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The Latest Breaking News from Jaco Pastorius

“One of the guys said, ‘Joni, there’s this weird bass player in Florida, you’d probably like him’”: How Joni Mitchell formed an unlikely partnership with Jaco Pastorius

Although much of his fame stems from his time with Weather Report, Jaco’s recordings with Joni Mitchell yielded some of the finest bass playing of his career

Guitar World

“I got that bass for $50 off this coke dealer. I don’t know what Jaco did to it, but he totally messed up the insides!” How Cro-Mags’ Harley Flanagan went from buying a Jaco Pastorius bass on the street to fronting one of hardcore’s most influential bands

The Cro-Mags founder on the reason he plays Fenders despite loving Rickenbackers, learning from Lemmy and the new documentary about his struggle for survival

Guitar World

“You have to fight to be heard in metal. But you have to give them something worth fighting for!” 20 metal bassists who took heavy bass playing in new directions

Featuring metal’s leading low-enders – from old-school thrash to modern metal

Guitar World

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“I have never felt so ashamed to be onstage. If I never see you again, it's too soon!”: When John McLaughlin laid into Jaco Pastorius after an onstage meltdown

Trio Of Doom was aptly named…

MusicRadar

“The bass is the instrument you need to play the longest to become truly funky”: 20 funk bass legends who took low-end groove to new heights

A rundown of the best funk bass players of all time, featuring the trailblazers, the early innovators, and the monster groovers around today

Guitar World

“It’s difficult to hear bass playing in metal, but players like Geezer Butler stand out – they try to do something different with their parts. If they don’t, I usually find it a bit boring”: Opeth’s Martín Méndez names the 5 albums that shaped his sound

The low-end maestro for prog titans Opeth digs deep into fusion and soul as he names his favorite bass records

Guitar World

“He took a bass to Jason Newsted. James kept flipping it back and forth, studying it… Then he asked if we could meet”: How Ken Lawrence came to build some of James Hetfield’s most iconic guitars – including one using wood from Metallica’s former home

The luthier specialized in bass guitars before he met Hetfield via Mesa/Boogie. It would land him his most challenging but rewarding collaboration

Guitar World

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“Imagine not knowing Eric Johnson, Vai and Satriani and seeing this for the first time? It literally blows your mind”: Matteo Mancuso – 10 albums that changed my life

The Sicilian virtuoso salutes Jimmy Page's stylistic adventurism, the compositional genius of Pat Metheny and Al Di Meola, and declares Jaco Pastorius “the Jimi Hendrix of bass”

MusicRadar

"When he died, I cried. And I actually jumped into the ocean at San Francisco. And let me tell you, the ocean at San Francisco is cold": Bass legend Jaco Pastorius

We salute a true bass guitar virtuoso

MusicRadar

“Jaco was Joni’s liberator, but she wanted the bass to play a greater part in holding down the groove”: Larry Klein on how he handled the challenge of replacing Jaco Pastorius in Joni Mitchell’s band

The session ace-turned producer began working with Mitchell in 1981, soon after her last album with the “world’s greatest bass player”

Guitar World

“The second night after I arrived in Miami, I went to a jazz club. This guy played bass for one tune and it was like he had dropped out of a spaceship”: Pat Metheny tells the story of how he met Jaco Pastorius – and their formative years in Miami

Pastorius notably played on Metheny's debut album, Bright Size Life, and the two even joined Joni Mitchell on her Shadows and Light tour

Guitar World

“People say, ‘I never would have expected that to work.’ But we’re not just a gimmick – we want to create something new”: The Omnific’s two-bass line-up is a serious bid to redefine what the instrument can do

Australian trio’s second album The Law Of Augmenting Returns lays out their case for a rethink… they only wish Jaco Pastorius was alive to hear it

Metal Hammer

“I didn't want to record a famous Jaco song, but Gil Goldstein found this tape for me – it was Jaco playing piano”: How Richard Bona found a rare Pastorius tune for his Brazilian-inspired solo album

