Jaco Pastorius & Brian Melvin

This straight-ahead trio date led by drummer Brian Melvin is most notable for being electric bassist Jaco Pastorius' final recording, cut just a year before his premature death. With Melvin and pianist Jon Davis (whose style is most influenced by McCoy Tyner and Herbie Hancock), Pastorius was free to be very active in accompanying the piano solos, and he gets to stretch out on nearly every tune. Those listeners who stereotype Pastorius as a fusion-rock bassist will be surprised by the song titles, which include "Days of Wine and Roses," "So What," "If You Could See Me Now," "Tokyo Blues," and "Village Blues." The recording is consistently stimulating and serves as a strong final musical chapter for the great Jaco Pastorius.

Bassist Jaco Pastorius' Word of Mouth orchestra was an unfulfilled dream, a worthy concept that did not last long enough to live up to its potential. Its debut album was released without a listing of the personnel, so here it is: Wayne Shorter, Michael Brecker, and Tom Scott on reeds, trumpeter Chuck Findley, the easily recognizable Toots Thielemans on harmonica, Howard Johnson on tuba, drummers Jack DeJohnette and Peter Erskine, and percussionist Don Alias. The music ranges from the Beatles' "Blackbird" and some Bach to Jaco originals that cover straight-ahead jazz, Coltrane-ish vamps, and fusion. Next to the bassist/leader, Thielemans emerges as the main voice.

Brian Melvin feat. Jaco Pastorius - Night Food (1985) {2015 Japan Timeless Jazz Master Collection Complete Series CDSOL-6360}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 293 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 117 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 258 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1985, 2015 Timeless Records / Solid Records Japan / Ultra-Vibe | CDSOL-6360
Jazz / Post Bop / Fusion / Neo Bop / Drums / Bass

Reissue with the latest remastering. Features original cover artwork. Comes with a descripton in Japanese. An obscure 80s appearance from bassist Jaco Pastorius – a musician whose style is right at home on this electric set from drummer Brian Melvin! Melvin himself plays acoustic drums and percussion – but there's also a fair bit of keyboard work on the record too – 80-styled elements that really draw a lot from the stepping, melodic bass work of Jaco – who really gets to shine on most numbers, and really gets the album going from a rhythmic perspective. There's a bit of added tabla and bongos from Aushim Chaudhuri, who brings some nice acoustic textures – and the overall feel is kind of in the same territory of some of Jaco's early 80s Warner material. Titles include "Don't Forget The Bass", "Night Food", "Zen Turtles", "For Max", and "Poly Wanna Rhythm".

Thankfully, there is finally a definitive Jaco Pastorius anthology that offers an accurate portrait of the breadth and depth of his innovative artistry beyond what his contributions to Weather Report and his own Word of Mouth and Trio of Doom (which many would argue are sufficient in and of themselves) would suggest. This two-CD, 28-track collection ranges across the fretless bass inventor's earliest recordings, documented by a live appearance with Wayne Cochran's C.C. Riders and home playing the Cochran standard "Amelia," to his work with underground R&B act Little Beaver and such artists as Pat Metheny, Mike Stern, Joni Mitchell in and out of the studio, Paul Bley, Airto and Flora Purim, Michel Columbier, Brian Melvin, and his diverse projects.

This 2CD set contains more than two dozen tracks, totaling over 2 1/2 hours of music, on two diverse, brilliant, career-spanning discs.

Jaco Pastorius - Curtain Call (1986) {Anansi Records AHR-2001 rel 1996}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 365 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 126 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 31 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1986, 1996 Anansi Records | AHR-2001
Jazz / Fusion / Post Bop / Bass

Dubbed "the last live American performance of Jaco Pastorius" (liner notes), the posthumously released Curtain Call is the most refreshing of Pastorius' post-big-band live recordings. Sparked by superb sound quality and enthusiastic, energetic performances, the CD features the only available live recordings by Pastorius of "John and Mary," Herbie Hancock's "Speak Like a Child," and Miles Davis' "So What!," plus the often recorded favorites "Invitation," "Continuum," and "Teen Town." The refreshing aspect, aside from some rarely recorded live material, is the personnel and the absence of guitar.