2011 Readers’ Favorite Bassists – #3: Jaco Pastorius

Jaco Pastorius

Jaco Pastorius remains a force, nearly a quarter of a century after the world lost the bass legend way too soon. Jaco would have been 60 on December 1, 2011, so we honored him that day with an all-Jaco celebration, including our tribute to the one called “the world’s greatest bassist”.

Thanks to the web and Youtube, previously unseen Jaco videos are seeing the light of day all the time, and we feature the best of the best here. Check out the top five list below for four videos which made their No Treble debut in 2011, and helped propel Jaco to #3 overall on the 2011 reader favorites list.

Several of the videos came to us from Ingrid Pastorius, who passed away on November 28, 2011. We’ll miss her very much.

Check out our complete Jaco Pastorius archive.

2011 Top 5 Most Viewed Jaco Pastorius-Focused Features:

Jaco Pastorius: Unreleased “Teen Town” Live Video 1978

1. Jaco Pastorius: Unreleased “Teen Town” Live Video 1978

Here’s some amazing and really rare footage of Weather Report performing Jaco Pastorius‘s “Teen Town”, filmed live in Reading, PA in 1978 by a member of the audience. While the video isn’t very good quality, the performance is top notch, with the quartet of Joe Zawinul, Wayne Shorter, Peter Erskine and Jaco.

Jaco Pastorius Word of Mouth Band: Soul Intro/The Chicken, Live (1983)

2. Jaco Pastorius Word of Mouth Band: Soul Intro/The Chicken, Live (1983)

Jaco Pastorius‘s Word of Mouth band took on many forms over the years. This line up – Mike Stern, Alex Foster, Ron Tooley, Don Alias, Kenwood Dennard and Delmar Brown – performs “Soul Intro / The Chicken”, live in Nice in 1983.

Jaco Pastorius: Solo / Chromatic Fantasy / Blackbird – Live in Italy (1986)

3. Jaco Pastorius: Solo / Chromatic Fantasy / Blackbird – Live in Italy (1986)

Ingrid Pastorius shared this video of Jaco Pastorius performing solo in front of an audience in Italy in 1986. This performance includes Chromatic Fantasy/Blackbird, which appears on Jaco’s Word of Mouth album. Always great to see new footage of Jaco! Have a video to share? Send it to [email protected].

Jaco Pastorius & Weather Report: Birdland Live (1978)

4. Jaco Pastorius & Weather Report: Birdland Live (1978)

More previously unreleased Jaco Pastorius gold: a live performance of “Birdland”, performed by Weather Report in Pennsylvania in 1978. Drummer Peter Erskine’s father Dr. Fred Erskine filmed the concerts in both Reading and Washington, Pennsylvania. Peter shared with Rick Suchow, “The sound came direct from the front-of-house mix board, engineered by Brian Risner, and my…

Jaco at 60: Remembering the Legend

5. Jaco at 60: Remembering the Legend

Sixty years ago today, the world’s greatest bass player was born. Jaco Pastorius didn’t start out that way, following his father’s footsteps and taking up the drums. But as luck would have it, he did eventually pick up a bass guitar, and a few years later, he changed the world of electric bass forever. Jaco…

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