Jaco's Fret-Less Hang!
....where hearts, minds, souls meet and wonder...
..Yes I remember too. I was in a good mood I was resting my hands from a good workout. Paula Cohen had called me and asked me if I heard the news. I said "no, what?". She said "Joey... listen? are you sitting down."
"No Pauls what's going on?"
"Just sit down... I have bad news. (pause) I didn't want to be the one to tell you but Jaco's dead"
I replied "you're kidding me right?" she said no and that he had been beaten into a coma by a bouncer and that and was taken off life support." I asked when. She said a couple days ago. I said nothing and hung up the phone. She kept calling back and I kept lifting the hook and hanging up. A couple hours later I finally picked up the phone and cursed her out for telling me. I made her cry which got me angry at my own reaction and pulled the phone off the wall and threw it, accidentally hitting and badly damaging both my soprano saxophones. I put away my fender bass. I was in the middle of re-crowning the near mint condition frets which I had badly worn in less than two years. That bass hasn't seen a set of srtings in over 21 years.
I'm not so sure of the weather and astronomical data but it's close...
I brought my 7 string to the Winter NAMM show. Supposedly the 1988 Winter NAMM co-incided with a Full Moon and the Alignment of 7 planets, maybe on the 17th or 27th? and there was a rumor that a seven foot tide or a wave washed away or flooded Joni Mitchell's beach house. Probably false.
When I left Winter NAMM it was 70 degrees and the sun was setting or rising in a reflection of windows at the waiting area of LAX. When I arrived in Newark NJ it reached a high of 77 degrees!!! In January!!! and the sun was rising. Could be backward but It was 70/77 and that was the Zon debut of the Legacy Bass and I remember thinking about Jaco's legacy. The Bass Hall of Fame cornerstone was dedicated May 21st (3x7=21) 1988. It was the only date Valerie Gleason of the Limelight could pull everybody together.
FREAK WEATHER!!!! I kept thinking about all the Jaco connections (Weather Report, Joni, 7s,)
Check the weather charts to confirm it was Jan 27th? 1988. I believe it was. Or, it could have been exhaustion.
Had to be fatigue from the NAMM show.
But that was the trip where it was seriously considered and then later decided and agreed by the greats to dedicate the Bass Players Hall of Fame to Charles Mingus and Jaco Pastorius on a cornerstone and there would be an actual museum registered with the National Association of Museums, which it was.
The first people who signed onto that decision and agreed to those first posthumous inductions of Mingus and Pastorius were:
Ray Brown - who signed the papers in Santa Monica
Richard Davis - us mail
Stanley Clarke - via mail from LA
John Entwistle - signed in person
Bill Wyman - through his attorney
Rufus Reid - I think I got the spelling right this time :)- via mail (I misspelled Rufus' name on the cover... 'Ried' Rufus wasn't happy Ennis understood.
Ron Carter - said that his verbal would be sufficient but somehow I ended up with signed papers...
Eddie Gomez - via mail
Dizzy Gillespie thought it was cool, too. I even got a call from Miles. Zappa signed off on the 1989/90 yearbook dedication page via fax... "OK - F.Z."
There were many more who had signed on from the HEAVY roster of seasoned jazz players.
They all knew Jaco and they knew the Rock players too.
But in the end I figured out what those three sevens actually were... if you look at them from a distance its a tetragram...
Signed: Bo, Drens, & First Bass Magazine, speaking of pulling everybody together... now about myself
