All language subtitles for (1H50) Jaco

You got to understand, that was 1976:

James Brown, Stravinski, 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 cry, to be different.

Musicians owned the music business.

This guy approaches me and says:

"by the way, I want to introduce myself,
my name is John Francis Pastorius,...

I'm the greatest bass player
in the world"

And I said:
"Get the fuck out of here"

And I'm thinking "I'm gonna show
this white kid...

how to play".

But I didn't say any of this,
you know...

All I could say was "Slow down, man!"

He could play Blues fills
like nobody could play since 30 years.

No-one is more funky than
John Francis Pastorius III,

you're kidding me?

He had a mystical face,

and a contact
with the "great mind",

the divine mind
that permeates our souls.

We were all like:
"Man, Jaco!"

It was like going to a game
and rooting for Michael Jordan.

there were people who broke
the bones in their thumbs

so they could bend their thumb
back like Jaco.

It was the sound,
that sound he got.

We said: "What the fuck is that?"
"A bass player is doing that".

In your lifetime you won't find
another one like that.

Good evening, welcome to
Okland Park, Florida, where I grew up.

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

(...) every note.

I was raised
by the best musicians in the world.

Thank you Jesus and God.

Had to be 1983 or 84.

-How you feelin' today, Jaco?
-OK, Jerry.

All right. You know,
Lot have been said about you,

but the main thing is that
people recognize the fact that

you are 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
are going crazy trying to do what you do,

people are becoming fans of the bass
and it's given it quite a bit of attention.

How do you feel about that?

Give me a gig!

He was like: "Heck, you know,
give me a gig".

Ironically, at that moment,
he couldnt get a gig...

he couldnt get a gig.

What drove you to this point?

It was all over him,

you could see it,
that it was a man who had trouble,

but "getting it out"
was very important,

even in the shape that he was in.

It wasnt just notes.

They had feeling,
they had meaning, they had character.

You cant really teach that,
it was something

that was in his heart.

Jaco. Four letters.
Who is this guy?

and once you actually heard him play,

it was like getting slapped in the face.

Everything changed when he started playing,
it was never the same again

He shredded everything that came before him
and it would never be done again.

He just changed the rules of what
was possible on the bass

and what could be done.

That dude was the greatest.

We all say it : He's our Hendrix.

A remarkable talent.

the delivery system was there,
the chops were there,

but the support he needed
was pulled away

for whatever reason.

He was already an artist, see?

And when you're an artist,
it's hard to go back.

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

It was all sorts of music, everything
from cuban to symphonic. Everything.

Whatever you wanted to hear.
You could hear it. 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 hip then

that's what I was checking out.

most of the time on 45's.

When we moved to Florida
around 1958, 59,

There has never been
a record in our house.

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

that was all I would listen to.

Jaco used to come up and watch us.

Believe it or not, we were 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, Sinatra album.

That was the first time I thought
"This guy is gonna be something else".

He just sat here like nothing,
singing the whole album!

Jaco used to go to bed at night with
a little transistor radio,

and He would listen to cuban.

He would get cuban on that radio.

He was incensed with good music.

He sold (news)papers.

He sold 250 newspapers a day,
in the off season.

He was a worker.
He was a worker.

One day, he went out and bought
a whole set of drums.

with all the money he saved.

Jaco was born
John Francis Pastorius the Third,

but my mum didn't wanna call him John,
because that was my grandfather.

And it wasn't gonna be Jack.
She says she came up with "Jaco".

My mum had a really horrific job.

Her mother took everything that was
wrong in her life

out on my mum.

She was the middle of nine children.

My mum wanted to be
the home maker.

She wanted to take care of somebody
and my dad didn't want to be taken care of.

They would go out to dinner and
everybody wanted to buy Jack a drink.

He was an entertainer.

It became pretty evident,
when we moved to South Florida,

that we were gonna live with mum,
and my dad would gonna "float around".

My dad sent money.

a couple of times, then stopped.

Clothes got passed on

I can remember pancakes
and Kool-Aid for dinner.

That was life with mum.

Las Olas Brass was based on
The Tijuana Brass,

Herb Alpert's thing.

Soul tunes and anything Motown

But back then,
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 the hood,

and I remember
they used to sit on sacks.

In the neighborhood there's this club.
There it is.

It's like two houses put together
and fenced around,

and everyone's
harrowing in the streets,

they got a couple neone signs

and they were working in a nightclub
in this neighborhood. It was wild.

I'm thinking: "OK..."

I don't want to act like I'm frightened
or concerned about this.

We were kids.
But He says:"Park there".

He drags me to park
over weeds, in this field,

and he goes: "listen man,
I'm gonna go get ready to play

and, you know, be cool".

This place was wild,
it was a total black club of course.

And he's already got this thing,
like "Hey man, what's happening?"

And they say: "Oh hey, Jaco!".

It's like he practiced with the band,
he knew all the tunes.

Jaco was looking for the best musicians,
searching out the hottest cats.

He loved guys like Little Beaver,
Frankie Williams & The Rocketeers.

