Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Taken by my wife at the Bottom Line back in the day:

Great shot!

It's from 1984, and Jaco did his usual, just walk up, plug in and jam!

Great shot. I have seen both of them, but not together unfortunately.

Alas, it was Jaco's penchant for "crashing" that got him killed.

you can almost make out the track marks in jaco's arms.

Great pic....I would have loved to have been there....

However, one cannot be so nonchalant about someone who suffered or who suffers from mental illness.

Jaco was a diagnosed manic depressive. Anyone who has been around such people know, that, at times, there simply is no structure to that individuals life.

If diagnosed today, there is every chance he would have lived a far more normal life.

Such is his genius, he is one of the few bassists to impact music as a whole, rather than just his instrument.

I say Stanley a year or so ago and he was still brilliant...

Jaco is another in which I always hear too much about his negative ways. As I also stated in the thread about Brian Jones and the book I have on the Stones, the biography I have on Jaco has plenty of graphic detailes of Jaco's mental state and drug habits. Can't we just talk/read/hear about what a great musician he was? I don't like talking about and making a big deal of someone's misfortunes, especially when that perticular person is dead and can't defend himself. It's too bad about these misfortunes, but countless people have them too. Why talk like it's a big deal?

Well, I'm done ranting. I just had to blow off some steam about too much talk about a great musician's bad habits. It just urks me when that's all people wish to talk about.

BTW, great picture, Marc. Jaco and Stanley are defiantely two great muscians to listen to. I always find that it's always good to turn away from the "Top 40" radio stations, or what have you, just to listen to "real" musicians. Good ol' contemporary Jazz is good for the soul.

for those of us that aren't hardcore fans of jaco (even though he was incredible), talking about their extracurriculars is all we know. hell, even my bass hero, Phil Lynott, was a huge heroin user and died because of it, but that aspect of their lives made them part of who they were.

it's not a sign of disrespect, it's a sign of reality and facing the fact that these guys had huge problems...huge problems that made them more human.

"Chromatic Fantasy" still totally blows my mind!

Huge problems that made them more human, but it is still a personal and private subject, even if so many of us know about it. I, for one, if were famous, wouldn't like knowing people talk mostly about my personal habits. Snorting cocaine is not how a person becomes famous. I'd rather focus on the musical abilities of my musical heroes.

Hey Marc, have you considered contacting the official Jaco website with that photo?

http://www.jacopastorius.com

My last time on the Ice, '91-92, I drummed in a couple of bands with a great bass player named Dennis Murphy...he and I became really good friends. He was the head of the civilian cargo department in McMurdo. He had been a Navy cryptographer during the Vietnam Era; a very bright guy. Anyway, we agreed about most things in life, and had a really good time playing together, but we differed most drastically on the Jaco/Stanley issue. I liked Jaco better for his melodic strengths; Murphy was a Clarke enthusiast, mainly for them damn jackhammer 32nd notes. Neither of us would budge, so we would just dismiss the discussion after a while. One night, when we were both a bit drunk and listening to Zappa and The Fugs, I confessed to him that I was quite envious of his finger playing: Murphy had the best jackhammer 16th's of any bass player I've had the privilege of playing with. He then told me that he was equally envious of my bass playing...I played almost exclusively with a pick back then, and played bass for several bands in town that season, including that year's metal 'offering', the Jesus Nuts. Murphy said he wished he knew all those 'guitar licks' that I found quite easy to do with the ol' 'plectrum'.

I think the moral of the story is this: every technique, every approach, that produces good, memorable music is the right one...Music is an ancient human Art, and separate from the world of Sport, where quantifiable "32nd's" matter most. What's best about Music is it's ephemeral, enigmatic nature. We can't say what it is, but we know it when we hear it.

I've decided today's the day I might tackle the 'My Drink with Jaco' story...I will endeavor to get it down in a separate thread. Interestingly, it takes place in the summer of 1984, the same year as the posted picture...and, I'm sorry Robert, I'm gonna have to tell it like it was...

Chris... I sent them an e-mail letting them know I had the photo.