Jaco & Jimi: The Twin Towers
by Peter Weiss

The cult of personality is alive and well and living on planet Earth. And as celebrity bios on TV become epidemic, as with the Internet, cable, and the pop magazine craze, that famous fifteen minutes of media sunshine has never been easier to grab. But all of the attention lavished on everyone from the latest flash-in-the-pan heartthrobs to the lamest commercially produced puppet shows does make one wonder precisely what distinguishes the average tin-plated 'legend' from those that are truly 'solid gold.' Surely there's more to taking up residence in the legend 'hood' than just having attitude and high cheekbones.

In exploring this intriguing question, it might be instructive comparing the lives and accomplishments of two universally acknowledged 'real deal' legends to see just what it takes to create the kind of real impact and staying power that is, well, legendary.

Fretless-bass-titan Jaco Pastorius and Stratocaster-colossus Jimi Hendrix are two bona fide musical deities who are frequently mentioned in the same breath, and with good reason. They each did more than simply revolutionize their respective instruments; they imparted a philosophy of life onto their times: they lived for the music on the most primary level. In some intangible way, they each embody the 'spirit' of music, inspiring people in fundamental and vital ways that are strongly felt today. In comparing the arcs of their remarkable achievements, one finds that there are, in fact, many coincidences and similarities at play between these two giants, far more than one might have guessed.

So, for those of you with secret dreams of achieving cultural immortality, examine the following checklist of traits and patterns to see just how you measure up. If not exact requirements for entry into the 'Gallery of the True Greats,' let's just say that being the proud owner of a few of the following specs surely couldn't hurt. Keep your own score and no cheating.

1. What's Your Constellation?: It appears that being a Sagittarius is an excellent start - both Jimmy (11/27) and Jocko (12/1) took their first breath only days apart. With your fiery birth-sign that of the centaur aiming his passionate arrow skyward, you've taken the first symbolic step toward your impossible dream. Well done!

2. All in the Family: While you're at it, you might also be the oldest son and get named after your father. This in itself is a pretty common occurrence really, but if your dad also did some military service, and later exposed you to his killer record collection, you're starting to pull ahead of the game. Even if your parents' marriage breaks up while you're still pretty young and you're raised primarily by a woman, don't worry! Both Jocko's and Jimi's nuclear families ended in separations before they were ten.

3. Tasty Roots: Next you'll want to become a total R&B and Blues fanatic, listening to the radio constantly and learning the real music from the real peepuz. Keep an open mind as you're growing up and fix your laser-sharp focus on anything that grabs you, building your musical education from the streets. In your early career, be sure to sign-up for a tour-of -duty on the Chitins Circuit's front lines in a seasoned R&B road band - Jimi with Little Richard and the Isley Brothers and Jocko with Wayne Cochran & C.C. Riders and Lou Rawls. Learn everything from everybody, and in the process, become a walking, talking library of early Blues, Soul, and R&B tunes. Also, be prepared to take some heat for treading in the spotlight from the stars of these bands. Each of these precocious showboats had run-ins with egotistical headliners protecting their turf.

4. Wild Things Run Fast: You'll also need to possess an adventurous spirit with which to repeatedly test your limits. You might try high-diving head-first into bodies of water of unknown depths or riding on the hoods of speeding cars like Jocko, or maybe you could just test your mettle by signing-up to jump earthward out of airplanes for Uncle Sam like Jimi. Either way, you should be prepared for the inevitable broken bones that dare deviling demands. Both Jimi and Jocko sustained severe injuries to limbs during their teens - Jimi to his ankle and Jocko to his wrist - that completely reoriented their careers in music.

5. Tame the Beast: Whatever your ax of choice, you have to claim it for your very own through unique and personalized alterations - Jimi by deciding to switch his playing from right- to left-handed and re-stringing his guitar upside-down and Jocko by yanking the frets out of his bass and refinishing the neck with epoxy to create his signature fretless. Now comes the easy part: crawl inside the belly of the retooled beast and learn it at the Zen level, knowing where every note is on the neck and how to get from anywhere to anywhere else with ever-increasing poise, passion, and speed. Use everything. Invent an array of new techniques to express the eruption of ideas and emotions bursting out through your playing. It's also probably a good idea to use Fender instruments exclusively - Jimi with his famous Fender Stratocaster and Jocko with his trademark modified '62 Fender jazz.

6. What's in a Name?: Now remake your five-letter name into a four-letter version that's the same thing only better - bam! - Jimmy to Jimi and Jocko to Jaco - showing that you're now your own man and prepared to shape your own destiny, free of the shackles of the past, and ready to begin your long march to that ultimate Graceland where one name says it all.