These guys had
no records on the stores,

they were being played on black
stations only, like WRBD Radio,

which was a black station.

By the way, Jaco got 3 dollars
that night. 3 dollars!

That was it.
I just started that simple.

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

so that I could play

R&B, or maybe some rock and roll,

just to get some work, have some fun.

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

except for "playing tonight".

That was all. Play tonight,
over at this club.

I love rotgut, stomp, keke blues,
rhythm & blues.

Over the years, I was known
as the "king of blue eyed soul".

At the time,
people only toured.

You were on tour all year round.

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

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

You had to be the best,
the most exciting,

the baddest that ever lived.

It was hell on any musician.

They didnt believe, when you come in
the 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.

He came to the audition, the band
put charts in front of him.

From what I gathered,
he didn't read much at all.

All that mattered to me was:
can he play a fill?

I just gave him a chord
and said:

"I'm gonna count to four,
and we're gonna play a blues.

Play some lead blues, right now".

It was strange. He could play
fills, blues fills.

that people hadn't played in 30 years.

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

not only with the notes right,
but with the feeling right.

And that was the one thing
that impressed me.

And some people in the band were
teaching him how to read music.

Jaco had 2 pairs of corduroy jeans
and 3 tee-shirts.

Everything he owned fit in his
Fender bass case.

The tux was way too big for Jaco,

so he just left all his clothes on
and put the tux on.

he got two layers of clothes
to make the tux fit.

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

and he put it in his Fender bass case.

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 a great role father.

I was instantly comfortable with him.

he had that kind of power over people,
instant charm.

I was a junior (2nd year),
he was a sophomore (3rd year).

He and I just sat on a beach bench
and talked for couple hours.

Both our fathers were jazz musicians

both our families had broken up,

our fathers drank too much...

I didn't have to put on any arrows.

He had it figured out,
mathematically,

that when I was a senior
in High School,

it's time for us to have a baby.

He had places to go.

When Mary was born, that day,
Jaco & I went to the hospital.

We were looking at her through
the glass, she sat there,

Jaco looks at me and goes:

"Gregory, I got to do something
on the electric bass

that's never been done before".
and he pointed at Mary.

I thought: "OK, I get it".

he's got to support this kid,
he's a working musician,

but, a working musician around town,
that's tough.

And, the way he said it :

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

Well, he did.

That voice.

What's the voice of music?

It's the singer in the horn.
It's not the rythm section.

the rythm section is there
doing the work to support it,

with the setting of the ring.

We make 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,
primarily,

is to support that stone.

But he was able to
become the stone also.

First thing was to learn
the melody to every tune.

Which, I feel, is like
ultra important.

The melody is always designated,
let's say,

to a horn player,
a piano or a guitare.

But it's nice to play it on a bass too.

Certainly.
And the fretless bass?

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

because I was into jazz a lot
and I wanted to have that upright sound.

I had an upright.

It took me years and years to get
enough bread to get it.

One morning, I woke up and in a corner
the bass is in a hundred pieces.

because the humidity was so bad,
the upright just blew up!

I thought: "forget it,
I can't afford this anymore".

I went out, took a knife,
and took all the frets out of my Fender.

And that was it.

And the rest is history.

Careful.
Don't cut yourself. Don't cut me !

It's closer to the sound of a voice,

to the flexibility of a voice,
the inflexions,

this add a delicate tone to the sound.

right, it's less metallic.

Using a fretless bass
gave the instrument

a resonnance not dissimilar to a cello.

A resonant, rich, warm, round tone,

that sounds like a cello.

I think every bass player in the world,

whan they heard that,
their world was suddenly recalibrated.

What about harmonics ?

That's something that you pioneered.

Instruments always had harmonics

but what you did is almost
having gone to a mine

and found gold
where there was nothing before.

Well, when I was first playing,
a friend of mine

I saw him tuning his guitar
with harmonics,

which everybody does.

I was just doing this...

and it sounded like music to me.

So I kept exploring this.
That's all there is to it.

He explored the harmonic range
of the instrument

by playing harmonics
that gave the bass

a symphonic range,

which, again, was mindblowing.

I think they gave me a cassette
of Jaco playing,

And I'm listening to this, wondering
"who the heck is this? Nobody plays like this!"

It was hard to describe.

Jaco married Tracy,
had two kids, John & Mary,

definitely a family man,
almost like a farmer.

His own personality is so much
in what he does,

He was not even aware of
his influence.

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 developped his own sound.

This was, I think, 1974.

My band, Blood, Sweat & Tears,

was doing a residency down there,
in Bachelors III, in Fort Lauderdale.

The softball team of Bachelors III
asked me to play.

In the center field
was a blonde woman

She had gloves on
and her hands on her knees

I just said "who are you?".
She said "Oh I'm Tracy".

I said: "How are you affiliated
with this group?"

She said "I work at the club".

I said "I never saw you at the club".

"I don't hang out much.
I just got to go home".

She was really cute,
very sweet girl.

I said "you're married?"

She said "Yes", pause...
"to the best bass player in the world".