Bass worshippers will need to listen between the layers to catch the bottom-end brilliance of Bona’s Jaco tribute

Guitar World

“We end up drinking until 5 in the morning. I wake up with the worst hangover of my life, and now I’ve got to play with Metallica”: How a late-night drinking session with Lars Ulrich almost ruined Robert Trujillo’s Metallica audition

Robert Trujillo was announced as Metallica's new bassist on February 24, 2003, following a two-day try-out for the metal giants

Guitar World

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Guitar World

“We don’t want to use guitar solos as a crutch. You know – ‘after the bridge, solo!’ When I do play a solo, I want it to stand out”: Following mega-tours with Muse and Royal Blood, sister act The Warning are riff rock’s next big success story

From Metallica covers to U.S. network television and a searing third album powered by the creative heat of fuzz and distortion, Daniela and Alejandra Villarreal Vélez are going places fast, and hungry for more

Louder

“It was a tragedy what happened to Jaco Pastorius… It’s why I’m glad I only have a modicum of talent”: Chicago ex Jason Scheff hails his prog heroes Weather Report

Always looking for a gritty, funky edge, he loves Genesis too – but it was emulating Pastorius as a kid that got the bassist-vocalist going

Louder

"Joe Elliott knows more about Mott than I do. You just have to sit back and listen to him": Ian Hunter's stories of Freddie Mercury, David Bowie, Bob Dylan and more

He’s Ian Hunter, solo artist and former Mott The Hoople frontman, and these are some of his stories

MusicRadar

“He looked me in the eye and said, real seriously, ‘Rory, man, I’m the best bass player on earth’. I looked back at him and said, ‘I know’: How the formidable personality and talent of bass virtuoso Jaco Pastorius was embraced by Joni Mitchell

“He pointed to his rental amp and said, ‘I'm not playing through that piece of shit’. So he took mine”

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MusicRadar

"When he died, I cried. And I actually jumped into the ocean at San Francisco. And let me tell you, the ocean at San Francisco is cold": Bass legend Jaco Pastorius

We salute a true bass guitar virtuoso

Guitar World

“We walk into this music store, and the owner is making sure we didn't turn up with a lawyer – and then Robert Trujillo came in and saved the day!” The amazing story of how Jaco's Bass Of Doom made its way back to Felix Pastorius

Stolen in 1982, the bass vanished from the public eye until 2006 when it resurfaced in a New York music store

Louder

"Such lavish reupholstering is what genius deserves": The beautifully presented Asylum Albums 1976-1980 finds Joni Mitchell inhabiting the art department

Joni loves jazz

Guitar World

“I’d messaged Cory to see if he needed a bassist. He sent me his tour manager’s phone number and said, ‘See you in two days’”: Meet Vincen García, the Spanish bass virtuoso who joined Cory Wong’s band with 48 hours’ notice

Vincen García shares his bass heroes and how he went about “bringing the artillery” with Cory Wong

Guitar World

“As a guitarist you can come in after the one without the house falling apart. But as a bass player, you always have to be there”: How Jonas Reingold switched from classical guitar and became Steve Hackett’s go-to bassist

From Wire and Karmakanic to the Flower Kings and Steve Hackett, the Swedish musician loves to learn, and always strives to be a better team player

Guitar World

“He already had his signature tone and touch, and a few of his signature licks, too”: A year before he was discovered, Jaco Pastorius laid down this classic R&B bassline on Little Beaver’s 1974 hit, I Can Dig It Baby

Recorded a year before he was discovered by Blood Sweat and Tears drummer Bobby Colomby, I Can Dig It Baby finds Jaco Pastorius in his prime

Guitar World

“I totally respected Jaco's bass playing, but that 16th-note triplet funk thing – it just wasn't in his repertoire”: Weather Report drummer Chester Thompson on why Jaco Pastorius struggled to swing

In 1975, Jaco Pastorius replaced Alphonso Johnson in Weather Report, but for drummer Chester Thompson, playing with Jaco was “like oil and water”

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