Jaco Pastorius was a jazz bassist from Fort
Lauderdale, Florida who is best known as a member of Weather Report and one of
the best electric bassists of all time.
With his father being a jazz drummer, Jaco
developed a strong appreciation for jazz and saved money to buy an upright bass
when he was 17. From there he gigged around and gained popularity as a sort of
local legend in Fort Lauderdale for his technical skill and flamboyant style –
like dancing around, telling jokes, and doing flips on the stage during
performance. At 25 he was asked to join Weather
Report and was a core member of their legendary ensemble until 1981 when he
began touring with his own band, Word of
Mouth.
Jaco’s eccentricities, like shaving his head,
painting his face black, and throwing his bass into Hiroshima Bay while on
tour, were originally attributed to a flamboyant stage personality. However, he
was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 1982 and his behavior became still more
erratic as he developed a more significant alcohol and drug problem. Only a few
years later would Jaco still be praised for his skill and regularly interviewed,
but still be out of work and homeless. He died in 1987 after attempting to
break into a club and being beaten into a tragic coma by the club manager.
"I had an
upright — it took me years and years to get enough bread to get it," he
once said. "I'm from Florida, so one morning I woke up, go in the corner
and the bass is in a hundred pieces, cause the humidity is so bad, I mean, the
upright just blew up. I said forget it, man, I can't afford this any more. So I
went out, got a knife and took all the frets out of my Fender. That was it."
Although it’s a
very exaggerated and passionate response, mutilating his electric bass empowered
his musical ability and opened an entirely unexplored creative avenue for Jaco.
This response is not the rational and healthy solution to such an upsetting
problem, he couldn’t have been confident the fretless bass would still be just
as playable after hacking away at it. Perhaps like many of his explosive
episodes in his life, this moment of divergent behavior can be attributed
partly to his bipolar disorder. The other instances of Jaco’s creatively cannot
be as closely connected to his psychological affliction, but the creation of
the fretless bass was a product of impulse and loose association that was
momentarily divorced from reason.
Russ’s article
discusses the role of primary process thinking, the primitive and impulsive
path of thought related to dream-like thinking, and secondary process thinking,
the logically ordered and constructive path of thought, as part of the creative
process. Divergent thoughts and behaviors that lead to creative and novel ideas
are derived from the primary process. However, Ross says that these divergent
products cannot be appropriately converged into a creative instance without
secondary process thinking – so the ability to switch between a primary process
dominant and a secondary process dominant state of mind are integral to creativity.
Jaco, as one suffering from bipolar disorder, will naturally struggle between
primary and secondary process in which divergent ideas will be generated and be
effectively organized into a truly creative product. He butchered his electric
bass in anger but then harnessed that experience and constructively expanded on
it to master the fretless electric bass to the fullest degree. Jaco Pastorius
is a big C-creative within the music community, and in light of Ross’
discussion of bipolar disorder’s affect on creativity, his illness may have
seeded his creative work.
http://downbeat.com/archives/detail/downbeat-hall-of-fame
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