Ritual, rites of passage, and (occasionally) numerology: Jaco Pastorius took factors like these into account concerning many facets of life around him, at some times more seriously than others. Birthdays were always an important event for him, however, be it Joe Zawinul's, Igor Stravinsky's, or his own. Certainly, the milestone of a 30th birthday called for a momentous observance and celebration; a gathering of friends and associates that could appropriately honor the achievements of a young life already so filled with music, while heralding the possibilities of all the good things to come. Calling upon colleagues past and present from Florida, California and New York, Jaco assembled a cast and crew of players, friends and family, brought them all together in his home town of Ft. Lauderdale, and the result was an extraordinary evening of musical energy and celebration.
The Date: Tuesday, December First, 1981. This recording documents the incredible surprise birthday party that John Francis Pastorius III, to many the greatest electric bass player who ever lived, threw that evening for himself, his family, friends and fans. The music on this compact disk has been culled from two show's worth of tapes, which were expertly recorded by Jaco's trusted engineer in Florida (who did a lot of the "Word of Mouth" album remote recording in Jaco's house) Peter Yianilos. Warner Brothers Senior Vice-President of jazz and executive producer Matt Pierson (who was in the audience that evening 13+plus years ago) invited me to supervise the compilation and remixing of these tapes, done by renown engineer James Farber in New York.
The Place: Mr. Pip's ... a nightclub in Ft. Lauderdale. The sign advertising the event that night also mentions that Frankie Avalon and Redd Foxx are to appear in the coming days. It's that kind of place. Locals gather there, and it has a down-home, funky appearance and feel. Approximate capacity is 350 persons, and the place is packed for both shows. Standing adjacent to the club in the parking lot is the remote 24-track facility of Peter Yianilos' Artisan Recorders. It's an orange bus. He has plenty of tape on hand. The first concert begins at 8:00 PM. The second show finishes at around 3 in the morning. It was, in Jaco's words, "a wild night."
The Players: The "Word of Mouth" moniker referred to either the big band assemblages of some of Jaco's favorite musicians that he gathered together for a series of concerts, beginning with the "Birthday" gig in Florida (followed by other appearances on the west coast, Chicago, New York City, Florida again, and eventually a tour of Japan), or one of his small groups which he performed with after his leaving Weather Report. A partial listing of the alumni of those live bands would include such names as: Snooky Young, Lew Soloff, Jon Faddis, Randy Brecker, Ron Tooley, Bill Reichenbach, Paul McCandless, "Slyde" Hide, Toots Thielemans, Alex Acu¤a, Bobby Thomas Jr., Alex Foster, Wayne Andre, et al, in addition to Michael Brecker, Bobby Mintzer, Don Alias, Othello Molineaux, Peter Gordon, David Bargeron, and myself, Peter Erskine. These last names (in bold) all appear on the 30th Birthday tapes, along with the terrific big band members which long-time friend and associate of Jaco's, bass trom A week prior to December 1, 1981, Jaco was in Los Angeles, helping Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter to put the finishing touches on what would be his last WR album (the recording titled simply "Weather Report"). As such, preparation for the Florida gig was "minimal." "This," in the words of writer Conrad Silvert (now deceased, who was sent to Florida at the last moment by the Japanese jazz magazine Swing Journal to cover the event) "added to the excitement." The outstanding and unique presence of both Michael Brecker and Bobby Mintzer on these tapes, along with this very special big band which was put together (on very short notice!) for this occasion, makes the renderings of such Jaco classics and favorite tunes as "Liberty City," "Three Views of a Secret," "Continuum," "Domingo," "Reza," "Donna Lee," "Invitation" and "The Chicken" all the more special. Jaco decided to christen his "Word of Mouth Orchestra" on this occasion ... the Mr. Pip's gig, then, was the first time most of this music had ever been presen I remember the first rehearsal Jaco ever had for a "Word of Mouth" band; it was a small group gig, about a year before, in New York City. The jazz club "Seventh Avenue South" (now history) would play host to this group of Jaco, Michael Brecker, Bobby Mintzer, Don Alias and myself. I think Othello sat in at the gig for a couple of tunes on steel drums. Again, it was a last-minute inspiration and booking (living in Los Angeles at the time, I happened to be visiting New York for some other work with Don Grolnick, which led to my joining the group Steps, but that's another story); regardless, word spread quickly about the gig, and the club was absolutely standing room only for the shows. We got together the night before the first show for an evening run-through of some music at Joni Mitchell's New York apartment. Jaco had always