JACO PASTORIUS
On walking in to meet Joe Zawinul of Weather Report when they passed through his town, Pastorius said "I am the greatest bass player in the world" Zawinul said "Get outa my sight!" Then he heard him play . . . . . . ever stubborn and persistent Jaco turned up at Zawinul's hotel room again and left him a tape to play. "It floored me' said Zawinul . . . . . . .
I found these pictures of Jaco Pastorius whilst trawling the t'inter-web . . . . . .
A homeless Jaco Pastorius performing in front of the Washington Square Diner on 150 W. 4th St., presumably in the mid-Eighties.
📸: Anthony Kiedis.
From wiki:
John Francis Anthony "Jaco" Pastorius III suffered from alcohol abuse, drug addiction and mental health problems [later diagnosed as bi-polar], throughout his professional life, and despite his widespread acclaim, over the latter part of his life he had problems holding down jobs due to his unreliability. In frequent financial trouble, he was often homeless throughout the mid 1980s. He died in 1987, as a result of injuries sustained in a fight outside of a South Florida music club.
Pastorius had developed a self-destructive habit of provoking bar fights and allowing himself to be beaten up. After sneaking onstage at a Santana concert at the Sunrise Musical Theater in Sunrise, Florida on September 11, 1987 and being ejected from the premises, he made his way to the Midnight Bottle Club in Wilton Manors, Florida.
After reportedly kicking in a glass door, having been refused entrance to the club, he was in a violent confrontation with Luc Havan, the club's manager who was a martial arts expert. Pastorius was hospitalised for multiple facial fractures and injuries to his right eye and left arm, and fell into a coma. There were encouraging signs that he would come out of the coma and recover, but they soon faded. A brain haemorrhage a few days later led to brain death. He was taken off life support and died on September 21, 1987 at the age of 35 at Broward General Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale.
Luc Havan faced a charge of second-degree murder. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to twenty-two months in prison and five years' probation. After serving four months in prison, he was paroled for good behaviour.
The light of Pastorius' life were his children, two sons and a daughter and they survive him. His daughter and first born child, Mary, has been diagnosed with bi-polar disorder . . . . . . . .
Further reading
Joni Mitchell on Pastorius "I have fondness for derelicts" . . . . nice Joni real nice
"Jaco Pastorius was a human being. I am stating the obvious, but sometimes the obvious needs to be re-stated. My father is referred to in the most non-human manner. Object-like. He has become an icon, this Jaco “thing”. Yes, he was a phenomenon, but not a thing. Not a machine. Not a god. The stories surrounding his increasingly erratic behavior, during his later years, have become folklore, almost mythical. But, the reality is that my father was only a man, and at times a very sick man who needed help. No myth in that. Not exciting nor romantic, but the truth nonetheless."
Mary Pastorius
He was also the greatest bass player in the world
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