Customer Reviews

Jaco: The Extraordinary and Tragic Life of Jaco Pastorius

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I remember Jaco Pastorius through several great concerts with Weather Report and a sizzling show with Word of Mouth at the Cleveland Agora.

For those who had the chance to appreciate his music live or for so many that are grooving to Jaco many years after his death, the updated biography - with a CD that includes additional material - by Bill Milkowski is the best way to piece together the complicated rise and fall of the brilliant musician.

Milkowski has exhaustive interviews with musicians, family members, media, friends and lovers that are split in chapters to coincide with his years as a musician with a dream, the height of musical achievement and then leaving Weather Report, and the controversial years after leaving the group that found Jaco spiralling out of control personally and musically.

That Jaco was a musical genius cannot be denied. The book will leave you wondering why Jaco - as with too many artists - took his gift and tossed it into the abyss of "what could have been."

First off, the title is great. There is no doubt that Jaco is one of the most (if not the most) gifted bass players of all time. The book documents his life as a young boy who picked up the bass (after he could not play drums any longer because he broke his arm), his career and his later years when he suffered from mental illness and died at 33. I bring up the question of accuracy as it has been raised by others as well.

One criticism about the book has been that it sensationalizes Jaco's destructive behaviour and takes away from his legacy. This is a point made by Metheny (who was a friend and a fellow musician) in the liner notes of Jaco's debut album. Also I have asked the opinion of (via a short e-mail) Jaco's second wife. Her website that details some minor inaccuracies that exist in the first edition.

That being said the book is well written and gives insight into Jaco's life. Milkowski (who is a music journalist) portrays Jaco as an extremely gifted, hard working and narcisisstic man who self destructs at the end due to bipolar disease. The clues to Jaco's illness are evident from his early years. He plays tirelessly and at times seldom sleeps. At the end of his life he self destructs due to a number of reasons including refusal comply with treatment for his illness,drugs and drinking.
One has to wonder what it says about our society that no one helped Jaco when he was clearly suffering towards the end. I posted the same question to Jaco's wife and her answer was that one has to be willing to accept help.

Mental illness is still misunderstood my most of the world. People who suffer from it can be hard to deal with and be around. I hope that if the same scenario plays out today, with better understanding of mental illness, the outcome would be different. But I am not an optimist.

This book is a well done biography worth reading. Unfortunately it focuses mostly on the sensationalism of Jaco's life. Looking back what you remember is story after story of his out of control behavior, and attempts to explain it by blaming the negative people in his life. I would have liked to have heard more of his successes. It is an excellent book for musicians, but even better for anyone in the field of mental health.

This extrodinary man had serious mental health problems. It seems the only time he had a chance was when he was arrested and put in Bellevue psychiatric hospital. Unfortunately he always convinced friends to get him out. Even the author admits to this mistake.

This without a doubt one of the saddest books I have ever read especially since I know and love his music and talent. But also because had he lasted another 10 years, new drugs may have helped.

However there were too many hangers on and bad influences. It reminds me of the old Rodney Dangerfield joke in which he states,"I appeal to people who can do me absolutely no good."

In this book there is plenty of blame to go around.

I read the first edition of this book when it first came out 10 years ago, and I was disappointed with the heavy emphasis on Jaco's darker, later years.

I was excited to pick up this "10th anniversary edition" with "the new insights of the early years" and the "new revelations about his tragic final days..."

There is more early years coverage, thanks in large part to Bob Bobbing, Jaco's friend and audio-biographer (the CD included with the book is from the Jaco, the Early Years box set). However, I found this book to be full of typos, passages that appear unedited, repetitive and rambling.

The "new revelations" about his final days were very confusing. Milkowski seems to want to cast doubt over what was regarded as the incident between Jaco and Luc Havan, though it bounces around between Havan actually killing him, to other vague passages that cause more confusion than provide any insight.

This is a sad book, but it has to be, unfortunately. Reading it this time gave me the same feeling as last. I wish someone could have broken through to help him, as impossible as it was to do that.

