPPING]

[CHEERING AND WHISTLING]

- [CHILDREN CHATTERING] - [SEAGULLS SQUAWKING]

CONRAD: So tell me, what happened with that little tour with Johnny in the summer?

Did it open up any new things for you?

JACO: No. No, I'm just doing my own thing, you know.

CONRAD: No, I mean... But have you got a project happening?

JACO: I don't know, you know, 'cause, I mean, I'm still just the side man, you know?

CONRAD: Right.

CONRAD: So is Epic, are you hanging it up with Epic

or are you gonna try to renegotiate with them?

JACO: Oh, they're such assholes, man, you know, like uh...

CONRAD: Do have a contract where they've got an option on your next record?

JACO: Yeah, but that don't matter to me, you know? [LAUGHING]

All this legal shit in the record business

has got to change because it's 100 percent rip off.

I will never put up with any of that shit.

I will never get ripped off like that.

Because I don't care. I'll just come home and play baseball all day.

-[LAUGHING] - Which I do when I'm home, you know what I mean?

And play basketball and Frisbee and just have fun, you know?

The key issues in his life then were family upheaval.

Big changes in family.

And also,

dissatisfaction with his established work.

What was on record so far for him, left him dissatisfied.

He had married Ingrid and moved up to Deerfield beach.

We would get together at 4:00 a.m.

And he wanted to be recording every morning when the sun came up.

He obviously had compositional ideas that were...

There's a lot of hints of those on the first record.

Okonkole y Trompa, it's just a masterpiece.

It's almost classical music.

He had things to show people that they'd never heard before.

They were in his head for quite a while.

People realized that this is...

We don't know what this is.

Show us.

[JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING]

I mean, there was a buzz on Jaco, of course.

Here's a guy that could write, that could arrange, that could play.

He was a collaborator.

It was apparent to some of us that this guy was really something special.

And in addition to being something special

had the potential really, you know, to break through and cross over.

We set out on, really kind of a quest to get Jaco to come to Warner Brothers.

It was a start level deal, make no mistake about it.

And because the record business is a business,

expectations, you know, tend to follow the deal.

If you sign an act for $75,000, your expectations, you know, are at one level,

if you sign an act for four times that...

[JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING]

He said, "You know what dub is?"

And I said, "I believe I do. Yeah, I know, it's like the old reggae",

the guy dropping the fader, talking over you..."

He goes, "Yeah, it's gonna be a little different than that."

He said, "We're not gonna let anybody hear anyone else's parts."

Whatever happens, let's see if it fits."

It had a life of it's own. It really grew powerfully.

[JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING]

It's very rare that any record has a piece on it like this.

Pablo Picasso Guernica, Jaco Pastorius' Crisis.

I mean, they are of the same cloth.

[BASS GUITAR MUSIC PLAYING]

He wanted to open the record with this.

I mean, there are a lot of people at the company,

if they'd heard this track, they'll just pull their hair out and said,

"Wait a minute, we can't even have this.

"This is crazy. It's a cacophony.

It's a atonal. Nobody can follow it. It's scary."

I'm shaking right now as I think about it.

I was kind of scared of the idea of it opening the record.

They pleaded with him.

They said, "Any of it to him about that."

"We can't get this album onto radio

if that's the first track."

I think it really made him very happy

to think of this going on a record.

[JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING]

I would say that he was venting.

He was venting little bit of personal frustration.

And then he realizes

that it's the only way to start a record like this.

You know, it's to make people

wonder what's coming.

And then what comes is so different.

[PIANO MUSIC PLAYING]

The Word of Mouth album

was so revealing of Jaco as a person.

It was almost

embarrassing to listen to it, it was so intimidate at times.

And it was the most courageous

things ever done, it was the most daring thing he's done.

It's Jaco's internal thing,

to real cure with euphorias.

[JOHN AND MARY PLAYING]

There were some people that were less than

thrilled about this, they thought, "Aw, wait a minute."

"This is like the switch arrow.

"He signed this guy to make these

big hit fusion records and now he's doing this thing over here."

Um...

I know how comfortable he was with the concept.

How good he felt about what he was doing, that it was right.

Label had never quite really acknowledged

the master work it was.

And it hurt Jaco deeply to tears.

It really did hurt him.

I remember Jaco, really needing Joe's approval.

And we would call him on the phone.

