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Victor Bailey

I was born in Philadelphia, on March 27, 1960. I was born into a musical family so there was music playing constantly from the moment I arrived on the planet. My dad, Morris Bailey Jr., is a master composer, arranger, producer, and saxophonist. During the 60's, 70's and 80's his songs were recorded by some of music's greatest R&B artists including, Patti LaBelle, The Stylistics, Blue Magic, The Spinners, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes and international artist Nina Simone. My uncle, Donald Bailey, is a legendary jazz drummer, probably best known as the drummer in the trio of groundbreaking jazz organist Jimmy Smith. My sister, Brenda, sang with the hit making, disco era group Cr譥 D'Cocoa. My brother, Morris III , never practiced a day in his life yet can write, sing, and play any instument. Even my mom Vera has a wonderful singing voice although she never pursued music as a career.

And then there's a great family music mystery. Once when my dad and uncle Donald were young, they were in the house playing and my grandfather, Morris Sr., came downstairs, grabbed the drumsticks from Uncle Donald and played the drums so well no one could believe it. Even after doing so, however, he never talked about how or why he could play the drums so no one ever knew. After he passed away, while going through his things, the family found a professional 8x10 black and white photo of him sitting at the drumset with his name at the bottom. A standard show business publicity photo. So, he obviously had some professional experience at some time but no one knows when or where.

Our house was filled with music, with singers and musicians coming and going practically every day. From the time I was born I was drawn to music and showed a natural ability to play anything I heard on any instrument. One day when I was seven I was at my dad's office on Philadelphia's South Broad Street. He was asleep on the couch and I went to the piano and started playing Bill Withers hit song "Lean On Me". My dad rolled over and said, "Who's that playing?" When he saw it was me he said, "How do you know how to do that?" I said, "I don't know," I just did. After that, I went everywhere dad went. So I spent literally everyday after school and on weekends somewhere in a studio or backstage at a gig. I was getting to watch great R&B people like, The Stylistics, or Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. Or I might walk in from school and there would be Philly jazz legends like Odean Pope, Eddie Green and Tyrone Brown.

When I was ten I wanted to play drums. So I got a drumset for Christmas. When we set them up I started playing immediately. My mom said, "How do you know how to play?" I said, "I don't know," I just did. I joined my first band a week after that, and did my first gig three or four weeks later. I did my first recording session about three months later. I've been working non-stop ever since.

Of course the most life changing thing that ever happened was my switch to bass, which happened totally by accident. I was in a band with some neighborhood guys, playing drums, and the bass player didn't want to play with me because I was too serious. He was a grown man and here was this little kid telling everybody what to play, when they're out of tune etc.So he quit the band and walked out. The only other person around who played anything was a drummer. So I said, "I'll play bass." That moment changed my life forever. Although I had never played before, I instantly understood the instrument. I not only played all the songs but even added fills or "runs" as we called it at the time. My father, who NEVER came downstairs to listen to any of my bands, came charging down the stairs yelling "Who's playing bass, who's playing bass?" When he saw it was me he said, "You should be a bass player." I said, "I know." My days as a drummer were over. Three weeks after that I did my first gig, and within three months I was as busy as any bassist in the Philadelphia area. One night I'd do a funk gig. Next day, a record date. Next night, a big band gig, followed by a bebop quartet the next night. That diversity of styles continues for me to this day. The next big step for me was going to Berklee College of Music in Boston. At the end of the summer after high school it appeared I hadn't gotten the scholarship I hoped for, so I decided I would join the U.S. Navy and play in the Navy band for four years and then go to Berklee. The day I went to test for the Navy the doctor put a stethoscope on my chest and immediately drew big X through my application. I had asthma and that disqualified me for any kind of military service. I took the bus home a little dejected, but as soon as I got home there was a letter waiting for me saying I had been accepted at Berklee. I think I FLEW up the steps to tell my parents. A couple of days later I was gone.

Berklee was one of the greatest periods of growth I've ever had. All there was to do was work on music and many of my classmates who understood and took advantage of that are successful now (including Branfors Marsalis, Jeff "Tain" Watts, Kevin Eubanks, Ralph Moore, Marvin "Smitty" Smith, Greg Osby, Cindy Blackman, Terri Lynne Carrington, who was about twelve years old at the time, Stu Hamm, Steve Vai, Mark Ledford, Tommy Campbell, Rachelle Ferrell, Wallace Roney, Jean Toussaint, Donald Harrison, Gene Jackson, Dwayne Cook Broadnax, Terry Conley, Chulo Gatewood and even Francis Brock, who built this website-some class huh)?

