“I can see its not going to be easy being me, ” in a forewarning tone of eventual doom, John Francis Pastorius III described the weight pressing down on him, through expectation. In the 1995 biography Jaco: The Extraordinary And Tragic Life of Jaco Pastorius, ‘The World's Greatest Bass Player,' the author, Bill Mikowski attempts to provide a personal recount of this widely admired bass player. The author is closely tied to the subject. This personal relationship can offer helpful insight into the mind of the subject as well as personal stories that would otherwise remain untold.
[...] In the opening chapter Jaco calls the author at his home and asks him to watch him play “America the Beautiful,” we learn, one of Jaco's favorite songs. The author includes many first hand recollections and quotes pulled directly from the subject, himself. This is helpful, great tactic to give the subject a voice and to also show continuity of opinion in how each person who saw him play was in awe of his abilities. The author fails, however, to provide a deep character analysis. [...]
[...] With the knowledge of Jaco's fate present across each page, the author is not successful in providing clear and appropriate reasoning for why Jaco shifted personality so dramatically to become a rock and roll cliché. Perhaps the author did not intend for the story to read like a year-by-year biography. Notably, it is not how Jaco eventually died that is important. The series of events that watched him spiral into his death are far more dramatic tools of storytelling. While providing a rough outline of Jaco's early life and family structure, the author largely skims over his subjects' developmental years. [...]
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