Jaco Pastorius – Bass

The 1982 Weather report album that was called simply ‘Weather Report’ (the second album by the band that was called that, the other being from 1971) is probably the least talked about recording that featured Jaco. Word on the street was that Jaco and Joe Zawinul were not seeing eye to eye in terms of the direction of the band and Jaco was approaching the album half-heartedly. As a result, Zawinul was writing bass parts that he was doubling on his keyboards. Whilst this is a Wayne Shorter composition, it feels like Jaco is only really playing the dots. The tune is called ‘When It Was Now’ and has some interesting reading challenges rhythmically and due to the plethora of accidentals (key signatures do funny things to these charts). No histrionics so perfectly playable once you get it under your fingers.