Once during my time at Berklee, a friend had me play over the phone for a guy in New York. That guy in New York turned out to be drummer Poogie Bell. During my second year at Berklee, Poogie came to Boston with South African trumpeter Hugh Masakela's band. Hugh was looking for a new bass player and Poogie recommended me. I went to their gig with a tape and cassette player and Hugh listened and hired me on the spot. A week later I was on the road and never looked back. I packed my things, found someone to take my apartment and moved to New York. Funny thing is I had one hundred dollars and no place to live. I stayed at the YMCA which at that time was fourteen dollars a night. But it was rough, full of drugs and prostitution. Fortunately for me, from the moment I arrived there the phone rang off the hook, and though it took a couple of months to find my own place, I always had enough money for the YMCA if I couldn't stay at some cats' house. When I think of that now, moving to NYC with a hundred dollars and no apartment was insane. But I believed in myself that much and told everyone that as soon as I arrived in the Big Apple I would be as busy as any bassist in town. Luckily I was right. That first year, I think I played on about fifty records. And I played with so many great musicians it was like I was in a dream world. Some were my age, and many of them I grew up idolizing. I played and recorded with idols like Sonny Rollins, Miriam Makeba, Lenny White, Hamiet Bluiet, Olu Dara, Don Alias, Sadao Watanabe, Michael Urbaniak and Ursula Dudziak. I even got to sit in with Roy Haynes. Of the younger generations I played and recorded with Tom Browne, Bobby Broom, Kenny Kirkland, Bernard Wright, Mike Stern, Donald Blackman, Dennis Chambers, Poogie Bell, Rene McClean, Kevin Eubanks, Tommy Campbell, Kenwood Dennard, Delmar Brown, Najee. As a matter of fact, New York City was so alive at that time, that as I went from club to club, I may have sat in with or listened to everybody I just mentioned in one night! NO JOKE! It was a very good year. After about a year in the big city, I did two gigs with South African vocalist Miriam Makeba. On drums was a fantastic player by the name of Omar Hakim. Omar and I had met a year earlier when we did guitarist Bobby Broom's first record, "Clean Sweep". This was the first time we did a gig together, but everyone was aware, even at rehearsals, that as a rhythm section we had something all our own. It was light, bouncy and free, yet extremely tight and powerful. At the end of the second gig he said, "I have the gig with Weather Report and they're looking for a new bass player." My eyes became the size of the Earth. I had been telling everyone since I was sixteen years old that I was going to play with Weather Report after Jaco. This was fate. Omar gave me Joe Zawinul's address and told me to send him a tape. I put together a demo of a variety of things-a version of Marvin Gaye's, "What's Going On", with bass melody and scat bass solo, a multitracked version of the Beatles, "She's Leaving Home", a funk/thumb groove tune I had written and a burning live solo on Giant Steps.As incredible as it sounds Omar gave Joe my number and before I even sent him the tape he called me and said, "I know you're the guy I'm going to hire, I can feel it." About a week later I got a call from management saying, "Welcome to Weather Report." I almost fainted. This was the beginning of a long and inspiring journey. In the days since, I have played on over one thousand recordings with everyone from Weather Report, to Michael Brecker, to LL Cool J, to Mary J Blige. I have written and produced artists like the Force MD's, Alex Bugnon, George Howard and Missing Links. In the late 80's and early 90's I was a member of various incarnations if thejazz fusion supergroup Steps Ahead.