And play the tape, with the phone held up.

All the time.

And it was often,

the end of the day session.

Because Joe will be cruelly dismissive.

I kind of wanted to say to Jaco, "Let's not call Joe today."

Joe had a fighters instinct or a boxers instinct.

He had a Myles instinct that through his,

you know, glass chin or a soft spot in the belly.

They knew how to find it pretty quick.

The final tour began with Joe,

listening to the Word Of Mouth album.

He wanted to wait for that perfect moment,

to play the music for Joe. And he thought

after lunch flying to Tokyo, will be the perfect moment.

Joe takes off the headphone and I hear him say,

"Nah, that just sounds like some typical high school big bam bullshit."

That's what Joe said about Liberty City.

And I couldn't believe it.

That was Joe's way of

slapping down the son, who's like

threatening his reign.

In a sense.

That fucking music was on the highest level.

John and Mary, that...

Joe would love to write something like that.

I think there was a point of

fear by Joe in

feeling like the son had taken over.

[LAUGHING]

Where do you wanna go from here?

I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it.

[CYMBALS CRASHING]

*Ti ri ta ta ta ta Ta ta ta *

JACO: In 1982, our men took off from Weather report.

We've been together a long time,

just like anything else, you gotta have space, too.

Playing in Weather report didn't allow me any time to do anything

- on my own. - Uhm...

So I said to myself, "Forget it, Jaco. You gotta get to work."

And I don't care what Joe thinks about.

'Cause I know, I can get the job done, man.

And that's it.

[HORN TOOTING]

Jaco would come up and just stay with us, crash with us.

We were just playing in a club.

And right down where I lived,

from where I lived called 55 Grand Street.

The problem for me,

at that point was that I was totally out.

You know I was really high a lot.

So much so that Myles, actually tried to put me in a rehab.

And when Myles tries to put you in a rehab,

you know, you got a little bit of a Joan.

And the nick name of 55 Grand, was 55 gram.

[LAUGHS]

Is it that what you're talking about?

Yeah, so you know, you know what, there was,

there was lot of condiments flowing through, you know.

People were doing what they wanted to do. I mean, there was nothing really

out in the open, but you know, if you're there late enough probably there was.

I mean, Jaco would hang for a day, go straight

through days and days, never stops hanging.

[LAUGHS] It was like dumb asses just hanging down the street.

I said, "Create the Hang Dynasty club."

So if you hang for three days,

you'll be a member of this club.

You know, if you didn't hang for three days straight,

you aren't in the club.

So, everybody passed the test.

[LAUGHS]

So we had a band.

You know, at that point, that was normal.

It wasn't that far out for the musicians.

But Jaco's playing, became an extension almost of his behavior off stage.

Sort of John Belushi kind of man.

People almost felt cheated if they didn't,

you know, well, Jaco really acted like Jaco tonight.

They got their money's worth out of him. But meanwhile, now he's gotta

be wreck the next day.

And so I think, there was some pressure.

It didn't occur to me, not to be with him. We were just kinda like

brothers in a way, you know we just, we well...

We were in the same boat.

[JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING]

[JAZZ MUSIC CONTINUES]

[AUDIENCE CHEERING]

He was a cult figure of sorts, I mean,

what stuck me at one point was...

"Man we're playing like an old Bebop tune from the '40s,"

for these young people and they're freaking out

going crazy and I thought isn't it fantastic.

The frustrating thing to me was,

this thing was up and running from note one.

We sold out, wherever we played.

And all the luminary musicians came

to see what was going on, you know, it was working.

It made everybody feel like a rock star, playing a jazz tour.

The Japanese adored him, I mean, we're talking

20,000 seats.

There were people, who broke the bones in their thumbs

so that they bend the last digit

of their thumb back like Jaco could.

I've seen unbelievable things.

But the things I saw early,

were the same things I saw later that knock me up.

It's his ability

to communicate music to everyone including the average person.

He had tribes of people waiting for him, in every city that he went to.

Even if they didn't know anything about his facility,

but at the same time he was leaving Weather Report,

starting his own career path

with his album The Word of Mouth band.

He was essentially leaving a family.

Ingrid gave Jaco, these magical twins,

that he was amazed by.

The concept of twins was spiritual and incredible to him.

And pondering their birth was astounding to him.