liked the Bronislaw Kaper masterpiece "Invitation," and we fashioned up a treatment of that which served as a model for the big band arrangement Bob Mintzer would later craft for the lar Writer Bill Milkowski, in his book "JACO: The Extraordinary and Tragic Life of Jaco Pastorius" (Miller-Freeman Books), quotes Michael Brecker, who with his brother Randy had a financial stake in the club, as recalling: "For some reason, we couldn't advertise this gig. It had something to do with Jaco still honoring his commitment to Weather Report. But as it turns out, the place was packed for this gig anyway. The news of that gig had spread completely by word of mouth. That's how Jaco got the title for that album he did and the name for his band." Milkowski continues: "Mintzer remembers that quintet gig at 7th Avenue South being a loose, jamming affair. "It was very much improvised. I had expected Jaco to provide us with all these incredibly thought-out charts but it was exactly the opposite ... The whole thing was very characteristic of Jaco. His attitude for that gig was, 'We'll figure it out later.' He always let a lot of things happen on the bandstand."
At that moment in New York, and later in Florida and California, Jaco had a strong muse to follow: he was just about to leave the incredible association of his several years as a key member of Weather Report. I know that he yearned for a different kind of freedom than he was finding in Weather Report by that time. Improvisation, exploring world beats and grooves, resurrecting and honoring rhythm & blues classics, and reveling in the sheer virtuosity of his 8th-and-16th-note articulations were the order of the day ... almost like Weather Report, but without the by-then extensive through-composed compositional fences which Jaco thirsted to break free of. He never lost his love or respect for Joe Zawinul! I think it a telling detail that in all of the groups which Jaco assembled in this period from leaving Weather Report, leading up to his first hospitalization which followed the now infamous tour of Japan in the summer of 1982, there was NO KEYBOARD player. The only harmony instrument was his bass.
It made sense that he would call upon colleagues from several of his past musical exploits to explore these new musings, small group or big. Thus, we find names from such alliances as Joni Mitchell (particularly the "Shadows and Light" band), Weather Report, Wayne Cochran and the C.C. Riders, Blood, Sweat & Tears, the Peter Graves Orchestra, Las Olas Brass, and even the University of Miami big band! Most of all, everyone invited to the "party" at whichever gathering or event Jaco wanted to present in concert or take on tour well, they were friends (or soon would be!). Never more so than on the night of December 1, 1981. This was, after all, his birthday.
Where the music of Jaco Pastorius is preserved and documented on such Warner Brothers recordings as "Word of Mouth" and "Invitation" (the world-wide release version of music from the Japanese Warner/Pioneer recording "Twins, Volumes I and II"), it is the 'one-off' nature of these birthday tapes, and particularly the presence of Michael Brecker as principal soloist (as opposed to the harmonica of the great Toots Thielemans on the other recordings) which mark the recordings as outstanding and unique. Brecker sounds awesome, and his intelligence, wit and prowess add a welcome dimension to Jaco's material. This is not to downplay or diminish the contributions of any of the other players present. Indeed, the presence of Mintzer alongside Brecker creates incredible sparks of improvisational frenzy and brilliance. And the expanded rhythm section of Don Alias and myself (along with the steel drums of Othello Molineaux and Paul Hornmuller, plus the occasional percussion of Oscar Salas) reaches an excitement and compl To quote Conrad Silvert again: "Jaco conducted by means of body and facial motion, incredibly controlling the short-rehearsed band." The success of his efforts are well-documented here. The big-band phenomena of Jaco Pastorius was to repeat itself for a few more performances (January 7, 1982 at Bill Graham's Wharfield Theater in San Francisco, January 10 and 11 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, followed by shows at the Park West club in Chicago and a repeat visit to Florida, plus 2 nights at the Savoy Ballroom in New York). The final gigs were later that summer in 1982 at the Newport Jazz Festival, where Jaco wanted to be a wise-guy and time the ending of his set (making the band vamp over and over while he made drawn-out bow announcements of each band member) to conclude just 1 minute before the union stage-hands/house curfew would go into effect there at Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center, otherwise resulting in large overtime penalties: well, the New York stage hand crews' clocks seemed t I prefer to remember the man's genius, generosity, and musical triumphs. This 30th birthday event ... this quickly-assembled, most highly-spirited and incredibly cohesive ensemble under Jaco's leadership ... gives us, these 13+plus years later, plenty of reason to celebrate.
