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EXPLAINED: Jaco pastorius | Vintage Vibes

“When Jaco and I first worked together there was nobody I’d rather hang with. There was an appreciation, a joie de vivre, a spontaneity”: How Joni Mitchell combined with Jaco Pastorius to create her sophisticated jazz-infused masterpiece Coyote

The song emerged from the hedonism and chaos of Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue tour

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“We end up drinking until 5 in the morning. I wake up with the worst hangover of my life, and now I’ve got to play with Metallica”: How a late-night drinking session with Lars Ulrich almost ruined Robert Trujillo’s Metallica audition

Robert Trujillo was announced as Metallica's new bassist on February 24, 2003, following a two-day try-out for the metal giants

Guitar World

"When he died, I cried. And I actually jumped into the ocean at San Francisco. And let me tell you, the ocean at San Francisco is cold": Bass legend Jaco Pastorius

We salute a true bass guitar virtuoso

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“He was extremely let down by his manager. The guy ripped him off of so much money. To get Peter to talk about that, it was very painful”: Behind the scenes of the Peter Frampton documentary

How Frampton documentary director Rob Arthur helped the iconic guitarist come alive on the big screen

Guitar World

“Jaco made a great contribution, but what came after was all these idiots trying to sound like him. That's why bass players today are so lame”: Bill Laswell gives his unfiltered verdict on modern bassists

The visionary producer also had his say on Lemmy, Paul Simon, and his failed studio session with Jaco Pastorius

Guitar World

“Weather Report belonged to the three of us. When it ended, they didn’t pay me – they just took it”: Miroslav Vitous on his departure from Weather Report (and his thoughts on the bassists who replaced him)

Bassist Miroslav Vitous co-founded Weather Report with fellow Miles Davis alumni Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter

Guitar World

“Joni hates the word ‘confessional’ as she thinks it implies you’ve done something wrong”: Brandi Carlile names her favourite Joni Mitchell album – and hails Joni’s 1971 classic as a record that “changed songwriting forever”

Carlile and Mitchell have formed a strong bond in recent years

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“The Genesis guys said they liked the track, which was ironic. It was one of the reasons I’d left. I thought there was no chance of getting them to do it”: How Steve Hackett’s risky solo move paid off

A fateful Jaco Pastorius show, a run-in with LA cops, rebuilding a Genesis song… Please Don’t Touch! aimed to tackle the unanswerable question, ‘What is prog?’

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“The tune was inspired by legendary bassist Jaco Pastorius’ Teen Town”: Cory Wong on why doubling the bassline is one of the “most badass” things a guitarist can do

Cory Wong uses Vulfpeck's Jaco-inspired Dean Town to teach us the value of doubling a bassline on guitar

Guitar World

“I hate bass player albums. It's an ugly instrument, solo-wise. Probably the only person I can tolerate is Marcus Miller”: Grammy-winning bassist Meshell Ndegeocello favors restraint over fretboard theatrics – but Marcus Miller (and Jaco) get a pass

Meshell Ndegeocello discusses what set Jaco Pastorius apart from the pack, what she looks for in a bassist, and the crucial lesson her jazz musician father taught her

Guitar World

“There’s more to life than just guitar. Once you've had a heart attack there’s always that thing in your mind that it could happen again”: How Al Di Meola’s heart attack led to his anti-ICE concert with Tom Morello and Bruce Springsteen

Aware he’s in the last quarter of his football game of life, the health alert has made Di Meola determined to make more of a difference – politically and musically

Guitar World

“I’d rather go in and just be Jaco. I improvise all the time. I never play the same thing twice”: The genius of Jaco Pastorius in one of the greatest jazz songs of all time – performed with fusion legends Weather Report

“One take, man! One of the greatest tunes ever”

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“We hung out in his hotel room ’til 7 in the morning. He put on Donna Lee – I couldn’t believe it!” When Jimmy Haslip met Jaco Pastorius at Frank Zappa’s studio

The Yellowjackets co-founder and then-bassist tells the story of his first encounter with bass royalty

Guitar World

“I don’t know if Jaco was a Van Halen fan. We were both more intent on getting drunk than anything else”: When Michael Anthony met the self-proclaimed “greatest bass player in the world”, Jaco Pastorius

How the accidental meeting of two of the ’70s and ’80s greatest bass icons – neither recognised by the other – came about in a Tokyo hotel

Guitar World

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"The Queen Mother asked us to play something on the Moog. She was really cute": PFM on brushes with royalty, spaghetti with Aerosmith, and how to annoy America

Premiata Forneria Marconi, aka PFM, remain one of the great trailblazers of European prog rock

Guitar World

“He got really upset and ran off down the street. He turned the corner, and I never saw him again”: Jack Bruce’s final encounter with Jaco Pastorius

According to his brother, Rory Pastorius, Jaco was influenced by the late Cream bassist’s midrange sound and aggressive lead style

Guitar World

“One of the guys said, ‘Joni, there’s this weird bass player in Florida, you’d probably like him’”: How Joni Mitchell formed an unlikely partnership with Jaco Pastorius

Although much of his fame stems from his time with Weather Report, Jaco’s recordings with Joni Mitchell yielded some of the finest bass playing of his career

Guitar World

“I got that bass for $50 off this coke dealer. I don’t know what Jaco did to it, but he totally messed up the insides!” How Cro-Mags’ Harley Flanagan went from buying a Jaco Pastorius bass on the street to fronting one of hardcore’s most influential bands

The Cro-Mags founder on the reason he plays Fenders despite loving Rickenbackers, learning from Lemmy and the new documentary about his struggle for survival

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Guitar World

“You have to fight to be heard in metal. But you have to give them something worth fighting for!” 20 metal bassists who took heavy bass playing in new directions

Featuring metal’s leading low-enders – from old-school thrash to modern metal

MusicRadar

“I have never felt so ashamed to be onstage. If I never see you again, it's too soon!”: When John McLaughlin laid into Jaco Pastorius after an onstage meltdown

Trio Of Doom was aptly named…

Guitar World

“The bass is the instrument you need to play the longest to become truly funky”: 20 funk bass legends who took low-end groove to new heights

A rundown of the best funk bass players of all time, featuring the trailblazers, the early innovators, and the monster groovers around today

Guitar World

“It’s difficult to hear bass playing in metal, but players like Geezer Butler stand out – they try to do something different with their parts. If they don’t, I usually find it a bit boring”: Opeth’s Martín Méndez names the 5 albums that shaped his sound

The low-end maestro for prog titans Opeth digs deep into fusion and soul as he names his favorite bass records

Guitar World

“He took a bass to Jason Newsted. James kept flipping it back and forth, studying it… Then he asked if we could meet”: How Ken Lawrence came to build some of James Hetfield’s most iconic guitars – including one using wood from Metallica’s former home

The luthier specialized in bass guitars before he met Hetfield via Mesa/Boogie. It would land him his most challenging but rewarding collaboration

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“Imagine not knowing Eric Johnson, Vai and Satriani and seeing this for the first time? It literally blows your mind”: Matteo Mancuso – 10 albums that changed my life

The Sicilian virtuoso salutes Jimmy Page's stylistic adventurism, the compositional genius of Pat Metheny and Al Di Meola, and declares Jaco Pastorius “the Jimi Hendrix of bass”

MusicRadar

"When he died, I cried. And I actually jumped into the ocean at San Francisco. And let me tell you, the ocean at San Francisco is cold": Bass legend Jaco Pastorius

We salute a true bass guitar virtuoso

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