This fella shows up, thin guy,
with plastic glasses,

and he says
"I'm Tracy's husband, Jaco".

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

And he says "I am".

Of course, the arrogant New York
side of me came out,

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

Just play".

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

He plays it with the facility and phrasing
and nuance of a sax player.

He wouldn't go...

He'd go,

which I had never heard before
on that instrument.

And I said "I'm gonna try to get you
a record deal".

I brought Jaco to New York.

He lived there with me
while we were doing this album.

Luckily, the head of New Artists
was a bass player.

And I thought "there is no one
that's gonna hear this

who plays a stringed instrument,
and isn't gonna go

"All right, let's 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 invloved
as much as possible.

He comes to my house and he says:

"We got signed !"
And I say: "We?"

As if we were Simon and Garfunkel.

He said: "Come, you got to
fly up here, to New York.

Do not come up if
you're not gonna deliver".

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

My first day there,
I walk into Columbia Studios.

Hubert Laws is
the first one I see.

I turn and there's Lenny White
sitting behind the drums.

And Jaco's eyes were lit up,
because he knows he's found home.

this is the level
that he belongs to.

Word got out really fast
around the New York scene.

Jaco was able to hand pick
whoever he wanted.

If you look at the pictures
from that recording,

My hair was all over my head.
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 we would have
played it perfectly

I don't think there was a lot of
takes of 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 humanly 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 totally confident
that that's exactly what happened.

Everybody was interested
in working with Jaco.

I went over there with Ronson.
"You gotta see this guy".

Jaco just sat there,
in Bobby's house,

playing as if he was
a circus freak.

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 used to sit on top of a hill
and meditate.

He had it all down, you know.

I was just about to do
"All American Alien Boy"

and so he said : "I'll do that".

He was totally immersed
into whatever he did.

In my case, it was the record
I was doing, but 3 month later,

he was totally immersed
in something else.

Hello, tonight's South Bank show
is about

the american jazz band,
Weather Report.

Josef Zawinul was born in 1932

and he grew up in a village
in the Vienna woods.

his music still draws on
his memories of Austria.

There was a guy who
played the piano,

playing something I never heard
even the name :

jazz.

But there was something
about the name, jazz,

and I was kind of
ego-tripping on this

I said "J-A-Z-Z".
Somehow, I saw my name in there.

Zawinul began with Wayne Shorter

in Miles Davis grand band,
in 1969.

At that time, Davis was gathering
the most talented young musicians around him.

Men like John McLaughlin,
Herbie Hancock,

Tony Williams and Chick Corea.

together, they were forging
a new kind of electronic jazz.

We were getting in the 70s

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, walking down the street.

Someone from Florida
walking with us, said :

"this guy, Jaco,
he's right behind you !"

Jaco brought his album,
he threw it like a frisbee to Joe

and he said : "Hey, Joe,
check this out"

And Joe got it.

Then he said : "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 outta here".

That's the way I said it.

That evening, after we finished playing,

I could hear music
coming out of a room

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

I peep in. I didn't see Jaco,
I saw his back.

He sat back,
and I could hear this recording

and I was like "woa, who's that?"

And Joe said "come in, come in,
I want you to meet this guy,

he's a bad motherfucker".

So he introduces me to Jaco
and we listen to his record.

It was incredible.

I started to put 2 and 2 together.

Here is this phenomenal bass player
Joe is interested in,

What are my chances of
being around much longer?

So I just went to the other gig,
and it worked out perfect.

All of a sudden out got the news.

Alfonso Johnson leaves the band
to join another band

with George Duke and Billy Cobhan.

It was July 1975.
we just came back from Boston.

Cannonball Adderley
had died.

It was a very hard thing for me.

I wrote a song
that was called "Cannonball".

I had this little melody
in the begining,

and I thought this guy's tone
would be perfect for this.

We started right with this
particular tune.

In the beginning, he was busy,
so we stopped the band and said:

"We already know you can play.

Forget about this, you are here
with us, with Weather.

you have a beautiful tone,
use that tone".

And what happened at that point
is on the record.

Joe told me he wanted
that Florida sound on "Cannonball".

- "That Florida sound"?
- Yeah.

For Wayne and me,
he was the third...

If you have a triangle, this was
3 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.

make a lot of food,
lots of wine, etc,

We're gonna have 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".

Jaco told them :

"I want to know if I can put
one song in the album".

And they laughed at him.

The guys were telling him
on the phone :

"Hey, Weather Report
are the best writers in the world".

And he said : "that's right,
but I want to put in a tune".

And then... That's...

He knew how serious it is

to leave a piece of your soul
in the recording, because,

it's gonna stay there forever.

it's not about bass playing.

it was being a storyteller.

We said we were playing music
with hills, valleys...

extremes and confrontations.

people think that playing jazz
is just a couple chords.

They call 'Earth, wind & fire' jazz
and they call 'Kenny G' 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 the greatness of the human being.

It was just new, it was fresh.
There was nothing like it.

And we were all like:
"Man, Jaco !"

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

It's impossible, or very difficult,
not to like someone who...

we all identified with at that point.
we all rooted for him.