The Music is presented here as if you are there at one of the shows; albeit, we have selected what, in our opinion and best conscience, are the performances of most interest, musically and historically. Due to the length limitations of a single CD, some songs which were played that night are not heard here (such as "Fannie Mae," Bob Mintzer's "Truth," the version of "Reza" which has "Giant Steps" contained within, or the Thad Jones chart we played both shows, "Quietude," just for fun). No attempts at revisionism have been made in terms of "correcting" any aspects of the performances. I'd like to think that Jaco would approve of the sound we have arrived at ... remembering those endless days and nights of hands-on mix sessions during Jaco's "Word of Mouth" record production, or those Weather Report albums ... engineer James Farber and I enjoyed the benefit of the latest in control-room automation technology (for those interested in the technical details, this recording was mixed from the original 15 ip Soul Intro / The Chicken (Pee Wee Ellis) Of all the things that might have been Jaco's trademark, rhythm & blues was certainly his true metier, like when he played with Wayne Cochran and the C.C. Riders ... Pastorius perfected his craft and paid his dues on the "chitlin circuit." Jaco even gets in a few rhythm guitar-type licks here on his bass. In addition to Bobby Mintzer's and Michael Brecker's tenor solos, Melton Mustafa plays a terrific trumpet solo. The horn section of the Peter Graves Orchestra gives a particularly exciting performance. Randy Emerick plays the funky baritone sax; he and Jaco were on the road together in Cochran's band, as was trombonist Mike Katz.
Invitation (Kaper) A real tour-de-force. This song actually opened both sets; this performance comes from show #2. The version of this which appears on the CD "Invitation," recorded live at the Budokan in Tokyo, has the full big band appearing as part of the arrangement. It's heard here in its original quintet form. The saxophone playing of Brecker and Mintzer on this cut is astounding, as is Don Alias' conga drumming. Of course, nobody could ever, or will ever play the bass like Jaco does on this ... shades of "Fast City." Michael plays the first solo, and Bob follows (audience applause for Brecker's finish marks Mintzer's start; Jaco stops playing momentarily). There's a lot of high-level cat-and-mouse going on here.
Continuum (Pastorius) First heard on Jaco's debut recording (with Herbie Hancock and Alex Darqui on Fender Rhodes, Lenny White playing bells and Lenny White on drums), as well as on "Invitation," this version contains a simple though stunning introduction by Jaco. There is an intimate quality to this performance that is really special. This is from the 1st show of the evening: Jaco liked first takes. In the studio, he used to like to refer to himself as "F.T.J.", "First Take Jaco"!
Three Views of a Secret (Pastorius) First heard on the Weather Report recording "Night Passage," this composition is perhaps the most famous and dearly regarded of Jaco's songs. Michael Brecker plays the melody on tenor sax, with Bobby Mintzer adding bass clarinet counter-lines and statements on the soprano sax. Jaco's writing for the horn ensemble, including the poignant French horn and woodwind parts, turns a great song into an even more meaningful listening experience. You can also hear Jaco vocalizing, as well as Peter Grave's audibles to the band.
Punk Jazz (Pastorius) Another of Jaco's compositions originally written for Weather Report, this is the only existing big band recording of the tune (most of the other songs in this collection were also recorded in Japan during the 1982 Aurex Jazz Festival tour; some of them were included in "Invitation" [WB 23876-2]). I remember that Jaco did not feel that the tune worked so well in this incarnation - it was a tricky one for Weather Report to do live, too, but this recording would seem to refute that notion. The parts that Zawinul played on the Prophet V and Oberheim synthesizers are rendered here by the soulful horns of the big band. Jaco's well-spent time in the C.C. Riders is again reflected here. I'll take responsibility for the fade-out heard at the end; I hope that Jaco would have approved, it's the way the song ended on "Mr. Gone."