In 1989, I released my first record, "Bottom's Up", which has become a bass classic and is considered by many to be one of the most important records ever done by a bass guitarist. It was the first time I was ever recorded playing the way I REALLY PLAY, instead of just playing grooves for other people's records (though I'm not complaining, I've played grooves behind some pretty great artists). People finally got to hear my writing, arranging, keyboard playing, drum and sound programming, and singing. I finally established that I was much more than a backup bass player, something that I'd felt I still had to prove as long as I had been in New York. Throughout the mid 90's I toured with pop megastar Madonna, one of the greatest experiences of my life. I spent most of the nineties doing records and going on tours with various artists mostly in Europe and Japan. In 1997 I rejoined my mentor, Joe Zawinul, in his group, The Zawinul Syndicate. I stayed with that group for three and a half years and once again Joe was one of the most inspiring figures, as a musician and a man, that I have ever encountered. In 1999 I signed a recording contract with ESC Records. My first ESC release, "Lowblow" was a tremendous success for me and not long after it's release I was able to leave the Zawinul Syndicate and concentrate on my solo career. I've toured steadily with my band, which has at times included Kenny Garrett, Dennis Chambers, Bennie Maupin, Poogie Bell, Jim Beard, Patrice Rushen, David Gilmore, David Fuiczynsky, Scott Peaker, Rayford Griffin and Nick Smith. In 2002 we released my second cd "That's Right" which has also done very well. I'm always practicing, writing and working so keep up with victorbailey.com and you can keep up with me. C-YA!

http://www.victorbailey.com/bio.html

Marcus Miller

Marcus Miller (born June 14, 1959 in New York) is a jazz musician, composer and producer, perhaps best known as a bass guitarist with Miles Davis, Luther Vandross and David Sanborn. Miller is classically trained as a clarinetist, and also plays bass clarinet, keyboard, saxophone, and guitar, and is a capable singer.

Formative years
As a child, Miller was around music a lot and always fooling around on the piano: His father played piano and organ (mainly in church). At the age of 8 Miller started recorder, and the clarinet at age ten at the public schools he attended.
Miller went to the High School of Music and Art (now the Laguardia School of Performing Arts), where he majored in the clarinet.
As a teenager, Miller would buy the sheet music to all the popular songs and want to play them. His father would teach him how to just read the guitar chord symbols and make up his own accompaniment. At the same time, Miller was playing bass in some funk bands in his neighborhood, learning about funk and grooves, and relating to people with music.
He subsequently went to Queens College, NY, majoring in music education, and continued on clarinet there. Miller also participated in the jazz ensemble there, under the direction of Bud Johnson.
During college Miller began to get a lot of work as a musician in NY on bass. Already very much in demand after four years, he decided to discontinue at Queens College and work full time.

Professional career
Miller spent about fifteen years performing as a sideman or session musician and observing how great leaders operated. During that time he also did a lot of arranging and producing. When he began to record his own records, he had to put a band together to take advantage of touring opportunities.
Miller's proficiency on his main instrument, the electric bass, is generally very well regarded. Not only has Miller been involved in the continuing development of a technique known as "slapping", but his fretless bass technique has also served as an inspiration to many, and has taken the fretless bass into musical situations and genres previously unexplored with the electric bass of any description.
Audible in Miller's playing, along with the rich and undeniable originality, are the influences of some of the previous generation of electric bass players, such as Keni Burke and especially Jaco Pastorius (who himself was only born in 1951). Early in his career, Miller was being accused of being simply imitative of Pastorius (note that Miller was not alone in this regard; Pastorius' influence was — and remains — immense), but has since more fully integrated the latter's methodology into his own sound.
Miller has an extensive discography, and tours frequently and widely in Europe and Japan. Between 1988 and 1990 he appeared in the first season and again toward the end as both the Musical Director and also as the house band bass player in The Sunday Night Band during the two seasons of the acclaimed music performance program Sunday Night on NBC late-night television. [1]
Along with appearing on many albums as a sideman, Miller currently leads his own band, which strives to faithfulness to the concepts of improvisation and innovation in jazz-based music that is perhaps more accessible to different audiences. His concerts and recorded works are often regarded as intensely creative and therefore appealing to serious musicians.
Fender currently produce a Marcus Miller signature Jazz Bass in 4 and 5 string versions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Miller

Flea (Michael Peter Balzary)

Michael Peter Balzary (born October 16, 1962 in Melbourne, Australia), better known by his nickname/stage name Flea, is an Australian-American bassist for the alternative rock/funk rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers and a frequent session musician for other music acts. He has also acted in a number of movies. He is the only member to remain in Red Hot Chili Peppers throughout their duration.