HE IS AND WAS MY HERO AND THE GREATEST BASS PLAYER WHO HAS EVER LIVED...I BELIEVE BILL MILKOWSKI DID A WONDERFUL JOB AND I FEEL HE LOVED JACO AS WELL...HE KNEW JACO TOWARD THE END OF HIS LIFE..THE DARK TIMES BUT HE ACCURATELY COVERS HIS ENTIRE LIFE KEEPING HIM IN A GOOD LIGHT..CERTAINLY THERE WERE BAD TIMES BUT HE DOESNT JUST FOCUS ON THOSE TIMES...I BELIEVE HE TOOK A GOOD BIT OF CRITICISM OVER THIS BOOK UNTIL ONE OF JACOS LIFE LONG FRIENDS STUCK UP FOR MR MILKOWSKI AND THIS BOOK...I COULD NOT PUT THIS BOOK DOWN AND HAVE REREAD IT MANY TIMES....IT IS A MUST OWN FOR ANY JACO FAN AND IS NOT TRASHY TABLOID JUNK..YOU CAN TELL BILL MILKOSKI LOVED JACO AS ALL JACO FANS DO..

This book reads at times like a hagiography of Jaco. Yeah, Jaco's flaws are enumerated, but there is an obvious worship of Jaco by the author. Having said that, it is still a good book. It is a very thorough biography. It is a little different, in that it helps to have a knowledge of the intricacies of music, e.g., specific chord changes are mentioned. Yo, I took piano, so I don't know a D chord from a G chord on a guitar. Still, I enjoyed the book and learned a lot.

The 40 minute CD that comes with the book, is a real nice bonus by the author. Thanks.

I really enjoyed this in depth look into the life of my favourite bass player.

I've learned so much more about a guy I thought I had a pretty decent knowledge of anyway! The author, Bill Milkowski, really knows his stuff. He had a personal relationship with Jaco and writes in a way I found intriguing, I really could not put this book down.

To any musician - not just bass players - this book is a must. giving a detailed account of Jaco's genius in writing, composition, arrangement and whole approach to music which at the time really made the man stand out from the crowd.

Filled with interviews taken at the time and more up to date accounts of Jaco's antics the book makes you laugh out loud and at times shed a tear at what this remarkable man could have achieved had his life not been so tragically cut short.

The chronological approach of the author made it very easy to follow Jaco's life from his birth, through childhood, his rights of passage on the music scene to the point where he truly sat on top as the world's greatest bass player, all the way to his sad demise, fall from grace and that fateful night and what truly happened.

Most musicians (and non-musicians) are aware of Jaco's genius as an innovative bassist who redefined the instrument. This book also reminds us that Jaco was an incredible performer, composer and artist. I didn't know much about him besides his playing, so this book was all new information to me. It all seems very credible.

Anyhow, I have two gripes about the book.

The Kindel Edition is so completely riddled with typos, it made it incredibly distracting to read. I can't speak for the print edition, but the KE is a mess. In some spots it looks like bad auto-spelling failing miserably: the word "meat" shows up as "meant". Mostly it's missing punctuation, titles that are italicized for some of the words but not others, punctuation problems, etc. There is literally a typo on every page.

The other gripe I have is more of a personal one. The author starts at the beginning of Jacos's life and ends at the end of it. That's how many biographies are written. But in Jaco's case, His life is more or less divided into those two parts and so it becomes somewhat tedious reading the accounts in this way. Basically the first half of the book are recounts of how great a bass player he was and the second half are recounts of how crazy he got. I think with the same information and personal accounts, the author could have delivered Jaco's story in a more interesting and satisfying way.

I also wish there was more talk about what Jaco did musically in a more specific way. I think if you didn't know his music, you would not really "get" what he did by reading this book.

I definitely recommend this book to fans of Jaco and to anyone who is interested in the life of a tragic artist.

Being a bass player and having grown up at the same time Jaco did, it is very moving to read Milkowski's biography on "The World's Greatest Bass Player". Jaco would have been 60 years old on Dec. 1st 2011, but destiny decided otherwise and he ended up living the life span of a shooting star. In spite of his tragic existence, he left a considerable legacy in his field. Most importantly, he created his own style- an achievement deemed by all musicians to be the hardest goal to attain. He exceeded the speed limits of life and paid the consequences for his actions, but all things considered, is it better to live dying, or to die having lived?

Bill did a really great job with this book. I was impressed with the CD which doesn't contain much music but contains the actual quotes that Bill was putting in the manuscript. It seemed a very interesting way to do things. The only criticism I'd have is that "The World's Greatest Bassist" was kind of run into the ground. My opinion with music is that you can't really compare jazz musicians in that respect. They have different goals and objectives, how can you really say one is better than the other when they are trying to accomplish different things. I love Jaco for style though, he really had taste. I think many, such as myself like to incorporate his style into their playing, not necessarily playing his songs note for note but just going for that overall feel he could convey so well. The story is quite tragic, it does show what drugs and alcohol can do along with the mental illness.