He pushed the envelopped.

He pushed you to do your best.

And I think, in doing that, he helped
push that whole era

There was no boundaries.

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

It was a musical movement going on,
and we were in it.

So Google it, baby.

Lot of promotion,
sold out shows across the country.

People going crazy.

It was really exciting,
because prior to that, that didnt exist.

Rock was rock, jazz was jazz,
there wasn't a lot of fusion going on.

Back then,
you went to see Van Halen

and then you would go see
Jaco Pastorius with Weather Report

or Stanley Clark
with Return to Forever.

it was an outrageous virtuosity

you know, like playing
all this crazy shit.

I was a kid, and I was like :

"this guy is the coolest
motherfucker that ever lived !".

The so-called "jazz police"
was furious.

That same people that was going
to Ozzy Osbourne concerts

were now coming to Return To Forever
and Weather Report.

you go there, you play everything
at 99 miles per hour,

and as loud
and as fast as you can.

The band hired me

pretty much exclusively
thanks to Jaco's recommendation.

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

We were the kids
and they were the elders.

and yet, Joe y Jaco
would compete like brothers.

He could go
toe to toe with Zawinul,

were anyone else would feel the tread.

Thank you !

Danke Sch�n !

Peter Erskine !

Jaco... Pastorius !

Joseph Zawinul !

Jow Zawinul would come and say :

"We got the greatest band
in the world, man, you know.

I mean, like, please...

everybody's playing this stuff,
but we play the real deal".

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

So you got the greatest bass player in the world
in the greatest band in the world.

Oh man, those two

were like two cobras

Two cobras
in a very small cage,

with nowhere to go, they have to
make their relationship work.

that's what it was like,
watching them on stage.

and I can remember Zawinul,
with his speed

in between the cracks,
there would be Jaco

and I remember sitting there,
hearing this conversation,

he would come in and out

this is when I realized :
man, this is like a boxing match.

it was always surprising when I heard him
criticize Jaco. "He sounds like a trombone sometimes"...

"'Teen Town', 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 has a drink and a cigarette,
he's just watching.

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

Jaco just said "Me and Frank Sinatra
we're Sagitarians.

I'm a Sage, he's a Sage".

He met my mother, and he said :
"you're a Sage?"

My mother said : "I'm a Sage too".

She always talked about courage
and guts to get through the damn day

She was saying about Jaco :
"That child" - she was saying like this -

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

"but 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 like a library,
but a history of being open

and not shutting out
many kinds of music.

the bass almost became incidental.

For this next song,
I have to use a funny tune.

This is a song
about a daydreamer.

Daydreaming can get you
into a lot of difficulties sometimes,

if it's not used properly.

It took me a long time
to find a rythm section

that could play my music.

so I went thru a lot of players,

put them on the record
and take them off,

it wasn't until my 6th album,
that one of the guys in the section,

Russ Kunkel, the drummer,
said to me :

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

I had this guy, he'd play
what I was gonna play, and I said:

"Could you play this note?"
and he went : "I'm not playing that !

That's not the root of the chord !"

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

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 asked : "Would he play
these things I'm asking you?"

"He's alreaady doing that weird stuff".

So I sent for Jaco.

I set up this architecture...

and he just kind of instinctively
played, figuratively.

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

It's very conversational.

Jaco went into work one night
and he said : "Look at my neck".

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

hollow, looked like
it had been made by a pipe.

He was driving home the night
before, from the studio,

straight up Sunset Boulevard
to this hotel where he was staying

and the cops pulled him over.

and I dont know what
he said to that cop,

but the next thing he knew, the cop had his pistol shoved into his throat.

Deeply, because
the impression was still there

24 hours later,
or 20 hours later.

And while that cop had
that pistol in his throat,

he said : "I said to myself
it's not my time to die".

but he, apparently, seemed to know
when his time to die was.

This was a side of him that
not many people knew about.

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

And we get the sake, we have a drink,
and he starts crying.

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

And he said: "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".

Sometimes you see things
you don't wanna know,

Especially about yourself.

And this was one of those times
for Jaco.

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

He has no shirt on, he's in
corduroy cutoff Levi's shorts,

he's in bare foot
and his hair's long.

He's tan.

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

If he had gigs outside, in a bar,
we went.

So I had him there every day.

He would point out birds sounds,

wind blowing through leaves
or chimes.

he heard music in everything.

it's a gift, and it's a burden too.

Mi padre was my hero, man.
He is my hero.

Every dad should be
their son's hero.

He bought a Yamaha 750,

we would jump on, and
ride all the way up to the coast.

I would never tell him I'm scared.

You know, I would hold on, terrified.

Hold him on,
that's what I miss the most.

He was a great dad.

But I know he wanted
to be there more.

I remember poscards he always sent
to John and Mary.

Every postcard would point out
a historical fact,

or post a question
to get the kids thinking.

Almost every morning, without fail.

It was an important part of the routine,
when we travelled, 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 going to see the best of
what Florence, Rome or Milan had to offer.

