On May 25th, 1979, Jaco Pastorius held a bass clinic at the Guitar Institute of Technology (later renamed Musicians Institute) in Los Angeles, CA. The clinic preceded two festival appearances at the UC Berkeley Jazz Festival with Weather Report (May 26) and Joni Mitchell (May 27), and was-just like the following shows-captured on tape. The recording starts with a 7-minute bass solo, which borrows from Wayne Cochran and the C. C. Riders' "Circles," Charlie Parker's "Dexterity," and Johann Sebastian Bach's "Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 903: I. Fantasia." The first question-and-answer segment features Jaco and GIT students discussing topics such as triads, arpeggios, and gigging. (See if you can spot the very brief "Holiday for Strings" quote during a triad demonstration starting at around 21 minutes.) The segment is followed by another bass solo, this one almost 20 minutes in length. Even more interesting than the previous bass solo, this one sees Jaco improvise extensively and quote songs such as "River People" and "Balloon Song (12-Tone)." Towards the end, you can also catch a reprise of "BWV 903," and renditions of "Teen Town" and "America the Beautiful," the latter of which hasn't been taped-perhaps even performed-prior to this. (It will take another three years before the tune becomes a staple in Jaco's solos.) After the solo, Jaco talks about the Bass of Doom and harmonics-which he demonstrates with the intro to "Birdland" and the last chord of "Portrait of Tracy." As many of you have probably noticed, a lot of the discussion is drowned out by extensive tape hiss. I tried, but I didn't manage to convincingly remove it, and while a lower-generation copy or alternate recording could surface, our best hope might be that AI will eventually become good enough at noise reduction to handle this one. This is one of three such bass clinic recordings-the other two being from his and Rashied Ali's 1984 Martinique workshop-so it's a great document regardless of the sound quality, and one I hope you can all enjoy. P.S. The remastered flac files are open for trade; you can contact me via Instagram (@jacoarchive), Facebook (Jaco Pastorius Archive), Twitter (@jacoarchive), or email (jacopastoriusarchive@gmail.com). 00:00 Bass Solo 07:10 Major 7ths and scales 13:25 Reading sheet music 15:13 Arpeggios, major triads, and 7th and 9th chords 23:54 Gigs 24:22 Bass Solo 41:31 False harmonics on fretless bass 42:37 The Bass of Doom 43:14 Natural and artificial harmonics www.linktr.ee/jacoarchive
Out of this world. The Q&A is definitely clearer than before, - you can almost feel you're there taking part in the lesson. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this remaster for us. He really is a remarkable musician.
Thanks! I agree, although I wish the Q&A was even clearer, so we could actually hear all they're saying. I experimented with a dialogue isolation tools, but the results weren't good enough to use for a proper remix. Maybe one day.
On May 25th, 1979, Jaco Pastorius held a bass clinic at the Guitar Institute of Technology (later renamed Musicians Institute) in Los Angeles, CA. The clinic preceded two festival appearances at the UC Berkeley Jazz Festival with Weather Report (May 26) and Joni Mitchell (May 27), and was-just like the following shows-captured on tape.
The recording starts with a 7-minute bass solo, which borrows from Wayne Cochran and the C. C. Riders' "Circles," Charlie Parker's "Dexterity," and Johann Sebastian Bach's "Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 903: I. Fantasia." The first question-and-answer segment features Jaco and GIT students discussing topics such as triads, arpeggios, and gigging. (See if you can spot the very brief "Holiday for Strings" quote during a triad demonstration starting at around 21 minutes.)
The segment is followed by another bass solo, this one almost 20 minutes in length. Even more interesting than the previous bass solo, this one sees Jaco improvise extensively and quote songs such as "River People" and "Balloon Song (12-Tone)." Towards the end, you can also catch a reprise of "BWV 903," and renditions of "Teen Town" and "America the Beautiful," the latter of which hasn't been taped-perhaps even performed-prior to this. (It will take another three years before the tune becomes a staple in Jaco's solos.) After the solo, Jaco talks about the Bass of Doom and harmonics-which he demonstrates with the intro to "Birdland" and the last chord of "Portrait of Tracy."
As many of you have probably noticed, a lot of the discussion is drowned out by extensive tape hiss. I tried, but I didn't manage to convincingly remove it, and while a lower-generation copy or alternate recording could surface, our best hope might be that AI will eventually become good enough at noise reduction to handle this one.
This is one of three such bass clinic recordings-the other two being from his and Rashied Ali's 1984 Martinique workshop-so it's a great document regardless of the sound quality, and one I hope you can all enjoy.
P.S. The remastered flac files are open for trade; you can contact me via Instagram (@jacoarchive), Facebook (Jaco Pastorius Archive), Twitter (@jacoarchive), or email (jacopastoriusarchive@gmail.com).
00:00 Bass Solo
07:10 Major 7ths and scales
13:25 Reading sheet music
15:13 Arpeggios, major triads, and 7th and 9th chords
23:54 Gigs
24:22 Bass Solo
41:31 False harmonics on fretless bass
42:37 The Bass of Doom
43:14 Natural and artificial harmonics
www.linktr.ee/jacoarchive
Forty years later and still mind blowing.
this was great
A giant step in today bass game ; thank you
Out of this world. The Q&A is definitely clearer than before, - you can almost feel you're there taking part in the lesson. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this remaster for us. He really is a remarkable musician.
Thanks! I agree, although I wish the Q&A was even clearer, so we could actually hear all they're saying. I experimented with a dialogue isolation tools, but the results weren't good enough to use for a proper remix. Maybe one day.
Thanks 🎶
Is that first bass line from a song?
It's from "Circles" by Wayne Cochran and the C. C. Riders.