7. You Got the Look: Next up, develop a totally distinctive personal style that breaks the mold and sets you apart from the crowd. Wear lots of screaming reds and yellows, shirts with eyeballs on them, sweaters that can be seen from three blocks away, headbands, feathers, scull-caps, war-paint, and of course, hair befitting a wild-child. Both of these legendary peacocks had one-of-a-kind personas that could be mistaken for no other.

8. Break on Through: Okay, so now you'll need to get yourself discovered. It appears that a good way is to get noticed and then produced by a rhythm-section member of an ex-super-group. Jimi's big break came when he was spotted by Animals' bass-player Chas Chandler in a small Greenwich Village night club and Jaco's when he blew-away Blood, Sweat, & Tears' drummer Bobby Colomby at a South Florida audition. Each of these professional partnerships paved the way for their first explosive arrivals into the big-time as front men.

9. Tunes of Glory: Once established, you'll have to create moments of imaginative and technical epiphany that can be recognized as your 'signature style,' preferably, it seems, solo performances based on patriotic anthems. Jimi's, of course, was his dive-bombing, anti-war rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" at Woodstock and Jaco's was his incredibly poignant, heartfelt, and harmonically gorgeous version of "America The Beautiful." Since it would be quite a tall order to outdo these milestone interpretations, you should look elsewhere. I believe "It's A Grand Old Flag" is still up for grabs.

10. Mothers of Reinvention: While you're at it, take your vast storehouse of musical knowledge and history and your transcendent yet hard-won mastery of your ax and completely reinvent the instrument in the popular imagination making it do things sonically that have never before been done, and in so doing making your career a cultural dividing-point between that which came before you and that which has come since. Be sure to include in your playing massive amounts of that elusive intangible known as 'heart' so that those who attempt to emulate you can cop the style and some of the licks, but can't lay a finger on your soul. Each of these creative tsunamis completely redefined the context of their respective instruments enlarging the emotional vocabulary and changing our collective musical landscape forever.

11. Carpe Diem: Having managed all of the above, make sure that you rise to any and all occasions presented to you, the bigger the better. Be ready to prove and reprove yourself with heroic performances that transcend instantly to mythical proportions leaving tens-of-thousands of transfixed spectators slack-jawed and awestruck.

12. September Mourn: Unfortunately, you'll likely need to book an early checkout time from the old “3rd-Stone from the Sun” Hotel, as each of these dynamic and singular forces of nature burned bright and short yet cast shadows far into the future. Having been born just days apart, amazingly, they each went off to the 'big jam-session' even closer - Jimi on 9/18 and Jaco on 9/21, a scant three-days! In creating your legacy, see to it that your productive career lasts only a handful of years, and that you accomplish everything while producing only three solo studio albums in your lifetime. Fortunately, you won't be around to see the inevitable substandard and embarrassing bootlegs and posthumous 'releases' offered in your honor to cash-in on your memory.

13. E=mc2: The legacy you leave behind will thus be absorbed and infused into the very texture and fabric of our lives and your impact will be felt permeating our collective awareness in uncountable, and unanticipated ways as you become an irrefutable 'given' - a piece of the furniture in the house of global music. At this point, your pervasive influence may be encountered absolutely anywhere informing and enriching us all.

And really, that's basically about it. Hopefully this quick-and-easy 'how-to' primer will assist you in your journey to ascend Rushmore. It is herewith guaranteed that by following the simple thirteen steps outlined above, you too will join the ranks of the truly monumental greats like Jimi Hendrix and Jaco Pastorius, earning the respect and winning the love of your fellows around the world. Good luck. Get busy. Break a leg!

Author's note:

At the time "Jimi & Jaco - Twin Towers" was written, my mood was rather lighthearted and the monolithic twin towers seemed like the perfect image to represent these two larger-than-life figures who stand head-and-shoulders above the pack. And because of their very dominance, and permanence, this piece comparing Jimi & Jaco needed a strong and meaningful image. Then upon remembering Jaco's classic proclamation that he and Jimi Hendrix built both World Trade Centers with their bare hands, the decision became clear. The Twin Towers in New York City was the perfect symbol for this feature. Unfortunately, as fate would have it, the heinous events of 9/11 brought the towers down, just as Jimi and Jaco were both brought down by cataclysmic events that were ultimately beyond their control. And yet, as with the towers, there they still stand - tall as ever - permanently seared into the skyline of our shared consciousness.

Coda:
Ironically, Jaco's fatal beating came after attending a Santana Concert in Fort Lauderdale. The date: 9/11, 1987.

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