Warner Bros Releases Jaco Pastorius Anthology
In 1981, Jaco Pastorius left Weather Report to pursue work with his Word of Mouth Big Band. He released his second solo effort, Word of Mouth under his new contract with Warner Bros.
On December 1st of that year, Jaco celebrated his 30th birthday by hosting a party at a Fort Lauderdale, Florida club. He flew in musicians from the Word of Mouth project to perform, and the event was recorded by Jaco’s friend and engineer Peter Yianilos. Yianilos intended for the recording to be a birthday gift, but it remained unreleased until 1995, when Warner released it on The Birthday Concert.
In 1982, Jaco took his Word of Mouth band on a tour in Japan, which resulted in the release of Invitation in the U.S. by Warner.
Warner has just released an all-new anthology which collects remastered versions of many of the tracks on those three albums, along with some of Jaco’s guest appearances, and a previously unreleased performance of Charlie Parker’s “Donna Lee.”
The two guest appearances include “Nativity,” from percussionist Airto Moreira’s 1977 album I’m Fine, How Are You? and “Mood Swings,” from Mike Stern’s 1986 release, Upside Downside.
Jaco biographer Bill Milkowski contributed the liner notes for the anthology, saying “Through his brilliant innovations…Pastorius liberated his instrument from its traditional role in the background and re-imagined it as a potent solo axe and orchestral tool.”
Anthology – The Warner Bros. Years is available on CD and digital format (iTunes and Amazon MP3).
Anthology – The Warner Bros. Years Track List:
Disc One:
- Crisis
- Blackbird
- Chromatic Fantasy
- Word Of Mouth
- Three Views Of A Secret
- John And Mary
- Continuum
- Liberty City
- Soul Intro / The Chicken
- Reza
- Happy Birthday
Disc Two:
- Punk Jazz
- Amerika
- Invitation
- Domingo
- Sophisticated Lady
- Fannie Mae
- Eleven
- Okonkole’ Y Trompa
- Nativity – with Airto Moreira
- Mood Swings – with Mike Stern
- Donna Lee – previously unreleased