Unfortunately, that was happening at the time when he was

sort of run raveling and Ingrid, uh,

being so, after they're born being so

protected of, his children didn't watch Jaco around them

and so he didn't have

much of a relationship with them.

'Cause at the time he was not in a place to

be responsible parent,

and that caused some amount of pain.

I said, "What's happening, man? What's wrong?"

And he said, "You've ever been married?"

I said, "No." He said, "You have any kids?"

I said, "No." He said, "I can't tell you what's wrong.

'Cause you wouldn't understand it."

I guess that was his way of let me know that there were problems.

Before the Japan trip, I go to the airport.

I turn a corner and here is Jaco.

And it was the moment which was driving is that moment

in the film Taxi Driver,

when the camera pans

and then begins to pan up.

You see the body of De Niro, you know it's De Niro,

but then, when you see the shaved head with a Mohawk...

I had that same...

creepy, frightening feeling.

And I went, "Hi, Jaco."

He's got pieces of electrical tape on his face,

with the crew cut.

At some point, he changed into this

blue Seminole dress.

And he's walking around the plane

like he was Sun Ra or something, one of these mystical elders.

A lot of musicians were kind of amused.

They're not quite sure about the make of it,

those of us who've known him longer are alarmed.

Um, and so, there's a balance of this emperor's new clothing

and nobody saying anything.

And we were whispering, "What do we do?"

Something definitely is wrong.

[STRING INSTRUMENT PLAYING]

Hello, I'm an electric bass player.

[LAUGHS]

Jaco was not doing so well at that time.

How's that going? You got another one?

Things are not going well.

What's up in the future for you?

Well, more records.

It's champagne, but looks like beer.

- More records, I'm sure. - What kinda records?

Well, we're working on a new studio album.

Which album? We are done, bro. What we gotta do is get it and mix it.

[CYMBALS CRASHING]

There definitely was a feeling

of uncertainty.

That never reared its ugly head, during Word of Mouth.

Label has zero interest in the record.

And I didn't know, what options he had.

Do you ever see tapping of the commercial market.

We are.

- I'm commercial. - Not commercial yet.

Jaco is very aware, that he could have easily just gone pop

making some records and "Bam".

I'm not selling out man. Hey, man.

I'm not selling out.

[LAUGHS]

You know, we're tapping the commercial market.

I mean, are you're referring to the pop music, top 40 market?

Well yeah, If they ever come around and get smart, sure.

Like Chuck Mangione.

Impossible, he plays out of tune.

Chuck Manicoti, I don't dig him at all. You know.

Yeah, that's the man, he's a very nice cat, he does way too much coke,

and a mother fucker.

He eats too much pasta and fuck him, he wears a hat.

[LAUGHING]

When he was in the midst of recording for Holiday for Pans.

The Warner Brothers decided to

rip up, literally rip up, Jaco's contract.

It was like a huge rejection.

He knew that he was on to something really special.

He just continue this downward spiral.

People didn't understand

there were forces and conditions and beyond his control,

that were grabbing hold.

And it was too easy to just describe to substances.

[SIREN WAILING]

[BEEP] Hey dad. It's Jaco.

You there?

Hey.

- Daddy! - Yeah.

So nice.

I don't know, I haven't heard from you.

Where you at?

- New York City. - Where at?

Well, we're here. Jame's house.

Well, I called there last week.

Daddy!

- Sorry... [MUFFLED] - Nobody answered.

- Can I tell you one thing. - What's that?

Who loves you?

Who loves you, kid?

[JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING]

Look, things happen whether people are good or bad.

It's always the convergence of many elements or components

coming up together.

You know, it takes fore fingers to the thumb

to make that solid.

But you need to make impact.

Or to make stranglehold.

He's like at this video, they want me to do this video.

I told them I wasn't gonna do this with out you. But we gonna do this.

And he was in bad shape.

But he was so real and then he wanted to leave some thing.

I don't know if somethings gonna happen to him,

but it was in the forefront

of his mind to help other musicians.

To help leave something for kiddies.

Um, that's what he wanted to do.

[BASS GUITAR PLAYING]

Be p-ba-be-bop-boo. What you do?

Yeah.

- Okay. - Way better something like that.

That's better than I do.

Any advice to musicians.

Young and old. New, beginners.

Just your minds open.

Keep an open head about music.

When I first came to New York, everybody just wanted to play Jazz.

