Jaco Pastorius: Modern Electric Bass

Jaco Pastorius, former bass player for the renowned jazz group Weather Report, considered by many to be the best electric bassist playing today, shares his techniques and ideas for playing electric bass. Interviewed by session great Jerry Jemmott, Pastorius demonstrates a number of exercises with scales, broken arpeggios, chords, and song fragments. Two points which Pastorius stresses are: 1) the importance of melody (on an instrument that has traditionally supplied only rhythm), and 2) the necessity of learning to read music. The musical centerpiece is Pastorius's rendition of his own "Portrait of Tracy", a lyric, melodious piece that is done completely with harmonics. The last half-hour of the program features a jam session with Pastorius and session musicians. Although described as a program for beginners through pros, beginners would have to be able to read music before attempting the compositions in the accompanying 40-page booklet. A top-notch program, from the leaders in professional music instruction videos. Highly recommended for public and school libraries. (See CHICK COREA: KEYBOARD WORKSHOP for availability).