More to come, I am remodeling the old website.
Introduction
In 1984, I found on a bulletin board at the Music Department of the University of Puerto Rico, a brochure announcing a worldwide guitar conference in the Caribbean island of Martinique. I read on page 3 and page 4 that Jaco would be teaching bass guitar. I made the necessary arrangements to participate in this unique event.
Day One
Monday, December 10, 1984
Jaco arrived in the classroom at 9:30 A.M. "This is not my amp. I don't know what this feedback is all about". After adjusting the sound of a Peavey 400 amp connected to a Bose speaker cabinet, Jaco started tuning and warming up with scales, melodies such as Donna Lee and other original bass lines. Jaco played Round Trip/Broadway Blues. "Next... groove stuff. I just got off the plane, you know. The weather, you know. So what's up. Anything? Any questions?
Let's start, you know". Jaco looked very tired. He had the fretless bass that he uses the most. "How many people here are bass players"? There were about 30 students in the small classroom, the majority were bass players.
The morning session covered:
1) His approach to diatonic vs. chromatic improvisation
2) Jaco explained and played example that he wrote on blackboard.
3) Vibrato techniques for fretted vs. fretless bass/guitar
4) E flat harmonic fingering used in Portrait of Tracy
5) The instrument strings, fingerboard coating, 1962 Fender Jazz bass and mentioned that his fretted bass neck was broken. He played Donna Lee slowly.
6) False harmonics technique
7) He played the beginning of Birdland.
8) Talked about his compositions.
9) He played Continuum.