Career
While playing in Anthym, Flea's exceptional bass skills attracted attention from outside the band. In 1982, Flea received an offer to become the new bass player for Fear, an aggressive punk band from Los Angeles. He accepted the offer, playing for a short period with both bands.
In 1983, Flea, Kiedis, Slovak, and Irons formed the Red Hot Chili Peppers. They were signed with EMI within 6 months. Flea left Fear to concentrate on working with the Chili Peppers. Balzary also turned down an offer to play in the post-Sex Pistols band Public Image Ltd. with his longtime idol, John Lydon, as he preferred to stay with his friends.
Flea has aided the careers of several prominent musicians, most notably Jewel. In 1993, Flea met the unknown local artist, after he saw her perform at a local café. He went back to her van where she was currently living, where she sang a few of her songs. He described her singing voice as being "beautiful" and "breathtaking". Two years after this encounter Jewel was signed to Atlantic Records and released her diamond record, Pieces of You.[2] Flea also helped establish the non-profit Silverlake Conservatory of Music in 2001 and mentors young musicians in that program.

Flea is the only member that has never left or been kicked out of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. However, he has currently gone on a break from the band to teach music at his Silverlake Conservatory of Music.

Performance Style
Flea's uniquely fast approach to the popular "slapping and popping" bass technique influenced several musicians even before the Red Hot Chili Peppers broke into the mainstream. However, on the Chili Peppers' breakthrough album, Blood Sugar Sex Magik, Flea used the fused fast-slapping technique less than previous albums, stating that even though he'd made a name for himself from it, he felt as though he wouldn't be giving himself broad enough avenues of playing styles (as stated personally by Flea in the documentary Blood Sugar, "Funky Monks"). He now utilises all three major bass playing techniques - thumbstyle (slap and pop), finger style and using a plectrum. Flea is also known for his energetic antics while performing live.
Flea's playing style is heavily influenced by bassist Bootsy Collins (who in turn was largely influenced by Sly & The Family Stone bassist Larry Graham, the inventor of slap-bass), funk music, and by the energy of early punk rock bands such as Black Flag.

Instruments
Bass
Flea's main basses have almost always been ones with active electronics. His signature live bass up until Californication was the Music Man StingRay, which he also used to record the album Freaky Styley. In the studios for The Uplift Mofo Party Plan and Mother's Milk Flea used a Spector bass. Blood Sugar Sex Magik was recorded with a Wal Mach II, Stingray 5 string and One Hot Minute with an Alembic Epic. From Californication onwards, he received a signature model from Modulus Guitars, which is based on the StingRay. For Stadium Arcadium, he used a Shell Pink '61 Fender Jazz bass. The Jazz bass was initially used during the subsequent Stadium Arcadium tour, but Flea later decided that he wasn't cutting through enough, and stopped using the Jazz bass in favor of his Modulus signature. Flea can be heard using several different effects pedals throughout his career, most notably an envelope follower ("The Power of Equality", "21st Century"), and an overdrive pedal ("Around the World", "So Much I").
The effects he uses at the moment are:
Boss ODB-3 Bass Overdrive

MXR Micro Amp (booster)

Electro Harmonix Q-Tron (envelope filter)

Dunlop 105Q Bass Wah

Trumpet
Flea still plays trumpet occasionally, for example, as part of a horn section on the Jane's Addiction album Nothing's Shocking, on Mike Watt's Ball Hog or Tug Boat?, on The Mars Volta's second release Frances The Mute, and with Nirvana during a performance of Smells Like Teen Spirit at Hollywood Rock '93, a music festival in Brazil.
Most recently, he joined Incubus on "The Third Movement of the Odyssey" for the Halo 2 soundtrack. The songs "Subway To Venus", "Pretty Little Ditty", and "Taste the Pain" on the Chili Peppers album Mother's Milk, "Apache Rose Peacock" on Blood Sugar Sex Magik, and "Tear" and "On Mercury" on By the Way also feature Flea on trumpet. Flea also plays trumpet in some of the songs on Stadium Arcadium, namely "Torture Me", "Slow Cheetah", "Turn it Again" and "Hump De Bump". On the song "Mercy Mercy" a b-side of Tell Me Baby Flea plays the trumpet. Also on "Funny Face" on the b-side of Snow ((Hey Oh)) The bassist will, on occasion, play trumpet during the Peppers' live performances, as demonstrated on the "Live at Slane Castle" DVD and the "Live in Hyde Park" double CD.

