Jaco and his Invention

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.

Jaco’s style of play bridged the gap between pop and jazz where he was able to make his electric bass pop through the back of a rhythm section to the front of his ensemble. His rhythms borrowed from Latin and Blues and he played with melodic fluency and speed that dazed many of his contemporaries. He pioneered the technique of “artificial harmonics” which completely stretched the range of his bass and gave it a bell-like tone; this technique demanded very large hands and very precise finger placement that set Jaco Pastorius apart from most other bassists. His most well known innovation that lead him to his signature sound and style was the creation of the fretless electric bass, which no-one had attempted to create before. This is recounted by Jaco himself:

"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.

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14578299

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/jaco-pastorius-mn0000113480/biography

http://downbeat.com/archives/detail/downbeat-hall-of-fame

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