45 years ago today, Weather Report performed at the Stanley Theatre in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was the second concert of their tour of 1980, and one of five shows performed before Robert Thomas Jr. joined the group on January 24. This was reviewed by Gary Bradford for The Pittsburgh Press, which, though mostly positive, criticised Wayne Shorter's lack of prominence. I'll share the rest of this concert later, but first I want to focus on Jaco's 7-minute bass solo. 1980 spawned some of Jaco's best versions of his "Slang" solo bass routine, and this is one of the best. Unlike most, it doesn't rely quite as much on quotes and solo renditions, and is a lot less hectic overall. Much of the pre-looping doodling is centered around his version of The Beatles' "Blackbird," but even then, Jaco takes time to play with different articulations and dynamics. Some of the looping segment is missing due to a cut at 5:37, but I'm hoping a more complete tape recording will surface eventually, because it sounds really good. In spite of Jaco's declining mental health, many of the 1980 Weather Report live recordings I've heard are good, and deserve to be heard. Although I'm quite busy at the moment, I'll try to go through them, and pick and share the best bits. Please subscribe to my channel if you haven't already, so you won't miss out on anything. I'm also on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, where I share rare photos and videos, so if that's what you're into, be sure to check them out. Thanks! 00:00 Improvisation 00:35 Blackbird by The Beatles 01:47 Improvisation 03:10 Blackbird by The Beatles 03:53 Improvisation linktr.ee/jacoarchive
I'm utterly blessed to have seen WR on this tour, at The Saenger, in New Orleans. Jaco and Zawinul kicked off the show by playing a high-energy improvised duet, in the dark for about 30 sec, then the lights came on and there was Zawinul on keys and Jaco behind the kit! Fantastic!
I love "Slang" the title of the musical piece goes with the times and when it was written. Jaco was so innovative in his musical efforts, back then whatever he decided to play was in the now.
An early arranged version of this song was a version with the A string tuned down to G and played in the same key as the original "blackbird." This was taught to me a long time ago by a brilliant Japanese KORG developer and jaco researcher, Mr. Yuichi Nakahara. Amazing try at a solo arrangement in the key of the original song before it was arranged in the key of A. Thank you.
That explains it, thank you! I tried playing along, and thought the recording needed pitch correction (which it did regardless). Interesting how he did that instead of just playing it in A major.
45 years ago today, Weather Report performed at the Stanley Theatre in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was the second concert of their tour of 1980, and one of five shows performed before Robert Thomas Jr. joined the group on January 24. This was reviewed by Gary Bradford for The Pittsburgh Press, which, though mostly positive, criticised Wayne Shorter's lack of prominence.
I'll share the rest of this concert later, but first I want to focus on Jaco's 7-minute bass solo. 1980 spawned some of Jaco's best versions of his "Slang" solo bass routine, and this is one of the best. Unlike most, it doesn't rely quite as much on quotes and solo renditions, and is a lot less hectic overall. Much of the pre-looping doodling is centered around his version of The Beatles' "Blackbird," but even then, Jaco takes time to play with different articulations and dynamics. Some of the looping segment is missing due to a cut at 5:37, but I'm hoping a more complete tape recording will surface eventually, because it sounds really good.
In spite of Jaco's declining mental health, many of the 1980 Weather Report live recordings I've heard are good, and deserve to be heard. Although I'm quite busy at the moment, I'll try to go through them, and pick and share the best bits. Please subscribe to my channel if you haven't already, so you won't miss out on anything. I'm also on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, where I share rare photos and videos, so if that's what you're into, be sure to check them out. Thanks!
00:00 Improvisation
00:35 Blackbird by The Beatles
01:47 Improvisation
03:10 Blackbird by The Beatles
03:53 Improvisation
linktr.ee/jacoarchive
I'm utterly blessed to have seen WR on this tour, at The Saenger, in New Orleans. Jaco and Zawinul kicked off the show by playing a high-energy improvised duet, in the dark for about 30 sec, then the lights came on and there was Zawinul on keys and Jaco behind the kit! Fantastic!
Wow, I appreciate this post and "unearthed" Jaco Pastorius treasure amd the footnotes.
Beautiful, thanks for posting it man!
Glad you like it Tomás!
I love "Slang" the title of the musical piece goes with the times and when it was written. Jaco was so innovative in his musical efforts, back then whatever he decided to play was in the now.
Look forward to some of those 1980 weather report shows with Jocko and Robert Thomas. Thank you for posting.
You're welcome!
Thanks for posting.
You're welcome!
An early arranged version of this song was a version with the A string tuned down to G and played in the same key as the original "blackbird."
This was taught to me a long time ago by a brilliant Japanese KORG developer and jaco researcher, Mr. Yuichi Nakahara.
Amazing try at a solo arrangement in the key of the original song before it was arranged in the key of A.
Thank you.
That explains it, thank you! I tried playing along, and thought the recording needed pitch correction (which it did regardless). Interesting how he did that instead of just playing it in A major.
Thank you! keep going, you're doing important work here :)
I will, thanks! :)
That clapping though.....
His son Felix has the thing too