Other collaborations/guest appearances
Alanis Morissette played bass on her 1995 hit single "You Oughta Know"
Aleka's Attic
Banyan
Big Audio Dynamite
Butthole Surfers
Celebrity Deathmatch showed Flea battling and defeating Kenny G.
Chuck Dukowski Sextet
Eleven
Eric Avery
Fear
Fishbone
Incubus
Mick Jagger
Mike Watt
Jack Irons
Jane's Addiction
Jewel
Johnny Cash
Joshua Redman
Nirvana
Patty Smith
P
Pigface
Porno for Pyros
Sir Mix-A-Lot
Smashing Pumpkins[citation needed]
Thelonious Monster
The Mars Volta - De-Loused in the Comatorium
The Satellite Party
Tricky
Joe Strummer
Warren Zevon
The Weirdos
UK Subs
What Is This? (formerly Anthym)
Axis of Justice
Young MC composed and played the bass line on his 1989 hit single "Bust a Move"[7]
Ziggy Marley

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flea_(musician)

Billy Sheehan

Billy Sheehan has changed the way bass guitar is played. Rising to cult status in the 80's with his Buffalo, NY based band Talas, Billy was recruited by David Lee Roth when Roth left Van Halen in '85. He recorded two platinum selling albums with the former Van Halen front man before setting out on his own. Forming Mr. Big in 1989, the band achieved a Billboard #1 single in the US and 14 other countries with "To Be With You" from their 2nd Atlantic Records album release "Lean Into It". While developing his trademark style of playing he has performed over 4000 live gigs on every continent except Africa and Antarctica.

Voted the "Best Rock Bass Player" 5 times in Guitar Player magazines Readers Poll, an honor which placed him in their "Gallery of Greats" (alongside Jimi Hendrix, Paul McCartney, Geddy Lee and Eddie Van Halen to name but a few), he has also won readers polls in Germany, Japan, Korea, Italy, and many other countries. On January 27, 1999 Billy's handprints and signature were preserved in cement on the Hollywood Rockwalk at Guitar Center. An honor attributed to those artists who have made a significant contribution to Rock and Roll. In Japan, Billy has won the prestigious "Player Magazine" (Japan's #1 Music mag) Readers Poll for Best Bass Player an unprecedented 14 consecutive times and Burrn! Magazines (Japan's #1 heavy metal mag) Readers Poll 5 times while selling out Budokan arena 3 consecutive nights with his band Mr. Big.

He started the new Millennium 2000 by performing before 40,000 fans with Mr. Big at the Osaka Dome in Japan then began work on his long awaited solo album. With recording completed, Billy's first solo album entitled "COMPRESSION" was released on April 25, 2001 on the Favored Nations label.

On "COMPRESSION", Sheehan wrote, sang, played Baritone 12 string and 6 string guitar, played bass and programmed drums on the entire record, except for 2 tracks featuring Terry Bozzio on drums and an amazing Steve Vai solo on the song "Chameleon" (the first pairing of Steve Vai and Billy since the David Lee Roth days). Other upcoming records include a new Mr. Big album (their 6th) slated for release in Fall 2001, an all instrumental bass album, an experimental Bass & Drum record w/ Terry Bozzio, and the 5th Niacin album featuring Dennis Chambers on drums (Funkadelic, Steely Dan, and Mahavishnu Orchestra). Niacin is an all-instrumental Bass, Drums, and Hammond B3 band at the cutting edge of a new musical movement.

http://www.billysheehan.com/bio.html

The Life & Music of Jaco Pastorius

Jaco Pastorius may well have been the last jazz musician of the 20th century to have made a major impact on the musical world at large. everywhere you go,sometimes it seems like a dozen times a day, in the most unlikely places you hear jaco's sound; from the latest tv commercial to bass players of all stripes copping his licks on recordings of all styles, from news broadcasts to famous rock and roll bands, from hip hop samples to personal tribute records, you hear the echoes of that unmistakable sound everywhere. (it may even be more imitated at this point than the previously most pervasive jazz sound to escape into the broader culture beyond the local borders of jazz, the moody harmon mute stylings of miles davis). for all the caterwauling that has gone on about new musicians that have shown up in recent years being toted as the "next miles", or the "duke ellington of their generation", or whatever, jaco outranks all of them and all of that by being the one and the only of his kind, without predecessor; the only post 1970 jazz musician known on a first name basis with all music fans of all varieties everywhere in the world. from the depths of africa where he is revered in almost god-like status to the halls of most every music university on the planet. to this day, and maybe more than ever, he remains the one and the only JACO.

