MULTIQUARIUM BIG BAND featuring Biréli Lagrène - Remembering Jaco
Naïve/Believe NJ7194
Stéphane Chause (alto sax, clarinet, bass clarinet); Lucas Saint-Criq (alto sax, soprano sax); Stéphane Guillaume (sorano sax, tenor sax, flute); Fréderick Borey (tenor sax); Fréderick Couderc (baritone sax); Claude Eléa, Pierre Drevet, Eric Poirier, Yves Le Carboulec (trumpet, flugelhorn); Denis Leloup, Damien Verberve, Philippe Georges (trombone); Didier Havet (bass trombone, tuba); Pierre Perchaud (guitar); Benoît Sourisse (piano, Hammond organ, Fender Rhodes); André Charlier (drums); Nicholas Charlier (percussion); guest: Yannick Boudruche (vocals on Fanny Mae); Special guests: Biréli Lagrène (fretless bass, all tracks); Peter Erskine (narration).
Recorded June 2019 Studio Gemini, Paris, France
Electric bass guitarists often refer to two eras – Before Jaco and After Jaco. Jaco Pastorius was undoubtedly one of the most inspiring and influential bass players of all time, and his influence continues to this day, some 33 years after his death. Pastorius burst onto the music scene in 1976 as part of a trio on Pat Metheny’s Bright Size Life album, and in the same year, released his eponymously-named solo album, with a line-up that included Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Lenny White, Don Alias, and Michael and Randy Brecker. Its brilliance stunned listeners, not least every bass player who heard it.
Pastorius played electric fretless bass, although contrary to some stories, he was not the first musician to do so (Ralphe Armstrong and Alphonso Johnson, for example, were playing fretless bass before him). But there is no doubt that Pastorius changed the way many musicians approached the instrument. The opening number on the 1976 solo album was Charlie Parker’s Donna Lee, which featured just bass and conga. Pastorius’s bass took the place of Parker’s alto sax, with the bassist playing the changes at blistering speed. On the track Portrait of Tracy, Pastorius’s use of false harmonics transformed the sound of the bass. Pastorius’s gift for melody, perfect intonation, superb compositional and arrangement skills, and sheer technical brilliance influenced countless bassists.
As Pat Metheny noted in his liner notes for the re-release of Jaco’s 1976 album, “Jaco Pastorius may well have been the last jazz musician of the 20th Century to have made a musical impact on the musical world at large. Everywhere you go, sometimes it seems like a dozen times a day, in the most unlikely places you hear Jaco’s sound; from the latest TV commercial to bass players of all stripes copping his licks on recordings of all styles, from news broadcasts to famous rock and roll bands, from hip-hop samples to personal tribute albums, you hear the echoes of that unmistakable sound everywhere.”
Pastorius’s profile was raised even higher when he played with Weather Report between 1976 and 1982, his brilliance and showmanship catapulting the band from clubs to massive venues. He also recorded a string of albums and toured with Joni Mitchell. But it often seems that the price paid for artistic brilliance is mental instability, and Pastorius suffered from bipolar disorder. This condition, coupled with his use of alcohol and drugs, saw Pastorius’s life spiral downwards, to the point where he was homeless and couldn’t get any gigs. His erratic behaviour led to a confrontation with a night club bouncer, who beat him up and killed him. Pastorius was just 35 years old.
Since then, there has been a slew of tribute songs and albums dedicated to Pastorius, not to mention a major biography by jazz writer Bill Milkowski, and an excellent film documentary by Robert Trujillo (Metallica’s bassist). Now, we have this tribute album. But should the jazz world be moving on from Jaco? Bassist Jeff Berlin thinks so. In 2002, he told Bass Inside magazine, “I am astonished at the continuous supply of Jaco records, ‘this song is for Jaco’ ‘this is Jaco's birthday’, ‘this is Jaco's whatever’. If I hear one more version of Continuum or one more version of Teen Town from a bass player not accepting that the man has been dead for 15 years! It is time to MOVE ON! Seek out something in your musical life that comes from you! …we bass players have put entirely too much emphasis on his contributions…. I feel that the mourning should be left to his family and friends now. But we as bass players get off that goddamn Jaco Pastorius bandwagon and move on! Find something in ourselves. We did not become bass players so that we could become 'Jacophiles'.”
He has a point, although this writer veers more towards the opinion of Marcus Miller, quoted in the Word of Mouth Revisited tribute album, “Most musicians that I know absolutely appreciate the contribution Jaco made to music…it’s up to us to make sure folks don’t forget.”
