Jaco Pastorius, the bassist who virtually invented fretless bass playing, is dead. As Making Music went to press, we learned of the death in Miami, Florida, on Monday 21st September 1987 of the 35 year-old musician. Early reports suggest he died after being "attacked outside a night club".

It was in the mid-1970s that fellow bass players began to listen closely to the sounds that Jaco Pastorius was getting from his Fender Jazz bass. In 1976 he was recruited to the ever-adventurous jazz-rock group, Weather Report, and in the same year Epic Records released his first solo album, "Jaco Pastorius". Jaco's individual sound took shape after he'd heaved the frets from a Jazz Bass to provide a rough and ready customised fretless. He quickly established the fretless instrument in a world of almost totally fretted basses. The sounds he got from harmonics on his bass were equally shocking to the bassists who began to hear him at this time — particularly notable was his stunning 'Portrait Of Tracy' on "Jaco Pastorius".

Jaco was born John Francis Pastorius in Norristown, Pennsylvania on 1st December 1951, but grew up in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. His father was a drummer, and was apparently a rare visitor to the Pastorius household. When Jaco was 13, his other great love, sport, almost put paid to his later career. He got in a fight — what he described later as "one of those red-neck football rumbles" — and the result was having his left hand almost severed from the arm. Fortunately for us all, he recovered.

The teenaged Jaco settled on the electric bass guitar after trying drums, piano, sax and guitar, and began to make a living from his bass-playing, working in back-up bands for concert bill-toppers on their way through Florida.

He began practising properly at the age of 19 — and shortly after landed his first regular job with a big r'n'b group of the period, Wayne Cochran and the CC Riders, where he began scoring eight-part charts for big-band funk. It was also with Cochran that, as a bassist, Jaco learned to read.

"I started playing the bass because it was so easy — and then I had to go and make it hard for myself," he told writer/musician Julie Coryell in 1977. "My greatest inspiration has always been singers — they have the ability to get personal. When I play the bass, most people can usually tell that it's me, because of that kind of personal thing I try to get in my tone."

It was that personal touch which brought him to great attention in the mid-1970s through the solo album and Weather Report, and later with Joni Mitchell. Certainly Pastorius had paid his dues. "I waited a long time (for success): a tree never grows until it's got some roots already spreading out underneath, then it's going to really grow." he said in an interview with Tony Bacon in 1976. "I've always been the sort of cat that whenever I wanted to do something, no matter where it was, I always tried to do it good. If you're unknown you just have to take a few punches, and then you earn the right to do what you want."

More recently, Jaco's musical activities were hampered by his use of drink and drugs. He still managed to produce perhaps his most accomplished album, around 1982, of big band music, recorded in Japan and originally released as a double set called "Twins". And in 1985 Warner Brothers issued an instructional video, "Jaco Pastorius — Modern Electric Bass" (available in the UK via IMP), despite reports in the same year of Jaco "begging on street corners" in New York City.

Herbie Hancock wrote on the sleevenote for Jaco's first album in 1976: "Jaco is a phenomenon. He is able to make sounds on the bass that are a total surprise to the sensibilities. Not only single notes, but chords, harmonics, and all sorts of nuances with the colour of the instrument that when combined and translated through Jaco make for some of the best music that I've heard in a long time. Of course, it's not the technique that makes the music, it's the sensitivity of the musician and his ability to be able to fuse his life with the rhythm of the times. This is the essence of music. On this record, Jaco captures some of that rhythm."

Some bassists we spoke to in the wake of the news of Pastorius' death were too upset to comment. Colin Hodgkinson, bassist with Back Door and Jan Hammer, was shocked. "He absolutely defined fretless bass playing. I first heard him on that Weather Report album, 'Heavy Weather', and I thought, mmm, this guy's tremendous! He certainly made a major contribution to the instrument."

John Giblin was in the middle of a Simple Minds rehearsal session when Making Music broke the news. "For me," said John, "he was the ultimate pioneer of the fretless bass guitar. His short-lived commercial acclaim and consequent rejection by this consumer-driven industry is both an irony and a tragedy. His presence is still alive in the countless musicians inspired by his genius." Amen.

Selected Discography

Jaco Pastorius "Jaco Pastorius" 1976, "Word Of Mouth" 1981, "Twins" 1982, with Weather Report "Black Market" 1976, "Heavy Weather" 1977, "Night passage" 1980, with Joni Mitchell "Shadows & Light" 1980.