Coming to DVD today, Friday, November 27: JACO
Paul Marchand and Stephen Kijak’s portrait of an influential bass guitarist had its world premiere at SXSW this Spring. It also screened at Leeds, Vienna, Munich, Athens, and the London and Montreal Jazz fests, among others.
To his fans, including Metallica’s Robert Trujillo, who serves here as producer, Jaco Pastorius was the world’s best bass player. His death at the age of 35 in 1987 cut his career short before he achieved the widespread fame that many presumed he would. Marchand and Kijak aim to rectify that in this appreciative, though somewhat overlong, biography of the self-taught son of a musician. They recruit other admirers, from Sting and Flea to Herbie Hancock and Joni Mitchell, who included Pastorius on her 1976 album, Hejira, to explain his virtuosity with the electric bass guitar, and his use of harmonics to produce a distinctive, creative new sound. As is too often the case with young artists, he ran afoul of the excesses of drug use, while also struggling with mental illness, ultimately leading to a violent end. While likely to be best appreciated by Pastorius’ existing fanbase, the doc successfully conveys a clear enough sense of his appeal to win over some new converts.
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