Jaco Pastorius Jaco Pastorius CD

When his eponymous debut LP appeared in 1976, one needed to hear only about 20 seconds of Side One, track 1, to know that Jaco Pastorius was special. That cut, a feet, flashing duet between Jaco's fretless electric bass and conga drums on the Miles Davis-composed bebop staple "Donna Lee," promised that the 24-year-old Floridian would be to his instrument what Charles Mingus and Scott LaFaro had been to its acoustic counterpart. But while Pastorius could make his strings sing from the heart, and seemingly in several languages, he was, like Mingus, more than a virtuoso soloist.

He wrote or co-wrote eight of the album's ten pieces, and each number showed off a different facet of Pastorius' omnivorous musical interests. From the dance-funk of "Come On, Come Over" (on which the Double Dynamite soul men Sam and Dave were reunited) to the luminosity of the Weather Report-like "Continuum" (Jaco joined that pace-setting jazz-fusion group in 1976 and stayed for six years), and from the tropicalia of "Opus Pocus" to the European-classical Romanticism of "Forgotten Love" (a mini-concerto for Herbie Hancock's piano on which Pastorius does not perform), the album was a small gem in ever-changing light. Every track featured a different personnel but, far more important, each had a personal point of view, and the overriding impression was one of the Caribbean's cerulean sea and sky.

Now Jaco Pastorius — whose superb supporting cast in addition to Hancock and Sam and Dave includes the bassist's fellow Weather Reporter Wayne Shorter, David Sanborn, Hubert Laws, and Lenny White — has been expanded with two additional cuts. "6/4 Jam" is brand new, while "(Used To Be A) Cha-Cha" is an alternate take. Thoroughly remixed and remastered, and with new liner notes by Pastorius' friend and colleague, guitarist Pat Metheny, Jaco Pastorius recalls the beginnings of a great talent who, sadly, came to an end all too soon, in 1987.

It's impossible to hear Jaco Pastorius' debut album today as it sounded when it was first released in 1976 ... 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 Pastorius composed in collaboration with pianist Herbie Hancock, features a string arrangement by Pastorius that merits serious attention in its own right.