And how odd it is to see this era of historical revisionism in jazz how this accomplishment is often relegated by people who should know better as being "not jazz" or as "fusion" (possibly the single most ignorant and damaging term ever invented to describe (discount) an important and vital branch of the jazz music tree). jaco at his best, as on this record, defines what the word jazz really means. jaco used his own experiences filtered through an almost unbelievable originality informed by a musicianship as audacious as it was expansive, to manifest into sound through improvisation a musical reality that illuminated his individuality. and besides all that, he simply played his ass off - in a way that was totally unprecedented on his instrument, or on ANY instrument for that matter.

Because jaco's thing has been so fully assimilated into the culture and the musical vocabulary of our time, i notice that it is difficult for people who weren't around at the time of his emergence to fully weigh the impact of his contribution. as a young musician who met jaco in his prime when we were both just starting out, i can only say that my reaction upon hearing him for the first time (with ira sullivan in miami, florida in 1972) was simply one of shock - i had literally never heard anything remotely like it, nor had anyone else around at the time. and yes, as is so often noted in his case, the way he was playing was unprecedented in technical terms, but that wasn't what made it so stunningly appealing to me. there was a humanity to jaco's thing, built into those relentless grooves was that rare quality that only the most advanced jazz musicians seem to be able to conjure up - with jaco, you were hearing the sound of a time, of an entire generation at work, on the move.

Our musical relationship was immediate. we recognized in each other a kind of impatience with the status quo of our respective instruments and jazz in general and found an instantaneous rapport from the first notes we played together. we also became really good friends. during the short time that i lived in miami (near jaco's hometown of ft. lauderdale), we played show gigs together and occasionally played at his house (he was living on top of a laundromat at the time) and spent a lot of time just talking about music, much of it about how intensely we both disliked the so-called jazz/rock of the time. ( how ironic that we are both now associated (inaccurately) with that movement). shortly after we met, i wound up moving to boston to join gary burton's quartet. during this period, jaco and i spent time working together in new york with pianist paul bley and began a trio that lasted for several years with drummer bob moses (that group later went on to record what became my first record "bright size life".)

In the middle of this period jaco recorded this album. when jaco got word that herbie hancock (a major hero of both of ours) had agreed to participate, i think his already inspired vision of what he could be as a musician and what he could do with this record in particular went to a whole other level. listening again to this record, and the way that he and herbie hook up on the original and the alternate takes of "used to be a cha-cha" we are hearing improvised music at it's highest level - but with a difference. jaco restructured the function of the bass in music in a way that has affected the outcome of countless musical projects to follow in his wake - an innovation that is still being absorbed by rhythm section players to this day - he showed the world that there was an entirely different way to think of the bass function, and what it meant. for this alone, jaco would earn a major place in the pantheon of jazz history. but, of course, there was so much more.

His solo on 'donna lee', beyond being astounding for just the fact that it was played with a hornlike phrasing that was previously unknown to the bass guitar is even more notable for being one of the freshest looks at how to play on a well traveled set of chord changes in recent jazz history - not to mention that it's just about the hippest start to a debut album in the history of recorded music. that solo, along with his best compositions like "continuum" reveal a melodic ingenuity (that rarest and hardest to quantify of musical qualities amongst improvisors) that comes along only a few times in each generation. and then there is just his basic relationship to sound and touch; refined to a degree that some would have thought impossible on an "electric" instrument.

Jaco's legacy has had a rough go of it - a horribly inaccurate, botched biography, endless cassette bootlegs of late-life gigs that do nothing but devalue the importance of his message through greed and overkill, and a mythology that seems to thrive on the stories that surrounded the lesser aspects of his lifestyle over the triumphs of his early musical vision and wisdom.

But you know what? you put this record on, and none of that matters. it is all here, in the grooves; everything you need to know about the guy. jaco pastorius was one of the most important musicians of our time - the fact that this was his first record is simply astonishing, there is no other way to put it. that this is without question the most auspicious debut album of the past quarter century is inarguable. as with all great recordings, the force of it's value becomes more evident as time passes.

