A fitting tribute to the troubled genius who revolutionized electric bass playing and bridged the gaps between jazz, R&B, rock, and funk. From his early days in R&B club bands through his international stardom with fusion group Weather Report and on to his solo career and tragic death at age 35, this book portrays the life and music of Jaco Pastorius, the self-proclaimed "world's greatest bass player." This special anniversary edition features new interviews with Jaco's childhood friends, prominent bass players of Jaco's era and afterward, and girlfriend Teresa Nagell, who was with Jaco in the last few years of his life. Some incidents from the first edition have been further researched and expanded to become full chapters.
Bill Milkowski is a New York-based music journalists who contributes to such magazines as Jazz Times, Jazziz, Acoustic Guitar and Absolute Sound as well as magazines abroad such as Jazzthing (Germany), Vibrations (Switzerland), Guitar Club (Italy), Guitar (Japan) and Hudba (Slovakia). His work has also appeared in Down Beat, Musician, MoJo, MIX, Guitar Player, Guitar World, Bass Player, Modern Drummer, DRUM!, Interview, TRAPS!, Pulse, Swing Journal and the New York Daily News.
Since moving to New York from his hometown of Milwaukee in 1980, Milkowski has written 500 sets of liner notes for a wide variety of record labels and has published over 7,000 articles, features and reviews. He has also produced recordings for the Blue Note, Columbia and Concord labels. Milkowski is the author of four books -- "JACO: The Extraordinary and Tragic Life of Jaco Pastorius" (Backbeat Books, 1995), "Rockers, Jazzbos & Visionaries" (Billboard Books, 1998),"Swing It! An Annotated History of Jive" (Billboard Books, 2001) and "Legends of Jazz" (Edizioni White Star. 2011). He also collaborated with guitarist Pat Martino on his recent autobiography, "Here And Now: The Autobiograpy of Pat Martino (Backbeat Books, 2011).
A winner of the Helen Oakley Dance-Robert Palmer Award for Excellence in Newspaper, Magazine, Online Feature or Review Writing for 2004, Milkowski also received the Jazz Journalist Association's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011.
Aside from a three-year period (1993-1996) when he lived in New Orleans, Milkowski has resided in New York. He currently lives in the Upper Manhattan neighborhood of Hudson Heights.
