Jaco Pastorius 1981 Caricature

Jaco Pastorius 1981 Caricature, illustrated here in Florida, in 1981, age 29.

Jaco Pastorius was an American jazz bass guitarist who was a member of the jazz fusion band Weather Report from 1976 to 1981.
He worked with Pat Metheny, Joni Mitchell, and recorded albums as a solo artist and band leader. His bass playing employed funk, lyrical solos, bass chords, and innovative harmonics.
He was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame in 1988, one of only seven bassists so honored (and the only electric bass guitarist).

In the early 1970s, Pastorius taught bass at the University of Miami, where he befriended jazz guitarist Pat Metheny, who was also on the faculty.

Pastorius suffered from drug addiction and mental health problems (he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in late 1982) throughout his professional life, and despite his widespread acclaim had problems over the latter part of his life holding down jobs due to his unreliability. In frequent financial trouble, he was often homeless throughout the mid 1980s.

Towards the end of his life, Pastorius apparently developed a self-destructive habit of provoking bar fights and allowing himself to be beaten up.
After sneaking onstage at a Carlos Santana concert on September 11, 1987 and being ejected from the premises, he made his way to the Midnight Bottle Club in Wilton Manors, Florida. He became engaged in a violent confrontation with the club’s bouncer, Luc Havan, who had a black belt in karate.
Pastorius was hospitalized for multiple facial fractures and injuries to his right eye and left arm and fell into a coma and died a few days later of a brain hemorrhage on September 21, 1987, age 35.

Pastorius has been lauded as one of the best electric bassists of all time.

His iconic bass, was his 1962 Fender Jazz Sunburst, a.k.a. the “Bass of Doom,” SN 64437.