Jaco Pastorius – Jaco Pastorius (1976) [Japanese SACD 1999 #ESGA 501] {SACD ISO + FLAC 24bit/88,2kHz}

Jaco Pastorius was a meteor who blazed on to the scene in the 1970s, only to flame out tragically in the 1980s. With a brilliantly fleet technique and fertile melodic imagination, Pastorius made his fretless electric bass leap out from the depths of the rhythm section into the front line with fluid machine-gun-like passages that demanded attention. He also sported a strutting, dancing, flamboyant performing style and posed a further triple-threat as a talented composer, arranger and producer. He and Stanley Clarke were the towering influences on their instrument in the 1970s.

It’s impossible to hear Jaco Pastorious’ debut album today as it sounded when it was first released in 1976. The opening track — his transcription for fretless electric bass of the bebop standard “Donna Lee” — was a manifesto of virtuosity; the next track, the funk-soul celebration “Come On, Come Over” was a poke in the eye to jazz snobs and a love letter to the R&B greats of the previous decade (two of whom, Sam & Dave, sing on that track); “Continuum” was a spacey, chorus-drenched look forward to the years he was about to spend playing with Weather Report. The program continues like that for three-quarters of an hour, each track heading off in a different direction — each one a masterpiece that would have been a proud achievement for any musician. What made Jaco so exceptional was that he was responsible for all of them, and this was his debut album. Beyond his phenomenal bass technique and his surprisingly mature compositional chops (he was 24 when this album was released), there was the breathtaking audacity of his arrangements: “Okonkole Y Trompa” is scored for electric bass, French horn, and percussion, and “Speak Like a Child,” which Pastorious composed in collaboration with pianist Herbie Hancock, features a string arrangement by Pastorious that merits serious attention in its own right. For a man with this sort of kaleidoscopic creativity to remain sane was perhaps too much to ask; his gradual descent into madness and eventual tragic death are now a familiar story, one which makes the bright promise of this glorious debut album all the more bittersweet.

Tracklist:
01. Donna Lee
02. Come On, Come Over
03. Continuum
04. Kuru / Speak Like A Child
05. Portrait Of Tracy
06. Opus Focus
07. Okonkole Y Trompa
08. (Used to Be A) Cha-Cha
09. Forgotten Love

SACD Produced by Moto Uehara.
Remastering Engineer: Mark Wilder.

SACD ISO

mqs.link_JacPastriusJacPastrius1976Japan1999SACDIS.part1.rar
mqs.link_JacPastriusJacPastrius1976Japan1999SACDIS.part2.rar

FLAC 24bit/88,2kHz

mqs.link_JacPastriusJacPastrius1976Japan1999FLAC2488.2.rar