They didn't know about rock and roll.

They didn't know about funk. They didn't know about nothing.

All they wanted to do is Jazz.

Now New York is cool. They're playing everything.

Where I grew up, in Florida, everything was here.

So I was fortunate enough to be exposed and be able to play all different types of musicians.

I played in a country band for an year, I had a ball.

I love country, western, too, if it's was good. I dig it.

Whatever it is, just keep an open mind about everything.

That's my own advice.

- And keep listening. - Beautiful.

Keep your ears open.

You have to support your music or your art with your life.

And how they intertwine...

If your life doesn't have enough stability,

then your art is gonna suffer.

You're not gonna be able to get those tomatoes to the market.

If you have a flat tire, you're gonna be on the side of the highway.

Um, so he was in that kind of...

Stage where this was going on.

[JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING]

[HORN TOOTING]

[BEEP]

Hi, Jack, I'm sorry for calling so early, but this is Carey.

And I just saw Jaco on the street.

And he's doing some crazy things.

I don't want to tell you this, but he needs some sort of help again.

He almost got himself killed by somebody a little while ago.

So I just don't know what to tell you, you know.

I hope you could help.

Between the street door

and our security door inside, there was a little six foot space.

Some mornings he'll be there waiting for us.

Obviously he's been up from the night before,

and he knew it was a safe place.

[DRUMS BEATING]

He was comfortable here because

he was around musicians.

Saying, "Hey, let me show you something on my drums"

or, "Let me show you something I'm working on the piano."

Come here check this out."

Here's something I wrote, you know, Weather Report never recorded.

He would kind of jolt and say, "Man, you know why",

"why is this or how could this be for this guy that was

"on top of the world

"and reinvented the instrument

and left such a strong mark on music."

[SIREN WAILING]

[BASS GUITAR PLAYING]

The senior in my band, Anthony,

they were walking down a street in New York,

and they saw Jaco, sitting on the sidewalk.

And they were like, "It's Jaco Pastorius,

sitting on the sidewalk drunk, playing Louie Louie for change."

* When Charlie Speaks of lustre

* You know someone...

I went to an art opening in Soho.

And when we came out there was a little club across the street with a cardboard

signed magic marker said, "Jaco Pastorius tonight."

So I went in and I found him at the bar.

He sure cheated me, he asked me to jam with him,

but he trailed the cord of the microphone

over the keyboard so that it got in my way.

And I flip it off while I'm playing,

and he would flip it back on.

And he was playing way out the chord.

You know, it was,

not good, nothing was good about it at all, it was,

you know...

You know, when he was kind of praising me too much...

You know what I mean, like,

and then, sure cheating me too much, it was very

skitsy behavior, you know.

And that's the last I saw of him.

DR. KENNETH: In July of 1986, I committed him to Bellevue.

Jaco was in the hospital for seven weeks.

He was admitted in late July and discharged in about mid September.

This is almost exactly 25 years ago.

When he came in,

there was this grandiosity and kind of oppositional behavior.

And he was certainly in danger of provoking

somebody that could be dangerous to him.

And this sort of scaled down over weeks.

While he was on the unit,

he was very engaged

with other patients. He could reach other patients in ways that other people couldn't.

I recall, there was this woman there, very psychotic patient,

who had cut herself,

all over the body in response to some delusion.

And she was very withdrawn and very inaccessible,

and Jaco really reached her,

in terms of making some kind of connection, some kind of contact with her.

Jaco had that capability.

[PIANO MUSIC PLAYING]

His diagnosis was bipolar disorder.

The classical form of bipolar disorder,

is weeks to months of depression.

And days to weeks of mania.

Jaco, had what you'd call either rapid cycling or mixed state.

Where the features of mania and depression

alternated rapidly or mixed with one another.

That interacted with the exposure to alcohol.

He was not at the point where he looked like just another drug using musician.

It was not like that.

Who is to say that the chemical imbalance

is a fault of nature?

It could be that the chemical imbalance ushers

in action, that would not have been taken

if you're living without it.

He was an explorer.

I see him in an image of Jaco,

like Johnny Parker, Coltrane, Myles.

It's the same thing I saw in the comic books.

Superheros.

[WAVES SPLASHING]

OPERATOR: Hallo, collect to Jack from Jaco.

Hey dad, it's Jaco.

