He was a great bass player. I hope he's resting in peace. That's all.
He was a great bass player. I hope he's resting in peace. That's all.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]peek-a-boo!!
I think he was beaten to death, wasn't he?
Yes, he was. What a shame.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]peek-a-boo!!
First of all his name is JACO.
Second, his untimely death was two years in the making. Jaco was suffering from a mental disorder and since he refused to take his drugs (he also had a nasty coke and alcohol habit going as well) - he was banned from most clubs in the Ft. Lauderdale area. After sneaking onstage at a Santana concert on Sept. 11, 1987 he was ejected from the venue and he made his way to the Midnight Bottle Club. After reportedly kicking in a glass door after being refused entrance to the club, he was engaged in a horribly violent confrontation with the club bouncer, Luc Havan. Pastorius was hospitalized for multiple facial fractures and gruesome disfigurement to his face, including the probable loss of his right eye and right arm, and had sustained irreversible brain damage. There were initially encouraging signs that he would come out of his coma and recover, but a massive brain hemorrhage a few days later pointed to brain death.
His family voted to pull the plug while his second wife vehemently disagreed (that is why there are two competing webpages for Jaco). He died three hours later.
Luc Havan was convicted of second degree murder and spent all of four months in jail. He is a free man today despite the fact that he literally beat a homeless man to death without provocation.
Jaco Pastorius was a meteor who blazed on to the scene in the 1970s, only to flame out tragically in the 1980s. With a brilliantly fleet technique and fertile melodic imagination, Pastorius made his fretless electric bass leap out from the depths of the rhythm section into the front line with fluid machine-gun-like passages that demanded attention. He also sported a strutting, dancing, flamboyant performing style and posed a further triple-threat as a talented composer, arranger and producer. He and Stanley Clarke were the towering influences on their instrument in the 1970s.
Born in Pennsylvania, Pastorius grew up in Fort Lauderdale, where he played with visiting R&B and pop acts while still a teenager and built a reputation as a local legend. Everything started to come together for him quickly once he started playing with another rookie fusionmeister, Pat Metheny, around 1974. By 1976, he had been invited to join Weather Report, where he remained until 1981, gradually becoming a third lead voice along with Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter. Outside Weather Report, he found himself in constant demand as a sessionman and producer, playing on Joni Mitchell, Blood Sweat and Tears, Paul Bley, Bireli Lagrene and Ira Sullivan albums -- and his first eponymous solo album for Epic in 1976 was hailed as a tour de force. From 1980 to 1984, he toured and recorded with his own band, the innovative Word of Mouth that fluctuated in size from a large combo to a big band.
Alas, Pastorius became overwhelmed by mental problems, exacerbated by drugs and alcohol in the mid-'80s, leading to several embarrassing public incidents (one was a violent crack-up on-stage at the Hollywood Bowl in mid-set at the 1984 Playboy Jazz Festival). Such episodes made him a pariah in the music business and toward the end of his life, he had become a street person, reportedly sighted in drug-infested inner-city hangouts. He died in 1987 from a physical beating sustained while trying to break into the Midnight Club in Fort Lauderdale. Almost totally forgotten at the time of his death, Pastorius was immediately canonized afterwards (Marcus Miller wrote a tune "Mr. Pastorius" in his honor) -- too late for him to have received therapy or help.
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:jifoxqy5ldje~T1
Live Under The Sky
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5UqDqwzagU
Jaco & Jeff Berlin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw3BV7V7ZbQ
Funny, I was listening to him on YouTube earlier today. What talent!
The most dangerous woman of all is the one who refuses to rely on your sword to save her because she carries her own.
- R.H. Sin
Great bassist, arrogant git! Guys with ponytails look so affected! If he was more level headed he would probably still be alive!
Jaco Pastorius & Sam and Dave - Come On, Come Over
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWh8HzCxtOg
Jaco Pastorius and John Scofield - The Chicken
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwhkPSEXs1Q
What a horrible story. It's aggravating and infuriating that this Luc Havan character only got four months in jail...
As some other death hags have mentioned, I'd never heard of him. I had to google Jaco Pastorius, and I read his bio on Wikipedia. I had no idea that he played with Weather Report, among many others, including Ian Hunter, Herbie Hancock, Joni Mitchell. I had one of Weather Report's old albums way back, Heavy Weather; I bought it just for one track, "Birdland."
I just found out that Jaco Pastorius played on that album.
In part, the Wikipedia article says "One night before a gig, Zawinul offered Jaco a drink to loosen him up. Pastorius had never drunk before due to his father's own struggles with alcohol, but after two drinks, Zawinul said he got "strange. He started throwing things. I knew right away I had made a mistake."[8] Pastorius's drinking grew more out of control in the ensuing years, with Zawinul so furious during a Japanese tour in 1980 he was ready to fire Jaco.[citation needed] He called bassist Tony Levin, but he wasn't available. Before a replacement was found, Jaco showed up at Zawinul's door apologizing profusely, and Joe once again forgave him."
Here is a site that lists Jaco Pastorius's discography.
I hate it when people have to die so needlessly, and in such a violent manner, but it's even harder to take when the victim is such a creative person.
Last edited by Jangles; 06-06-2009 at 08:25 AM.
Am I the only one who read that the guy was all scraggly looking & broke into an establishment? He shouldn't have beaten the guy that badly but heck, who knows how far I'd go if some crazed lunatic was kicking his way into my place?
^^ It's a good point that you make. If someone was trying to break into my place, I'd probably have at the intruder with a baseball bat (I have wooden ones and aluminum ones!)
I would disable the trespasser and I might push him down our spiral exterior staircase. He'd be injured and he'd hurt, but I would not go so far as to beat him half to death. There's a limit.
I agree, there is a limit. I don't know that I can feel too sorry for the guy though. I mean, that's just asking for trouble. Was he weakened by malnutrition or something? Maybe that's why the guy got a low sentence? Either way, one should know the consequences of beating someone like that AND of breaking & entering.
Bump
The most dangerous woman of all is the one who refuses to rely on your sword to save her because she carries her own.
- R.H. Sin
The Bass of Doom is the best name ever for a bass. EVER! While not much of a jazz buff, Jaco is cool. And he played the Bass of Doom. It sounds like something you would pull out of a magic rock and slay dragons with. That's so Dio.
The most dangerous woman of all is the one who refuses to rely on your sword to save her because she carries her own.
- R.H. Sin
The bouncer that murdered Jaco was also a Vietnamese refugee. I really doubt Jaco in his advanced state of mental and physical deterioration was an imminent threat to anyone, little more than a human punching bag that couldn't fight back. He was beaten to death by someone who probably had a lot of rage he wanted to channel at a defenseless target.