Donna Lee (C. Parker) Perhaps the song most associated with Jaco (at least by other bass players) is Donna Lee. His stunning rendition of the song on his debut solo album set the music world on its ear (Don Alias was the original accompanist on that recording). Dave Bargeron shows equal dexterity on the tuba (multiphonics, too!), and with Bobby Mintzer on bass clarinet, this 'Bird' classic becomes part bass-clef extravaganza and part be-bop/Dixieland just-for-fun blowing vehicle. The trumpet section joins in at the end for the final head.
Liberty City (Pastorius) When Jaco first wrote this, he initially had it played down by the Peter Graves Orchestra in an afternoon rehearsal at the Sunrise Theater. He was so proud of this tune. The next day, he called me up at my home in Los Angeles from Florida, quite early in the morning, and played a tape of the whole thing for me over the telephone. Eventually he recorded it in New York (with Jack DeJohnette, Herbie Hancock, Toots Thielemans et al) during the first sessions for the "Word of Mouth" album. I remember that whenever we played this in concert with the big band, it made me feel real happy, like I'd rather not be anyplace else ... especially when the song goes into that triumphant, major-key release. It's the soul/feel-good tune of the set. The horn section that Peter Graves put together for this night really shines on this song; not just in the execution of the notes, but for the soulful ensemble feel and sound they get. The entire brass section is terrific - effortless and swinging; t Happy Birthday (M. & P. Hill ) This brass band rendering of the birthday song was written by Jaco's copyist and music preparer Larry Warrilow. During the second set, as Jaco was getting ready to launch into Reza (he was going to begin it on his Chinese Koto, an instrument heard to great effect on the Word of mouth album, he found it in London during a Weather Report tour), Peter Graves gave the signal to the rest of the band to pull out the surprise chart. The band had gone over it the night before during rehearsal (while Jaco was out of hearing range). There's a quote from "Liberty City" in the French horn part. When Jaco heard this and realized what was going on, he, according to Conrad Silvert, turned towards the band with a prayer motion of his hands, then got "bashful" and "embarrassed", and ran offstage, hiding behind a curtain. He was quite touched by the arrangement, and liked it a lot. When another version of the big band played it during a concert at the Savoy Theater in New York a l Reza (Pastorius) Jaco always had a fondness for the television show "Wild Kingdom", both for the theme music as well as for host Marlon Perkins (Jaco used to like to repeat a joke Bob Hope had told at the Sunrise Theater while Jaco was working in the band there, something to the effect of "this place is so far out in the Everglades, I passed Marlon Perkins twice on the way here."). Reza is his tribute to such lore. Jaco can be heard on penny whistle, singing, playing the gong at the beginning (in answer to the question which was asked just after "Happy Birthday": "Where do you want to go from here?" ... His answer: "I got it. I got it. I got it! I got it!" WHAM gong), and, of course, the bass. It was meant as a concept piece, and is also a great feature for Don Alias' masterful bata drumming. Peter Gordon gets in a few good rips on the French horn, and exploits the full possible range of the instrument. The tune was obviously in a formative stage at this point. At any rate, Reza was one of tho Domingo (Pastorius) This chart was in the University of Miami Big Band book for several years, and I remember hearing it AND hearing about its composer, this great bass player, well, some time before I ever met Jaco. I think it was one of Jaco's first big band arrangements. (Jaco used to teach at the U. of Miami, though he wrote this while he was on the road with Wayne Cochran and the C.C. Riders.) There's more than just a touch of Stan Kenton to it. But the truly outstanding features of the song and this performance are those 16th notes of Jaco's ... definitive Pastorius. The solo is played by Michael Brecker, and the band is featured as an ensemble ... Jaco salutes the "Peter Graves Orchestra" at the conclusion of the song. It's a VERY exciting performance by all!
Amerika (adaptation: Pastorius) What better way to finish than with a short solo by Jaco?
It's still hard to believe that he's gone. God bless you, Jaco ... thank you for all of the music!
Peter Erskine
March 1995
Hit Factory, Studio A, New York