And this album certainly doesn’t allow anyone to forget Jaco’s legacy. The Multiquarium Big Band is a French big band, led by drummer André Charlier and pianist Benoît Sourisse. For this project, the band teamed up with guitarist Biréli Lagrène, a music prodigy, who began playing the guitar at four, made his debut at the Montreux Jazz Festival when he was 13, and released his first album the following year. Lagrène started out as the heir apparent to Django Reinhart, but later gravitated to the electric guitar.
Lagrène’s talents have seen him playing with a swathe of jazz artists including, John McLaughlin, Al Di Meola, Benny Carter, Benny Goodman, Stanley Jordan, Larry Coryell, Charlie Haden, Miroslav Vitouš, Stanley Clarke, and the Gil Evans Orchestra. He also has a strong Pastorius connection. In the early 1980s, Lagrène was playing at Ronnie Scott’s, when he picked up a copy of Pastorius’s album. It inspired him to purchase a fretless bass.
Lagrène and Pastorius also met in New York in the early 1980s and became friends. In 1986, Lagrène – aged just 19 - joined Pastorius and drummer Thomas Böröcz on a European tour. Lagrène and Pastorius also recorded an album together, Stuggart Aria. It is no surprise then that the death of Pastorius deeply affected Lagrène, who has done much to keep the Jaco flame alive. His 1988 album, Foreign Affairs, included the track Timothee, which featured a fretless bass solo by Lagrène. The following track, Josef, was clearly inspired by Weather Report. In 2018, Lagrène played two sell-out shows at Ronnie Scott’s, which celebrated the life and music of Pastorius. And he has played Jaco tribute concerts with the Multiquarium Big Band.
Remembering Jaco features nine music tracks taken from Jaco’s solo and Weather Report repetoire. Three of them – (Used To Be A) Cha Cha, Continuum and Kuru/Speak Like A Child are from Jaco Pastorius; Liberty City (intro)/Invitation and Fannie Mae from Invitation, while the four Weather Report tunes are Barbary Coast (Black Market), Teen Town and Palladium (Heavy Weather), and Three Views Of A Secret (Night Passage). Completists might be interested to know that the special vinyl version of this album has four extra tracks including, Jaco’s concert favourite The Chicken, plus three improvised pieces. Interspersed between the tracks are four spoken word interludes that feature Peter Erskine reminiscing about Jaco, both as a man and a musician. His words are clearly from the heart and very moving.
The opening music track, (Used To Be A) Cha Cha is both dramatic and exciting, with Lagrène’s driving bass line accompanied by an energetic horn section. The multiple horn lines criss-cross each other, sometimes combining; other times colliding – it’s an exhilarating sound. Indeed, the (uncredited) horn arrangements on the whole album are superb. What’s more, while Lagrène solos on a few tracks, and his bass playing is highlighted on numbers such as Continuum and Teen Town, for the most part he is in the background, laying down a deep groove and propelling the music.
Barbary Coast really swings and features a fierce alto sax solo by Lucas Saint-Criq, followed by a long, fluent piano solo by Benoît Sourisse. There’s also a neat jazz guitar riff played by Pierre Perchaud, which reminded this listener of John Scofield. Liberty City comprises of a 22-second intro before it segues into Invitation. The original version by the Word of Mouth Big Band was played at a furious speed, featuring steel drums and harmonica. This version is another highlight for the excellent horn section, with solos from Denis Leloup and Stéphane Guillaume on trombone and soprano sax respectively. Lagrène also demonstrates his prowess on the fretless bass with a short solo, and there’s a lively drum/percussion break featuring drummer André Charlier and son Nicolas hitting an assortment of percussion.
Kuru/Speak Like A Child is another showcase for the piano playing of Benoît Sourisse, who wisely avoids copying Herbie Hancock, who played on the original version. The elegant Three Views Of A Secret not only slows down the tempo, but shows what a gifted composer Jaco was. This mid-tempo jazz waltz includes a clarinet solo from Stéphane Guillaume. Palladium has long been a favourite Weather Report tune of this reviewer and it’s nice to report that the Multiquarium Big Band produces a rattling good version of it, with yet another rousing solo by Stéphane Guillaume, this time on tenor sax, and a spirited trumpet solo by Pierre Drevet near the coda.
The album ends on a light note, with Fannie Mae, a concert favourite for Jaco. Vocalist Yannick Boudruche delivers a gutsy performance and the whole tune - complete with Jimmy Smith-like Hammond organ playing from Benoît Sourisse and trombone solo by Damien Verberve’s - brings a smile to your face. It’s exactly the right way to remember Jaco. Whereas some Jaco Pastorius tribute albums have focused on his virtuosity as a bass player, this album goes beyond that, and informs you of what a superb composer and arranger he was too. It’s a fitting tribute to a man who changed the face of music and continues to do so today.
