Is this Jaco's bass?

[Jason]

While surfing around for fretless pics I stumbled on this:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/jaco_jfap/pool/
What do we reckon? Is this his bass, or is it someone trying to make some money? I wonder if there is any one out there that knows the real truth, I read he had it stolen from him while he was down and out in New York, another report says he threw it into a harbour What we do know is that it has never shown up, I'm talking about the 62 jazz.

Any suggestions?

Jase.

[mick monger]

Hey Jason - I saw this awhile back. Many stories are out there......you'll see some interesting ones. Good question - they oughta build a church around it, if true. I just glommed on to the Jaco 1985 Modern Electric Bass instructional video. Alfred is the company that put it out....oh my garsht! What a wealth of playing, whadda bunch of information. It WILL recharge your batteries, it will inspire. Seldom these days does somebody live up to the hype - this guy reaffirms it all. You'll see the ton o chops, we've only heard up till this point. Too much info for the garden variety player, it was $35 bucks American, and worth every darn penny. He does scales, a couple of duets, and plays three-piece in this.
Man, am I glad they took the time to capture this! Best Wishes.....

[Jason]

Yeah I saw the Jaco video, too bad it's near the end of his life. There are some good techniques on there, even with all the problems he encountered you can still hear the unique approach coming through. Am I right in thinking this video was made at a time when Jaco was trying to get on top of his problems? As you're probably aware there is some great early stuff on YouTube, but sadly as in the case of Hendrix a lot of stuff captured was when Jaco's playing was a little under parr.

To go from the Weather Report days and earlier to the empty club he used to play with Mike Stern at, was it called the 55?, I can't remember seems quite sad.

Ah well, bass playing has moved on so much since Jaco made his mark, but if that mark hadn't been made 30 odd years ago maybe we'd all be playing something else...who knows?