Modern American Music... Period! The Criteria Sessions Jaco Pastorius

• 1 Donna Lee 02:55
• 2 Balloon Song (12-Tone) 08:06
• 3 Pans #1 04:49
• 4 Havona/Continuum (Alternate) 10:21
• 5 Kuru 05:38
• 6 Continuum 04:03
• 7 Opus Pocus (Pans #2) 06:09
• 8 Time Lapse 04:12
• 9 Balloon Song (12-Tone) (Alternate) 12:52
• 10 Time Lapse (Alternate) 05:16
• 11 Forgotten Love 01:51
• Total Runtime 01:06:12

Info for Modern American Music... Period! The Criteria Sessions

When Jaco Pastorius’ solo debut appeared in 1976, a new standard in both jazz and the electric bass guitar was born. Many of the the tracks on that eponymous album had their genesis two years earlier when a 22 year-old Pastorius and friends used after-hours time at Criteria Studios to work out songs and jam. Eventually, six of those session tracks were pulled to an acetate. Many of the songs would later find their way onto Jaco’s self-titled debut, but some remained unreleased until now. All tracks appear here in their full, unedited form for the first time.

Omnivore Recordings is honored to present Modern American Music… Period! The Criteria Sessions. Produced in conjunction with the Pastorius estate and Metallica’s Robert Trujillo, this release contains 11 revolutionary tracks from one of the world’s greatest musicians.

The album features 11 tracks from the Criteria sessions, essays from Trujillo and Pastorius biographer Bill Milkowski (writer for Down Beat and Jazziz), and unseen photos from the family’s archives.

The original six-song acetate is being reproduced for Record Store Day, 2014 that will include one sought-after bonus track, “Havona/Continuum.” This material was unearthed and restored in conjunction with the upcoming documentary, Jaco, the official Record Store Day film for 2014.

While these tracks, recorded at the beginning of Pastorius’ incredible career, may be from the past, they, like all of Jaco’s music, transcend time and space.

Jaco Pastorius, bass, electric piano
Bob Economou, drums
Alex Darqui, electric piano, Fender Rhodes
Don Alias, percussion
Alex Darqui, piano
Othello Molineaux, steel drums
Sir Cederik Lucious, steel drums

Digitally remastered

Jaco Pastorius
was a meteor who blazed on to the scene in the 1970s, only to flame out tragically in the 1980s. With a brilliantly fleet technique and fertile melodic imagination, Pastorius made his fretless electric bass leap out from the depths of the rhythm section into the front line with fluid machine-gun-like passages that demanded attention. He also sported a strutting, dancing, flamboyant performing style and posed a further triple-threat as a talented composer, arranger and producer. He and Stanley Clarke were the towering influences on their instrument in the 1970s.

Born in Pennsylvania, Pastorius grew up in Fort Lauderdale, where he played with visiting R&B and pop acts while still a teenager and built a reputation as a local legend. Everything started to come together for him quickly once he started playing with another rookie fusionmeister, Pat Metheny, around 1974. By 1976, he had been invited to join Weather Report, where he remained until 1981, gradually becoming a third lead voice along with Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter. Outside Weather Report, he found himself in constant demand as a sessionman and producer, playing on Joni Mitchell, Blood Sweat and Tears, Paul Bley, Bireli Lagrene and Ira Sullivan albums -- and his first eponymous solo album for Epic in 1976 was hailed as a tour de force. From 1980 to 1984, he toured and recorded with his own band, the innovative Word of Mouth that fluctuated in size from a large combo to a big band.

Alas, Pastorius became overwhelmed by mental problems, exacerbated by drugs and alcohol in the mid-'80s, leading to several embarrassing public incidents (one was a violent crack-up on-stage at the Hollywood Bowl in mid-set at the 1984 Playboy Jazz Festival). Such episodes made him a pariah in the music business and toward the end of his life, he had become a street person, reportedly sighted in drug-infested inner-city hangouts. He died in 1987 from a physical beating sustained while trying to break into the Midnight Club in Fort Lauderdale. Almost totally forgotten at the time of his death, Pastorius was immediately canonized afterwards (Marcus Miller wrote a tune "Mr. Pastorius" in his honor) -- too late for him to have received therapy or help. (Richard S. Ginell, All Music Guide)

This album contains no booklet.