Venice, let's ride on the gondolas,
let's go to the canals.

When would we get the chance
to do that? We had fun.

I never saw him in those
first tours act tired, drunk,

It was all a good time.

But it was present.

He was like a kid.

He would do things like
hide on a bus while it's moving.

And Zawinul would be looking for him for 30 min,
nobody would find him.

Then he would give up, and
Jaco would come out, laughing.

The kind of things he would do.
Very playful.

Going on stage,

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

"No prisoners".

March, 1979, 200 singers,
musicians and technicians

and 70 tons of equipment

arrive at the Jos� Mart� airport,
at the Havana, for "The Havana Jam".

OK, Havana, here we are.

It's really happening
for the first time ever.

Looking out the window of this car,

I feel more like Christopher Colombus
than Kris Kristofferson.

Havana Jam.

Kris Kristofferson, Rita Coolidge,
Steven Stills, Billy Joel.

It was odd. Billy Joel and Jaco
giving each other attitude.

With all the bands
there to support each other,

but were kind of 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 3 nights,

the stage of the Carlo Marc theater,
in La Havana, Cuba,

will be shared by american
and cuban musicians,

in a unique cultural exchange.

the first of its kind,

since political, economical
and philosophical differences

separated our two countries
20 years ago.

That characteristic pulse
in the center of Cuban music

is an african heartbeat.

I think you've heard it in the works of
the astonishing Tata G�ines.

Jaco was like a kid
getting the autograph of Tata G�ines.

Many of the patterns
Jaco had played on the bass

were really conga patterns.

Jaco's whole Florida beat,
this whole caribbean thing, it's that.

Coincidentally, The Havana Jam

was the first sign
of things going wrong.

Jaco got into a thing with one of the
musicians of the Nathaniel All Stars.

I think these guys were
from Puerto Rico.

And I don't know if there was
some cuban,

portorican musical dynamic,

but the guy, definitely,
was giving Jaco very little attention.

Jaco almost got into a fist fight.

I think Joe had to break it up.

And then, Jaco lost face,

and I think part of his mecanism
of defense against losing face

played out in his Trio of Doom,

that had tremendously successful
rehearsals in New York

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

the jazz, rock, or whatever
you want to call it,

of the Three Tenors.

Tonight we have the visit of
a group of american artists...

It could have been great.

But once Jaco got into
his self-destruct mode...

which unfortunately
occured during this set,

the concert was pretty much
considered a disaster.

Jaco was not himself.

Playing "Portrait of Tracy"
turning up the bass really loud,

not playing the tunes...

Tony never forgave him.
And there was an odd pattern.

Whenever Jaco
would lose face

there would be this odd acting out.

I don't know
what the dynamics are.

My dad was a psychiatrist
who tried to help Jaco.

But my father didn't pass on
too much to me...

There was some
complicated stuff going on.

We played in Santa Barbara,
Jaco came onto the tour.

He came late to the rehearsals,
shoved my microphone off the center,

plugged in his bass,
dirtied the floor,

he played long solos
where he danced a lot.

on bass, Jaco Pastorius.

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

I don't know what these women did
to him in the backroom, but it was good,

because when he came out that night
and took his solo, he opened up by quoting:

"I feel high and mighty".

He was starting to fall apart.

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

Something's changing.

Jaco took the fame hit.

I can't imagine walking out
or doing something

and all of a sudden all these people
congregate around you

and want to know you, talk to you,
be part of what's going on,

that frightens me.

Suddenly he was entering some kind of challenge that didn't exist before

Certainly, Tracy's relationship was
home for him.

And it pained him and saddened him
that this relationship ended.

I think that was a huge loss for him,

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

he was conveying his inner self
onto his canvas.

Everything came out
on the instrument.

as if he was on the psychiatrist couch

and revealed everything
about who he was.

- So tell me, what happened
on that tour with Joni,

did it opened any
new things for you?

- No, no. I'm just doing my own thing.

- But have you got
any project happening?

- I don't know, you know.

Because I still have this assignment,
you know?

So, you're hanging on with Epic?

or you try to renegociate with them?

Oh, they're such assholes,
you know...

Do you have a contract that gives them
an option on your next album ?

Yeah, but that doesn't matter
to me, ha ha ha !

All this legal shit

in the record business
has got to change,

because it's 100% 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 go home
and play base-ball all day.

Which I do when I'm home,
you know what I mean?

And play basketball,
and play frisbee, and just have fun.

The key issues in his life were
family breaking up,

big changes in his 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 a.m.

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

he obviously had compositions
or ideas

there is a lot of hints of those
on the first record.

"Okonkol� y Trompa"
is a masterpiece.

Almost classical music.

He had things to show people
they never heard before.

They were in his head
for quite a while.

People realized that :

"We don't know what this is.
Show us".

There was a buzz on Jaco, of course.

Here is a guy that can write,
that can arrange, that can 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,

he had the potential to
break through and cross over.

We set out on a quest
to get Jaco to Warner Brothers.

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

And, because the record business
is a business,

expectations tend to follow the deal.

