Now Available: Jaco Pastorius, Anthology: The Warner Bros. Years

If you consider yourself a bass player and you don’t hold Jaco Pastorius in the highest esteem, then we can only presume you’ve never really listened to the man, because he’s one of those guys whose work with the instrument was so unique and groundbreaking that it’s hard to hear it without wanting to drop to your knees and begin recitation of the phrase, “I’m not worthy!”

Since we doubt if you thought for a moment that we’d suddenly started talking about him by coincidence, it probably won’t come as any sort of surprise to you that, yes, we’ve got a brand new anthology which provides both new and old fans with the opportunity to explore Pastorius’s work during his tenure with Warner Brothers Records.

The 22-track collection is predominantly culled from the trio of albums Pastorius recorded for WB: 1981’s studio effort, Word of Mouth, his big-band concert album The Birthday Concert (recorded, as you might’ve guessed, on his birthday…his 30th, to be exact, in ‘81), and Invitation, another concert album, but this one recorded in Japan in ’82. As a bonus, there’s also a pair of contributions made by Pastorius to other artists’ albums – “Nativity” from Airto Moreira’s I’m Fine, How Are You? and “Mood Swings,” from Mike Stern’s Upside Downside – and, to close out the two-disc set – a heretofore-unreleased performance of Charlie Parker’s “Donna Lee.”

Here’s the track listing, to get you further excited about diving into the set:

Disc One

1. “Crisis”
2. “Blackbird”
3. “Chromatic Fantasy”
4. “Word Of Mouth”
5. “Three Views Of A Secret”
6. “John And Mary”
7. “Continuum”
8. “Liberty City”
9. “Soul Intro / The Chicken”
10. “Reza”
11. “Happy Birthday”

Disc Two

1. “Punk Jazz”
2. “Amerika”
3. “Invitation”
4. “Domingo”
5. “Sophisticated Lady”
6. “Fannie Mae”
7. “Eleven”
8. “Okonkole’ Y Trompa”
9. “Nativity” – with Airto Moreira
10. “Mood Swings” – with Mike Stern
11. “Donna Lee” – previously unreleased