Ingrid, what a thrilling time that must have been. No wonder Jaco looked so happy. To give you an idea of the joyousness of us mere mortals in the audience, I was with a group that included a bunch of musician friends of my "date," a guitarist and huge John McLoughlin fan, who all of a sudden goes, OH NO!...(Jaco's begun to take his shirt off)...OH NO JACO DON'T DO IT!...(shirt off a little more)and then O.M.G. HE'S DOING IT...I CAN'T TAKE IT!!! So here are he and these other guys all bug-eyed and acting as if they're questioning their sexuality. True love I guess and such fun! And so nice of WR to come to The Hague, so that afterward we were able to go straight to making the rounds of our hang-outs to brag about the great show we'd just seen.
Just recently someone I knew then posted a video from that tour on facebook, he'd been there too but with another group, and my date, as it were, that night responded that he had a crew pass and had been at the sound check that afternoon standing right between Jaco and Peter Erskine and how that was "to never forget." That I did not remember, he must have told me at the time but I wasn't there after all. So maybe you met my old pal!
FFW to NY, early '86, I think. Had I not been so intimidated I would have teased Jaco with my story, would have served him right too, sitting at my bar and picking on people. I couldn't understand the great celebrity sort of compromising my livelihood. I really regret not having been older and wiser. However it also pleased me to no end that he only picked on bullies. And when my boss walked in he picked on that nasty *******, who started drumming his fingers on the bar and Jaco said, oh are you a drummer??? This was all in an old-time neighborhood joint with a pool table but not a hair on his pretty little head got hurt. Hey, it wasn't that difficult, and for me it somehow makes the way Jaco died particularly galling.
I told your niece (I DO remember her name) that I would not write on this site because it would all be about me and now I have done it anyway. I hope you don't mind, needed to reflect a little. Thanks.
To clarify, until I found your site I had no knowledge of Jaco's background and family, or the details of the horrendous way he died. It really got to me. Now back to minding my own life. (Sorry about the ***** however it did not start with an a.) --H