If you sign an act for
75.000 dollars,

your expectations are at one level.

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

He said : "You know what dub is?"

I said : "I believe I do, yeah...

it's like the old reggae,
the guy dropping the fader,

talking over..." and he goes,
"yeah, it's gonna be different.

we're not gonna let anybody hear
anyone else's parts.

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

It had a life of its own,
it really grew powerfully.

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

Pablo Picasso 'Guernica',
Jaco Pastorius 'Crisis'.

They are of the same cloth.

He wanted to open
the record with this.

A lot of people in this company,
if they heard this track,

they would say
"we can't even have this,

this is crazy,

It's a cacophony, it's atonal,
nobody can follow it, it's scary..."

I'm shaking right now
just thinking about it,

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

They pleaded with him. They said :
"Any other tune, but that.

We can't get this album onto radio
if that's the first track".

I think it made him very happy,
this going on to record.

I would say that he was venting.

He was venting a little bit
of personal frustration.

And then he realized this is
the only way

to start a record like this.

It's to make people wonder :
"What's coming?"

And then what comes
is so different.

The 'Word of Mouth' album
was so revealing of Jaco as a person.

It was almost embarassing to listen to,
it was so intimate at times.

It was the most courageous thing
he's ever done,

the most daring thing he's done.

It's Jaco's internal thing,
the real truth of who he is.

There were some people
that were less than thrilled about this.

They said: "Wait a minute.
This is like a switcheroo.

We signed this guy to make
this big hit fusion record,

now he's doing this thing over here".

I know how comfortable
he was with the concept,

how good he felt with what
he was doing, and it was right.

The label had never acknowledged
the master work that it was

and it hurt Jaco. Deeply. To tears.
It really did hurt him.

I remember Jaco
really needing Joe's approval.

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 would be cruelly
dismissive.

I kinda wanted to say to Jaco:
"Let's not call Joe today".

Joe had a fighter's instinct,
a boxer's instinct.

He had a Miles instinct.

So he had a glass chin,
a soft spot in the belly,

They knew how to fight it
pretty quick.

The final tour began with Joe
listening to the Word of Mouth album.

He wanted to wait for the perfect
moment to play the music for Joe.

And he thought after flying to Tokyo
would be the perfect moment.

Joe takes off his earphones
and I hear him say :

"That sounds like some typical
high school big band bullshit".

That's what Joe said about
'Liberty City'. I couldn't believe it.

That was Joe's way of
slapping down the son

who's threatening his reign,
in a sense.

That fucking music was on
the highest level.

John and Mary...

Joe would love to write
something like that.

I think that was fear from Joe,

feeling that the son had taken over.

Where do you wanna go from here?

I got it, I got it !

In 1982, I'm gonna
take off from Weather Report.

We've been together a long time,

but, just like everything else,
you gotta have space too.

Playing with Weather Report
didnt allow me any time to do anything.

So i said to myself :
"Forget it Jaco, you got to get to work".

And I don't care what Joe
thinks about it,

because I know I can get the job done.

And that's it".

Jaco would come up
and just stay with us.

We would play in a club,
right down where I lived,

called 55 Grand Street.

The problem for me at that point
was that I was totally out.

I was really high a lot.

So much that Miles actually
tried to put me into rehab.

If Miles tries to put you into rehab,

you know you got a little problem.

The nickname of 55 Grand
was 55 Grams...

Is that what you talked about?

There was a lot of condiments
floating through, you know...

People were doing
what they wanted to do.

I mean, nothing in the open,
but, you know...

If you were there late enough,
it was...

Jaco and I got together there
and we kept together for days,

without paying.

Delmar called us
"The Hang Dynasty"

I said "let's create
the Hang Dynasty club.

Which means you have to hang
three days to be a member of this club.

If you didn't hang
three days straight,

you weren't in the club".

Everybody passed the test.

And so we had a band !

At that point, that was normal.

There wasn't anything far out
for musicians.

But Jaco's playing
became almost like an extension...

of his behaviour
off stage,

sort of John Belushi kind of man.

people almost felt cheated
if there was no:

"Wow, Jaco really
acted like Jaco tonight".

They got their money's worth.

Meanwhile, he's got to be
a 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 like brothers in a way,

We were in the same boat.

He was a cult figure of sorts,

what struck me, at one point, was :

"Man, we're playing
an old be-bop tune from the 40s

for these youg people,
and they're freaking out.

Isn't this fantastic?"

what was frustrating for me was that
this thing was up and running from note one.

We sold out wherever we played.

All the luminary musicians came
to see what was going on.

It was working.

It made everybody feel like a rockstar

playing a jazz tour.

The japanese adored him.
We're talking about 20.000 seats.

There were people who broke
the bones in their thumbs

so that they could ben the last digits
of their thumbs back, like Jaco.

I've seen unbelievable things.

But the things I saw early
were the same things I saw later,

and that knocked me out.

It's his ability
to communicate music to everyone,

including to the average person.

He had tribes of people waiting for him
in every city he was going 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 own 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 magical to him.