Yeah.

Live and loud, in Florida.

Love you.

[WIND BLOWING]

Jaco, returned to Florida,

after he was treated.

He was intermittently compiled with the medication that's not unusual.

He was going through a phase

that a lot of bipolar patients go through.

And that's why they're ambivalent about their treatment.

And struggling with accepting the illness.

And that's what was going on in the year after he was discharged from Bellevue.

One day,

I look up and it's daddy.

And,

he doesn't have a base, I don't think he had a shirt on.

And he's hanging out with some fellows.

I assume they were hanging out here, too, to whatever degree.

He had an acoustic guitar.

He had some albums, you know, some of his albums.

And I realize that, "Man, he's hanging out here."

I mean, he could have stayed anywhere.

The thought of, my dad, Jaco Pastorius,

sleeping in a park is absurd.

And I don't think we'll ever know exactly why.

He was in a constant state of motion, at all times.

He was like trying to grab a cloud or a wind.

One day he would've choosed to get better.

But that choice was taken away from him.

He didn't die on the streets,

from a blown out liver,

or a heart attack or anything. He was killed.

The song is called Mr. Pastorius, it's on your

last album Amandla, right?

[MR. PASTORIUS PLAYING]

I remember, he came to a gig, I had in Fort Lauderdale.

And the owner ran out,

and said, "I'm gonna call the cops, right now."

And Jaco hadn't done anything. All he did was he just walk into the restaurant.

And so I told the band leader, I said, "Look, that's my brother."

"I have to take him home. I can't let him go to jail."

I put his sticks down. Got up, got my car keys,

I got Jaco, and I said, "Come on man, let's go."

So we get in my car.

I said, "Okay, where do you live?"

and he says, "In the park."

And I said, "what? In the Park?"

"Yeah, I live in the park. Just take me to the park."

So we're driving in the park,

then he grabs my hand, he starts crying.

Then I said,"What's wrong man." He goes, "I don't wanna be here any more."

And I said, "What do you mean by that, Jaco?"

"I don't wanna be here man, I've had it."

[TRUMPET PLAYING]

[THUNDER RUMBLING]

[BEEP]

[THUNDER RUMBLING]

That night he went to see his hero,

Carlos Santana.

And the incident happened.

I found about it very quick because my ex-girlfriend,

dated one of those assholes that beat him to coma.

And this was pretty tough, very tough

for me to hear.

And, it was very sad. I remember,

at the funeral.

The boys.

Ingrid, looked at me and she just walked away. She couldn't take it.

Everybody was walking away at the end

of the funeral, man.

Julius and Felix, they are looking at me.

They said, "Uncle Bobby",

when daddy Jaco's gonna jump out of the box?"

And man, I remember, it took like 20 minutes,

talking to them to let them know that,

"Daddy Jaco's is with the angels now, he's not gonna jump out of the box."

Just thinking about what he has said,

and then watching his life unfold after that.

Everything he said, came to pass.

Not too long, afterwards I was flying in Italy,

after the concert,

you know, got on to the front of the stage.

Meet some fans. I went to the stage right where there's

a stairway that's lead off the stage,

and I started to go halfway down, to say hello to someone, I think,

this fan came up to me.

Very emotional.

Just said, "How could you do this?

How could all of you let this happen?"

I said, "Well, we all tried to help and..."

There wasn't good enough answer for him.

You know.

[BASS GUITAR PLAYING]

JONAS: We're influenced by life.

Whether we like it or not. It's not necessarily music.

That makes us play a certain way.

It's the life we live. It's our experiences.

It's our upbringing. It's what we

experienced as kids before we were even

really conscious about our own personality,

or what we are or what we wanna do with life.

That's the stuff, that torment that go inside us.

That is what comes out in music.

Everybody gets their own burden, man.

Everyone gets their own special beating in life,

you know what I mean?

He just took this energy and he turned it into, what he turned it into.

You feel it in every note, you feel his nervous system.

You feel his joy, you feel his neurosis,

you feel his suffering, you feel it all.

Where do you go after Jaco.

It's not too much more

soul and feeling, and vibe.

You know, that are original stuff.

There's not too much you can do with that.

[JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING]

Where's he at?

Usually right next to Johnny Parker.

How do you spell Pastorius again?

Capital "P" as in...

That is, uh... Ha...

