20 years ago this month, we lost the world's greatest bass player.
Hyperbole? Perhaps, in a subjective way...But no one can deny that there is bass before Jaco, and then there is all that came after.
In the late 1970's, I heard Jaco play with Weather Report, Joni Mitchell, and others. I was immediately struck by, above all, his unique instrumental voice obtained using nondescript tools - Often imitated, never duplicated.
For myself, he was the catalyst, opening the gateway to what an electric bass guitar could be...Anything one wants it to be.
It is a tragedy that he existed in an era so ignorant of the symptoms of perilous brain chemistry, and so overly tolerant of recreational drug abuse to the point of self-negation.
Yet his legacy lives on in the hands of all who play the instrument he called his own, whether they acknowledge it or not.
Who loves ya, baby?
;>)
'It ain't bragging if you can back it up':
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