Poundering their birth
was astounding to him

but unfortunately, that was happening
at a time he was unravelling

and Ingrid...

being so protective of the children,

didn't want Jaco around them.

so he didnt have much of
a relationship with them.

because, at the time,

he was not in the place
to be a responsible parent,

and that caused him a lot of pain.

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

He said : "You ever been married?"
I said : "No".

He said : "You got any kids?"
I said : "No".

"I can't tell you what's wrong,

because you wouldn't understand it".

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

Before the Japan trip,
I go to the airport,

I turn a corner
and here is Jaco.

The moment was as jarring
as that moment in Taxi Driver,

when the camera pans,
and then begins to pan up,

and you see the body of De Niro.

You know it's De Niro, but then
you see the shaved head with the mohawk.

I had that same creepy,
frightening feeling.

And I went : "Hi, Jaco".

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

with a crew cut.

At some point,
he changed into this blue, seminal dress

and he was walking around the plane
like he was Sun Ra,

or one of these mystical elders.

A lot of the musicians
were amused,

not sure what to make of it.

Those of us who known him longer
were alarmed.

So there's this balance of
the Emperor's new clothing,

Nobody saying anything,
and we're whispering...

What do we do?

Something's definitely wrong".

Hello, I'm an electric bass player.

Jaco was not doing so well
at that time.

Things were not going well.

What's up in the future
for you two?

- Well, more records...
- Champagne, and looks like beer.

More records, I'm sure.

What kind of records?

We're working on a new
studio album, solo album...

We're working? It's done, bro!
We've just got to mix it.

There definitely was a feeling
of uncertainty

that never reared its ugly head

during Word of Mouth.

The label had zero interest
in the record.

And I didn't know
what options he had.

Do you ever see yourself
tapping the commercial market?

-We are.
-I am commercial !

You're not commercial yet.

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

make some records and BAM !

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

Well, you know, we are tapping
the commercial market

Maybe you're referring to the
pop Top 40 music market.

-Yeah.
-Well, yeah,

If they ever come around
and get smart, sure.

Like Chuck Mangione.

-No way.
-Impossible, he plays out of tune.

Chuck Manicotti.

I don't dig this at all.
I don't, you know?

Listen man.
He's a very nice guy.

He does way too much coke.

And the motherfucker
eats too much pasta.

And, fuck me, he wears a hat.

When he was in the midst of
recording 'Holiday for Pans',

Warner Brothers decided to
rip up, literally,

Jaco's contract.

It was like a huge rejection.

He knew that he was onto
something very special

He just continued
this downward spiral.

People didn't understand there were
forces and conditions

beyond his control
that were grabbing hold

and it was too easy to just describe it
as "substances".

Hey dad, it's Jaco.
You're there?

Hey.

-Daddy!
-Yeah.

Who loves you?

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

Where you at?

New York City.

Where about?

We're right here. Jada's house.

I called there all last week.

Daddy, it's hard to get me.

Nobody answered.

Can I tell you one thing?

What's that?

Who loves you?

Who loves you, kid?

When things happen to people,
good or bad,

it's always a convergence
of many elements and components.

it takes 4 fingers and a thumb
to make it solid

but you need to make impact
or to make a stranglehold.

He's like : "I got this video,
they want me to do this video.

I told them I want to do it with you.
We're gonna do this".

He was in bad shape,
but he wanted to leave something.

I don't know if he thought
something was gonna happen to him,

But he wanted to help other musicians

and help the kids.
That's what he wanted to do.

-OK
-What about something like that?

That's better than what I do.

Any advice to musicians,
young and old? New and beginners?

Keep your minds open,
keep an open head about music.

When I first came to New York,
everybody 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 was jazz.

Now, New York is cool.
They play everything.

When I grew up in Florida,
everything was hip.

I was fortunate
to be exposed and be able to play

all kinds of music.

I played in a country band for a year
and I had a ball.

I love country and western too.

If it's good, I dig it.
Whatever it is.

Just keep an open mind
about everything.

-Yeah.
-That's about my only advice.

-Keep listening.
-Beautiful.

Keep your ears open.

You got 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.

...they gonna be flat tires,
they gonna go on the side of the highway.

he was in this stage
where this was going on.

Hi, Jack,
Sorry to call so early.

this is Terry.

I just saw Jaco on the streets,
he's doing some crazy things.

I don't want tot ell you this,
but he needs help again.

He almost got himself killed a little
while ago, I don't know what to tell you.

I hope you can help.

Between the street door
and our security door, inside,

there was some six foot space

Some morning he'd be there
waiting for us.

Obviously he'd been up
from the night before

he knew it was a safe place.

He was comfortable here,
because he was around musicians.

Say : "Hey, let me show you
something on drums".

Or "let me show you something I'm
working on on the piano.

Come here, check this out.

here's something I wrote Weather
Report never recorded".

It would jolt you.
"How?

How could this be for this guy
who was on top of the world,

and reinvented the sound
of this instrument

and left such a strong mark
on music?"

the singer of my band, Anthony,

they were walking down the street
in New York

and they saw Jaco
sitting on the sidewalk.