The Music's just a byproduct of his life, man.

And you can hear his sound every day.

Be it, Sting for the Police or Flea from the Chili Peppers.

It's amazing, how many people

are so close to his music.

And are so, appreciative of what he gave.

In a short amount of time.

[AUDIENCE CHEERING]

It is an honor to play here, in the Yankee stadium, New York City.

Thank you, for coming here and supporting heavy music.

[FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS PLAYING]

I had the good fortune of seeing, Jaco play four times.

It was an amazing moment for me.

Jaco, to me, was punk rock, you know.

He was fearless.

You know, you can try and label him as your own and say, "Jaco is pure Jazz."

But there are some Jazz musicians that are punk rock.

All of us stand on Jaco's shoulders.

No one could have missed that section of DNA out.

You know, you needed Jaco, to get to this point.

[BASS GUITAR PLAYING]

The things that I know that he's written blow my mind.

And no small part has influenced me,

in a way, especially the way, I put together the instrumental songs.

Whatever the genre can take, the genre can take.

So stretch it, pull it, bend it, it won't break it.

I just remember him being amazing, I remember the back flip,

I remember the great bass playing, I remember just thinking,

this is what it's all about. This is what I aspire to.

[BY THE WAY PLAYING]

He's the greatest electric bass player to ever play.

There's nothing else like it.

I mean, I'm thinking, am I missing anyone as if I'm missing something.

Is there anything close to it on the note, on the bass.

Not to me, man.

[JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING]

MAN: Come on, Jaco.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

Right.

[LAUGHS]

MAN: Jaco has no idea.

Ooh, bad...

Two in a row, not bad. Very good.

You won't believe this,

Jaco is playing in this club,

he walked down the stage balancing his bass

in one hand.

And everybody was holla and screaming.

He's balanced it all the way up to the stage,

as the other guy played, took the cord out and started playing.

I said, "No." He was like a Roman God.

He has these boots, man, these boots up to here.

And then he put a lot of talcum powder in it.

I mean a lot.

He walks up to the stage and borrowed the bass

from Rocco. He just played his ass off.

And after he finished, he started building, building, building...

Then he jumps and when he jumps all the talcum powder went [BLOWS RASPBERRIES] like that.

So it was like a magic trick.

We were cracking... I said, "This guy is out of his mind."

They ask me, what is it like to play with Jaco.

I came up with a description one time.

Kind of like jumping out of an airplane, naked at night on an LSD.

Something like that.

It was exiting, you know it's like "Wow!" It's a ride.

With a parachute.

I would wake up and go, "What's going on?"

And he said this is not a normal thing, please, it's just...

You just back off or let us be.

'Cause it's gonna happen every day.

This is like Charlie Parker walked in the house.

This is terrible, 'cause this is very heavy.

Even now, I can't play the bass a little bit.

I still cannot articulate like he does.

Every single note.

Everything is so perfectly executed.

When Jaco plays, it sounds like he knows

every single note he's playing. There's no way

that he can play a wrong note. And it's fretless.

So fuck that guy. Big time.

We were playing at his house one time, and he was playing drums. Tk-tss... Tk-tss...

You know, he starts playing the Teen Town beat.

And he says, "Let's play Teen Town.

And I said, "Jaco",

I don't know Teen Town."

He looked at me and said, "You don't know Teen Town?"

And I said, "No, I don't know any of your songs."

And there was this pregnant pause. And he

loomed up out of the drum stool.

And he was so much taller than me and I'm standing up. And he's like, I'm thinking,

Oh, my God. I'm about to get my ass whipped because I don't know Teen Town.

A lot of us bass players, can't get beyond the bass.

We're playing the music that's on the bass.

He was playing music that was in the air.

The music that was in his body.

I found it was love.

This one's for Jaco.

* Oh, yeah

* I feel you JP Let's go!

* Been at the bottom but then I got back up to this ring

* And I beat 'em up 'cause I never been an average

* Of flicking and I need to Get up and pin this thing

* With all the fault and I don't know what the matter is

* I'm packing my bag To see whose fault

* I'm harass and blast The people trying bury my class And grass the Bebop

* But I'm the last To see dope

* But I'm a bit weak and low The people who back like A freak show when he

* Shows magazine troll By all means souls so we grow

* Just pass the lead yo

* After all my angel Bet to pay to

* Love but I woke up quick