Big article with photos in the most recent BassPlayer magazine.

Jaco´s Finest hour

http://www.bassplayer.com/article/jacos-finest-hour/Sep-07/31331

Picture above is taken from a forum at:

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=416089

This foto was scanned from the recent article by Jisi.

It looks absolutly untouched after more than 20 years...someone has taken very good care of it. A beautiful bass!

Listening To: Different sounds from the tv set, hum from the computer and pssss from my coffe-thermos

The Bass of Doom. Stunning instrument, glad it's recovered. Don't recognize it at all. Would Jaco? There must be scars under that sheen...

Listening To: mejores

Jaco would recognize his bass, but I don't know how much he played it after it was fixed and looking this way, I wonder whether there are any pictures of Jaco playing it after the change. Apparently the "owners" of the bass first had it identified via phone by Kevin Kaufman, who is responsible for making it look the way it does now, and whose name is displayed on it.

I'm so excited to see that the "Bass Of Doom" has now resurfaced. Ingrid, any plans for you, Julius, and Felix to see it? I pray that it will finally be returned back to where it rightfully belongs - with the Pastorius Family. One step closer. Peace, Al

A beautiful bass indeed. Some say its whats on the inside that counts. The bass is what it is. All that matters now is that it be returned to the family to decide its ultimate fate.

If I was one of the cats involved in its unveiling I would have kept it and immediately called the family to come and pick it up. Legal shmeegal.

On a personal note, I much rather appreciate and enjoy looking at the original distressed bass that told a tale of the greatest bass player, what he had been thru and the use the bass had seen, the blood, sweat and playing and travelling that the bass had been thru. I am not sure if we will ever know if Jaco commissioned and specified the repair or if Kevin took it upon himself to make the revisions.
My gut feeling is that these guys were friends and the bass was handled the way Jaco wished it to be.

Who is the owner?!

Yes, it is quite amazing the bass surfaced after all these years, makes you wonder how, and why whomever had it could have waited this long.

Legal schmeegal proceedings were started before Julius, and Felix were aware of its existence, which has now made it difficult to simply discuss, and perhaps come to some understanding of things, or an amicable, peaceful solution, it has become a very touchy situation, but with the help of Steve Bailey, Felix was able to make contact with the individuals, flew to NY and saw, held, played the bass, though he felt as if they were leery of him, that he might run off with it, which made things uncomfortable, especially in light of the fact that so many others had seen, and played it before him, and surely after him. Though perhaps it might be understandable since attorneys were already involved. Yes, it has been quite an experience for Felix.

I continue to hope that it will be able to be resolved without the law, that all parties concerned bear down to keeping it respectful, and calm, without all the familiar pushing, shoving, and accusing.

When Jaco broke it in pieces, see here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sfitzstephens/177217603/

he was in NY and had sent it down to Florida for Kevin to fix, I don't know if any of the changes were done with Jaco's input.

I haven't read the Bassplayer article, but if it doesn't divulge who the owners are then I rather not be the one to do so, though it won't be difficult to find out since many musicians already have seen and played it. Pat Metheny told me a couple of Sundays ago that he met up with the "owners", and feels they are genuine, as do others who have spoken with them. So it remains to be seen what the outcome will be.

Speaking of Pat Metheny, his trio with Christian McBride and Antonio Sanchez is worth every penny and then some to go see and hear, it could easily be some of the best you will experience.

Should have sent me with Felix. I would have run off with it. I can run very fast, know the city very well and am friends with a downtown judge.

Funny that you quote the word "owners". Shouldn't they be called "holders"?

just thinking about Felix' ride home after seeing the bass. That must have sucked big time. sorry bro.

Hah Jay, what a scene, lol! Thank you for caring about Felix.

Yes, I like "holders" better too, more posiitive thinking.

These people holding this bass have no right sitting on it.
It is impossible to own a stolen thing.
In Norway those who have a stolen thing in their home or claim to own it, gets judged the same as the thief.
I hope the law is the same in USA.

It has to go back to the family and then they can decide what to do with it.

Hope justice will win in this case.

Regards

Listening To: All good music

The problem with the American justice system (or lack thereof) is that there is no shortage of bottom feeder attorneys who could argue whatever story they want about who owns the bass. I am not giving up hope that a mess could be avoided though can't help but feel that somebody is going to try to cash in on this.

The pic of W, V & V with the bass makes no sense to me. How can someone, especially these guys, handle property that they know is in the wrong hands and just hand it back to the perps??? Bad karma.

I wear my heart on my sleeve. I am trying to be as objective about this as possible. The fact is, the particulars of this are really not my business. But seeing people do the right thing is.

I would hope that whoever owns it, will do something similar to what has happened to some of the guitars that were owned by Jerry Garcia. For those of you who don't know the story, the short story is that after Jerry died, he left 4 of his main guitars to his luthier in his will. However, his will was never actually signed and the other members of the Dead argued that the guitars were owned by the "corporation", which was set up by the four core members of the dead and who purchased all of the equipment, so in a sense, they were right. The luthier, Doug Irwin, sued and they came to an agreement, 2 guitars went to the Doug Irwin and 2 went to the Dead.

So then Doug Irwin auctioned them off, and got $1.74 million. He was destitute at the time, living in a shed or trailer or something. After the auction, the new owner of these guitars began lending them to Phil Lesh (the bass player) for use at his shows (once in awhile), so they could still be played in context and enjoyed and celebrated, rather than having them disappear forever .

So, in the event ownership of the bass of doom is never really established, and my guess, is how can you prove it either way, I would hope that the owners or holders will find it in their hearts to loan the bass out to Felix at appropriate times or on a long term basis or for recordings or whatever makes sense. Since everyone (Pat Metheny, etc) seems to know the owners/holders, it would be great if they could help further that idea to them.

I'm curious to know more though, like why it took 20 years for the bass to surface? Does anyone know that?

Jay, I concur with much of what you so passionately state.

Alex, I never knew this history of Jerry Garcia's instruments, thanks for that. I have heard that the "holders" of the bass contemplated similar concept, of keeping the bass alive by having it played, and visible, somehow.

Of course your idea for Felix to be able to play it is ideal. At this point and time there is disappointment of why he wasn't immediately contacted, instead it was played, shared, lugged around for a short while before he knew. It's even possible that at the time Jisi wrote article for BassPlayer, Felix and Julius didn't know about the finding of the bass yet.

Someone knows the past 20 year history of the bass, but I haven't heard who, or what it might be.

Hoping the right thing will happen, keepin' the faith.