And they said : "this is Jaco Pastorius,
sitting on the sidewalk, drunk,

playing 'Louie, Louie' for change".

I went to an art opening
in Soho.

When we came out, there was
this little club across the street

with a cardboard sign,
magic marker, saying :

"Jaco Pastorius tonight".

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

He asked me to jam with him,

but he trailed the cord of the
microphone over the keyboard,

so it got in my way.

and I'd flip it off while I'm playing.

and he'd flip it back on.

And he was playing way
outside the chord.

You know, it was... not good.

Nothing was good about it at all.

And he was kinda
praising me too much.

It was a skitty behaviour.

And that's the last I saw him.

In july 1986,
I commited 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 this kind of oppositional behaviour

and he was certainly in danger
of provoking somebody

that could be dangerous to him.

this sort of scaled down over weeks.

While he was in the unit,
he became very engaged with other patients.

He could reach out to them in ways
that others patients couldn't.

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

who had cut herself all over her body
in response to some illsuion.

and she was very withdrawn
and very inaccessible.

and Jaco really reached her,
made some kind of connection,

he made contact.
Jaco had that capability.

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 would call
either "rapid cycling",

where the features
of depression and mania

alternate rapidly,

or mix with one another.

That interacted with
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 imbalances,

they ushered actions
that could not have been taken

if you were living without it.

He was an explorer.

I see... an image
of Jaco, like CHarlie Parker,

Coltrane, Miles.

Same thing I saw in the comic books.
Superheroes!

Hello, collect call for Jack
from Jaco.

Hello dad. It's Jaco.
You there?

Alive and well in Florida.
Love you.

Jaco returned to Florida
after he was treated.

He was intermittently
complying with the medication.

That is not unusual.

He was going through a phase that
a lot of bipolar patients go through.

And that's where lies
the ambivalence of that treatment,

they are struggling to accept
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 bass...

I don't even think he had a shirt on.

And he's hang out with some fellas,

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

He had an acoustic guitar,

He had some albums, some of his albums.

And I realised :
"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 chose 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?

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 just walk
into the restaurant.

So I told the band :

"Look, this is my brother.
I have to take him home.

I can't let him go to jail".

I put the 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, and I say :
"OK Man, where do you live?"

And he says : "in the park".

And I said : "What? In the park?"

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

So we're driving in the park,

and he grabs my hand
and starts crying.

and I say : "What's wrong, man?"

He goes :
"I don't want to be here anymore".

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

"I don't want to be here anymore, man.
I've had it".

That night he went to hear
Carlos Santana,

and the incident happened.

I found out pretty quick
because my ex-girlfriend

dated one of the assholes
that beat him into a coma.

And this was pretty tough.

Very tough for me to hear.

This is 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.

It was the end of the funeral, man.

Julius and Felix, they're looking
at me, and they say :

"Uncle Bobby, when is daddy Jaco
gonna jump out of the box?"

I remember that it took 20 minutes
talking to them to let them know

"Daddy Jaco is with the angels now.

He's not gonna jump out of the box".

Just thinking about what he had said,

and watching his life
unfold after that...

Everything he said came to pass.

Not too long afterwards,
I was flying in Italy.

After the concert,

Came down the stage,
met some fans.

I went to Stage Right,

where there were a stairway
that led off the stage.

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

And this fan came up to me.
Very emotional.

He says : "How could you do this?

How could all of you let this happen?"

I said :
"We all tried to help".

That wasn't a good enough
answer for him.

We are 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 conscious
of our own personality,

or what we are,

or what we want to do with life.

That's the stuff.

The torments that go on inside us,

that is what comes out in music.

Everybody gets their own burden.

Everyone get their own
special beating in life.

he just took this energy
and turned it into what he could.

and you feel it in every note.
you feel it.

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?

There's not too much soul and feeling.

That original stuff.

There's not too much
you can do without.

Where is he at?

Usually right next to Charlie Parker.

How do you spell "Pastorius" again?

With a capital "P".

The music is just a byproduct
of his life, man,

and you can hear his sound everyday.

Be it Sting from The Police,
or Flea from Chili Peppers.

it's amazing how many people
are close to his music

and are so appreciative of what
he gave in a short amount of time.

It is an honor to play here
in the Yankee Stadium,

New York City.

Thank you for coming here
and supporting heavy music!

I had the good fortune to see
Jaco play four times.

It was an amazing moment for me.

Jaco, to me, was Punk Rock.

He was fearless.

You can label him,

You can try to label him as your own
and say : "Jaco was 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.

You needed Jaco to get to this point.

The things that I know that
he has written blow my mind.

Somehow a part of him
has influenced me in so many ways

especially the way I put together
instrumental songs

Whatever the genre I can take,
the genre I can take, you know

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

I just remember him being amazing,
I remember the backflips,

I remember just thinking :
"this is what it's all about"

"this is what I aspire to"

He was the best bass player
that ever played, nothing else like him.

When I'm thinking, am I missing
anyone? Am I missing something?

Is there anything close to it,

other than that, on the bass?

Not to me, man.