Reviewed by George Cole
Naïve/Believe NJ7194
Stéphane Chause (alto sax, clarinet, bass clarinet); Lucas Saint-Criq (alto sax, soprano sax); Stéphane Guillaume (sorano sax, tenor sax, flute); Fréderick Borey (tenor sax); Fréderick Couderc (baritone sax); Claude Eléa, Pierre Drevet, Eric Poirier, Yves Le Carboulec (trumpet, flugelhorn); Denis Leloup, Damien Verberve, Philippe Georges (trombone); Didier Havet (bass trombone, tuba); Pierre Perchaud (guitar); Benoît Sourisse (piano, Hammond organ, Fender Rhodes); André Charlier (drums); Nicholas Charlier (percussion); guest: Yannick Boudruche (vocals on Fanny Mae); Special guests: Biréli Lagrène (fretless bass, all tracks); Peter Erskine (narration).
Recorded June 2019 Studio Gemini, Paris, France
Electric bass guitarists often refer to two eras – Before Jaco and After Jaco. Jaco Pastorius was undoubtedly one of the most inspiring and influential bass players of all time, and his influence continues to this day, some 33 years after his death. Pastorius burst onto the music scene in 1976 as part of a trio on Pat Metheny’s Bright Size Life album, and in the same year, released his eponymously-named solo album, with a line-up that included Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Lenny White, Don Alias, and Michael and Randy Brecker. Its brilliance stunned listeners, not least every bass player who heard it.
Pastorius played electric fretless bass, although contrary to some stories, he was not the first musician to do so (Ralphe Armstrong and Alphonso Johnson, for example, were playing fretless bass before him). But there is no doubt that Pastorius changed the way many musicians approached the instrument. The opening number on the 1976 solo album was Charlie Parker’s Donna Lee, which featured just bass and conga. Pastorius’s bass took the place of Parker’s alto sax, with the bassist playing the changes at blistering speed. On the track Portrait of Tracy, Pastorius’s use of false harmonics transformed the sound of the bass. Pastorius’s gift for melody, perfect intonation, superb compositional and arrangement skills, and sheer technical brilliance influenced countless bassists.
As Pat Metheny noted in his liner notes for the re-release of Jaco’s 1976 album, “Jaco Pastorius may well have been the last jazz musician of the 20th Century to have made a musical impact on the musical world at large. Everywhere you go, sometimes it seems like a dozen times a day, in the most unlikely places you hear Jaco’s sound; from the latest TV commercial to bass players of all stripes copping his licks on recordings of all styles, from news broadcasts to famous rock and roll bands, from hip-hop samples to personal tribute albums, you hear the echoes of that unmistakable sound everywhere.”
Pastorius’s profile was raised even higher when he played with Weather Report between 1976 and 1982, his brilliance and showmanship catapulting the band from clubs to massive venues. He also recorded a string of albums and toured with Joni Mitchell. But it often seems that the price paid for artistic brilliance is mental instability, and Pastorius suffered from bipolar disorder. This condition, coupled with his use of alcohol and drugs, saw Pastorius’s life spiral downwards, to the point where he was homeless and couldn’t get any gigs. His erratic behaviour led to a confrontation with a night club bouncer, who beat him up and killed him. Pastorius was just 35 years old.
Since then, there has been a slew of tribute songs and albums dedicated to Pastorius, not to mention a major biography by jazz writer Bill Milkowski, and an excellent film documentary by Robert Trujillo (Metallica’s bassist). Now, we have this tribute album. But should the jazz world be moving on from Jaco? Bassist Jeff Berlin thinks so. In 2002, he told Bass Inside magazine, “I am astonished at the continuous supply of Jaco records, ‘this song is for Jaco’ ‘this is Jaco's birthday’, ‘this is Jaco's whatever’. If I hear one more version of Continuum or one more version of Teen Town from a bass player not accepting that the man has been dead for 15 years! It is time to MOVE ON! Seek out something in your musical life that comes from you! …we bass players have put entirely too much emphasis on his contributions…. I feel that the mourning should be left to his family and friends now. But we as bass players get off that goddamn Jaco Pastorius bandwagon and move on! Find something in ourselves. We did not become bass players so that we could become 'Jacophiles'.”
He has a point, although this writer veers more towards the opinion of Marcus Miller, quoted in the Word of Mouth Revisited tribute album, “Most musicians that I know absolutely appreciate the contribution Jaco made to music…it’s up to us to make sure folks don’t forget.”
