Truth, Liberty & Soul

The brightest star in the electric bass firmament, Jaco Pastorius burst onto the national scene in 1976 with his audacious self-titled album on Columbia Records, featuring a lineup of top jazz musicians. With his extraordinary fretless electric bass playing as the centerpiece, Jaco Pastorius created an immediate sensation with the public and the media. His signature approach employed Latin-influenced funk, lyrical solos on fretless bass, bass chords, and innovative use of harmonics. In Jaco's work with Weather Report and beyond, the self-described "greatest bass player in the world" (an assessment shared with virtually the entire music world) established a new identity and role for his instrument and became the torchbearer for a new way of playing both technically and conceptually. But behind it all was an ever present R&B and Latin-influenced groove and a screaming rock-'n'-roll attitude that he refined and incorporated into sophisticated jazz harmonic structures.
In addition to his extraordinary virtuosity, Jaco was also developing into an accomplished and sophisticated composer and arranger and those talents are gloriously on display on this album. The 3-time Grammy Award nominee was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame in 1988, one of only seven bassists so honored (and the only electric bassist). His legacy as a bass innovator continues to this day, more than 30 years after his untimely death in 1987.

Musicians:

Alto Saxophone – Bob Stein
Baritone Saxophone – Howard Johnson (3), Randy Emerick
Bass, Vocals – Jaco Pastorius
Drums – Peter Erskine
French Horn – John Clark (2), Peter Gordon (8)
Harmonica – Toots Thielemans
Percussion – Don Alias
Steel Drums – Othello Molineaux
Tenor Saxophone – Frank Wess, Lou Marini
Tenor Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone, Bass Clarinet – Bob Mintzer
Trombone – David Taylor, Jim Pugh, Wayne Andre
Trumpet – Alan Rubin, Jon Faddis, Ken Faulk, Lew Soloff, Randy Brecker, Ron Tooley
Tuba – Dave Bargeron
Mastered By – Renée Laflamme