Jaco – The Film (2014), A Documentary On Jaco Pastorius

‘Jaco – The Film‘ is the title of a 2014 biographical film/documentary on the magnificent and amazing life and musical career of American innovative, revolutionary, genius, extraordinarily talented, and super creative virtuoso bassist Jaco Pastorius, also known for his time in the legendary American jazz fusion/jazz rock band Weather Report during the 1970s and 1980s.

Jaco – The Film (2014), a must see documentary film by any bassist, either aspiring or well-experienced as well as by any true jazz rock/jazz fusion fan. Image source: www.raiplay.it

The documentary film focuses on both the amazing life and tragic death of fantastic Jaco Pastorius, also revolving around accounts on this legendary 20th century American musical personality from musicians who had either collaborated with him during his lifetime or appreciated him tremendously (or both, actually).

As such, the musical guests of the documentary including the following great musicians: Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter (fellow Weather Report bandmate during the late 1970s and early 1980s), Sting (former frontman of The Police), Joni Mitchell, Carlos Santana (who had also collaborated with Weather Report on their last studio album entitled ‘This is This!‘ which was released in 1986), Jerry Jemmott, Jonas Hellborg, Bootsy Collins, and Flea (best known as the bassist in the legendary American alternative rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers or RHCP for short).

‘Jaco – The Film‘ was directed by Paul Marchand in collaboration with Stephen Kijak while being produced by iconic metal bassist Robert Trujillo of Metallica along with John Battsek from British production film company Passion Pictures. In addition, Roger de Giacomi was in charge of cinematography. Lastly, the film was also edited by Paul Marchand, the main director.

Officially released on 22 November 2014 with a total running time of 110 minutes, the documentary film was well to very well received by such publications such as The New York Times or Decider, noted for its compassionate and illuminating essence by the former and, respectively, by its engaging and interesting vibe by the latter. Additionally, Mr. Big bassist Billy Sheehan mentioned that it is a wonderful film but that it also focused on some eccentricities more than it should’ve had.

Either way, we can be certain of many positive things about Jaco and, most notably, if Joni Mitchell says something good about you then I personally think that says the most about you, for real! If Joni says that you’re an original, than you better believe her! And in the case of Jaco, she was absolutely right! Joni always liked originals! In these regards (and many more while we are at it) I wholeheartedly invite you to watch the following official trailer down below. I truly hope you will enjoy it and that you will watch the entire film as well! You can purchase it on Amazon right here! All the best!

Documentation sources and external links:

• Jaco – The Film on www.wikipedia.org (in English)
• Profile page for the documentary on IMDb
• Official documentary page on Jaco’s official website
• Jaco Pastorius in memoriam t-shirt on www.aliexpress.com