And this album certainly doesn’t allow anyone to forget Jaco’s legacy. The Multiquarium Big Band is a French big band, led by drummer André Charlier and pianist Benoît Sourisse. For this project, the band teamed up with guitarist Biréli Lagrène, a music prodigy, who began playing the guitar at four, made his debut at the Montreux Jazz Festival when he was 13, and released his first album the following year. Lagrène started out as the heir apparent to Django Reinhart, but later gravitated to the electric guitar.
Lagrène’s talents have seen him playing with a swathe of jazz artists including, John McLaughlin, Al Di Meola, Benny Carter, Benny Goodman, Stanley Jordan, Larry Coryell, Charlie Haden, Miroslav Vitouš, Stanley Clarke, and the Gil Evans Orchestra. He also has a strong Pastorius connection. In the early 1980s, Lagrène was playing at Ronnie Scott’s, when he picked up a copy of Pastorius’s album. It inspired him to purchase a fretless bass.
Lagrène and Pastorius also met in New York in the early 1980s and became friends. In 1986, Lagrène – aged just 19 - joined Pastorius and drummer Thomas Böröcz on a European tour. Lagrène and Pastorius also recorded an album together, Stuggart Aria. It is no surprise then that the death of Pastorius deeply affected Lagrène, who has done much to keep the Jaco flame alive. His 1988 album, Foreign Affairs, included the track Timothee, which featured a fretless bass solo by Lagrène. The following track, Josef, was clearly inspired by Weather Report. In 2018, Lagrène played two sell-out shows at Ronnie Scott’s, which celebrated the life and music of Pastorius. And he has played Jaco tribute concerts with the Multiquarium Big Band.
Remembering Jaco features nine music tracks taken from Jaco’s solo and Weather Report repetoire. Three of them – (Used To Be A) Cha Cha, Continuum and Kuru/Speak Like A Child are from Jaco Pastorius; Liberty City (intro)/Invitation and Fannie Mae from Invitation, while the four Weather Report tunes are Barbary Coast (Black Market), Teen Town and Palladium (Heavy Weather), and Three Views Of A Secret (Night Passage). Completists might be interested to know that the special vinyl version of this album has four extra tracks including, Jaco’s concert favourite The Chicken, plus three improvised pieces. Interspersed between the tracks are four spoken word interludes that feature Peter Erskine reminiscing about Jaco, both as a man and a musician. His words are clearly from the heart and very moving.
The opening music track, (Used To Be A) Cha Cha is both dramatic and exciting, with Lagrène’s driving bass line accompanied by an energetic horn section. The multiple horn lines criss-cross each other, sometimes combining; other times colliding – it’s an exhilarating sound. Indeed, the (uncredited) horn arrangements on the whole album are superb. What’s more, while Lagrène solos on a few tracks, and his bass playing is highlighted on numbers such as Continuum and Teen Town, for the most part he is in the background, laying down a deep groove and propelling the music.
Barbary Coast really swings and features a fierce alto sax solo by Lucas Saint-Criq, followed by a long, fluent piano solo by Benoît Sourisse. There’s also a neat jazz guitar riff played by Pierre Perchaud, which reminded this listener of John Scofield. Liberty City comprises of a 22-second intro before it segues into Invitation. The original version by the Word of Mouth Big Band was played at a furious speed, featuring steel drums and harmonica. This version is another highlight for the excellent horn section, with solos from Denis Leloup and Stéphane Guillaume on trombone and soprano sax respectively. Lagrène also demonstrates his prowess on the fretless bass with a short solo, and there’s a lively drum/percussion break featuring drummer André Charlier and son Nicolas hitting an assortment of percussion.
Kuru/Speak Like A Child is another showcase for the piano playing of Benoît Sourisse, who wisely avoids copying Herbie Hancock, who played on the original version. The elegant Three Views Of A Secret not only slows down the tempo, but shows what a gifted composer Jaco was. This mid-tempo jazz waltz includes a clarinet solo from Stéphane Guillaume. Palladium has long been a favourite Weather Report tune of this reviewer and it’s nice to report that the Multiquarium Big Band produces a rattling good version of it, with yet another rousing solo by Stéphane Guillaume, this time on tenor sax, and a spirited trumpet solo by Pierre Drevet near the coda.
The album ends on a light note, with Fannie Mae, a concert favourite for Jaco. Vocalist Yannick Boudruche delivers a gutsy performance and the whole tune - complete with Jimmy Smith-like Hammond organ playing from Benoît Sourisse and trombone solo by Damien Verberve’s - brings a smile to your face. It’s exactly the right way to remember Jaco. Whereas some Jaco Pastorius tribute albums have focused on his virtuosity as a bass player, this album goes beyond that, and informs you of what a superb composer and arranger he was too. It’s a fitting tribute to a man who changed the face of music and continues to do so today.
Reviewed by George Cole
