HEAVY 'N JAZZ

Heavy'n'Jazz is live album recorded by Jaco Pastorius power trio in Italy. And his last recorded performance. Two other trio members are excellent French musicians Serge Bringolf (drums) and guitarist Biréli Lagrène. Album's music is very different from Jaco's orchestrated or post-bop jazzy recordings. Music there is heavy fusion on it's best.

The very first composition is Coleman's "Broad Way Blues", 12:42 minutes long, full of improvisations and bass and drums soloing. Second song is medley, combined with guitarist Lagrène's composition "Bluma" and rock classic "Smoke On The Water". Amazing guitarist work! And Hendrix's songs medley there as well!

"The Star Spangled Banner" is a Jaco's moment, and he shows his bass abilities in full there. "Reza" is classic Pastorius song, but there it sounds different, more in rock key."Honestly" returns us back in Jaco's Weather Report time. Great jazzy bass line!

"Invitation" is electric guitar driven jazzy tune, but bass improves are important parts of all composition. Album finishes with producer's Jan Jankeje composition "Jaco's Reggae"- melodic pop-jazz tune.

Jaco Pastorius' legacy is great in many moments, but you will hardly find there full album as strong as this one. Excellent entrance to his music as well.

It is of no secret that Jaco had a serious problem with alcohol addiction. That in turn led to his untimely death at the hands of a bouncer at a Fort Lauderdale establishment.

A Jazz-Rock fan, I spent a small fortune on obtaining most of his seriously overpriced live recordings. Most of them were a flop, a disappointment and this one is only marginally better than the rest.

This trio of badly mis-matched musicians lacks cohesion, let alone direction. Pastorius, no matter how intoxicated he may be delivers his flawless bass line as if second nature. The only thing is missing - inspiration. Nothing really wrong with the delivery, it just fails to impress.

Lagrene on the other hand is more into showing off his Heavy-Rock, bordering on Speed- Metal licks , licks that don't really match the compositions. These two cats may share admiration for Hendrix, but their individual approach couldn't be more different. The end result is not very impressive.

The drumming comes across as quite ordinary, just keeping the beat, but nothing much more. Nothing to make me to look out for other recordings with his participation.

I am rather partial to good "jamming", but this performance is one of those that gives "jamming" a bad name. Indulgent and directionless, but still, slightly better than most other live recordings by Jaco.

Can't quite offer it 4 as I couldn't call it excellent, but it's certainly above 3 - if only marginally.