Note: This is Pat Metheny's liner notes to the 2000 reissue of Jaco's debut album, "Jaco Pastorius", a piece we feel captures what Jaco and his music is all about.

by Pat Metheny

http://www.jacopastorius.com/biography/life.asp

The Bass "Highlights" Timeline

Original Source: Leo's Bass Page:
1490 : 6 & 7 string Bass Viola da Gamba from Silvestro Ganassi - Venice, Italy
Late 1500's : First Double Bass from Gasparo d'Salo - Italy
1910 : Gibson builds for 20 years the Mando Bass (Acoustic Bass without amplification, 24"scale, 17 frets)
1926 : First "Electric Upright" from Lloyd Loar
1933 : Paul Tutmarc builds first amplified Bass guitar (article here)
1935 : Audiovox Electric Bass Fiddle (article here)
1936 : Rickenbacker Bedpost-Bass (something like a Electric Upright Bass)
1939 : Serenader Bass from Paul Tutmarc
1947 : Everett Hull builds a pick up for Double Basses (2 years later he founds AMPEG)
1951 : Fender Precision Electric Bass from Leo Fender
1952 : Kay Electric Bass
1953 : Gibson EB-1 "Violin-Bass", a short scale Bass (Gibson's answer to the Precision)
1953 : Hohner Fretless - Only 36 made it out before a fire destroyed the shop!
1956 : Hofner's 500/1 Bass (Beatles Bass)
1957 : New Design for the Fender Precision
1957 : Rickenbacker 4000 (THE Rickenbacker)
1958 : EB-2 (Semi-Acoustic Bass)
1959 : First 6 string Bass UB1 from Danelectro (Tuning: E A D G B E)
1959 : Gibson EB-0 (First Les Paul Junior Styling, later SG like styling)
1960 : Fender Jazz Bass
1960 : Gibson EB-6 6 string Bass (Tuning: E A D G B E)
1960 : Danelectro's Longhorn Bass
1962 : Fender VI (Tuning: E A D G B E)
1962 : First active Bass BURNS TR2 built by English Guitar maker Jim Burns of London
1963 : Gibson Thunderbird
1964 : Fender V
1965 : First fretless Bass Aubi from Ampeg
1965 : Leo Fender sells his company to CBS
1968 : Hagstroem 8 String Bass
1969 : Dan Armstrong's See-thru clear acrylic bass from Ampeg
1970 : Alembic founded
1975 : Carl Thompson builds Piccolo Bass for Stanley Clarke
1976 : Music Man StingRay designed by Leo Fender
1976 : Rocket Science meets Bass Guitars. Aerospace Engineer/Bass Player Geoff Gould of Modulus is inspired to develop the industry's first Carbon Fiber necks. Read more here.
1977 : Rick Turner of Alembic, and Geoff Gould (above) present the first limited production (graphite neck) instruments at the National Association of Music Merchants convention.
1978 : Hamer builds the first 12 string bass for Tom Petersson of Cheap Trick
1978 : Carl Thompson builds the first 6 string fretless, later owned by Les Claypool
1980 : Michael Tobias builds half-fretted bass (fretted to the 5th, then fretless) for Bob Greenlee
1981 : Steinberger Bass and Status graphite bass were shown on Frankfurt Music Show
1981 : Ken Smith builds the AJ6 - Anthony Jackson's 6 string (B E A D G C)
1983 : Ibanez MC 924 "half and half" (fretted to the 12th fret then fretless)
1981?: Leo Fender starts G&L Guitars
1987 : Guild Ashbory with 22" scale and Silicon strings
1987 : Michael Tobias builds his first* custom 7 string bass for Garry Goodman
1989 : Double neck Basses from Le Fay (Dutch site) and Jerry Jones
1993? : Christopher Willcox, head ofLightWave Systems, begins optical pickup development.
1997? : Conklin builds first double neck 7 string bass
2003 : Noguera YC Sub Bass - Designed and tuned one octave lower than normal (E - 20.6Hz)
2004 : "Sub-Contra" Bass by Adler Guitar's artist, Jauqo III-X (Tuned C#,F#,B, E - low to high)
2004 : 11 String bass by Michael Adler. Uses the C#00 (17hz) string. First played and currently owned by Garry Goodman.

http://www.weedhopper.org/Bass_Guitar_History.asp