Jaco Pastorius Quotes & Sayings

I'm not a star. I'm just backing up the cats. — Jaco Pastorius

I'm not a star. I'll never be a Frank Sinatra or Elvis Presley or a Ray Charles. I'm just an imitator, man. I'm doing a very bad imitation on the bass of Jerry Jemmott, Bernard Odum, Jimmy Fielder, Jimmy Blanton, Igor Stravinsky, Jimi Hendrix, John Coltrane, James Brown, Charlie Parker ... the cats, man. I'm just backing up the cats. — Jaco Pastorius

Music is in the air; it's my job to pull it out. — Jaco Pastorius

Music is the only thing keeping the planet together — Jaco Pastorius

All you've got to do is keep your ears open. — Jaco Pastorius

The secret to the sound is to drop the bass on the floor! — Jaco Pastorius

I took the frets out of my bass after I was getting into jazz a lot and I wanted to have that upright sound. — Jaco Pastorius

A chimpanzee could learn what I do physically, but it goes way beyond that. When you play, you play life. — Jaco Pastorius

Women and rhythm-section first!? — Jaco Pastorius

It's really easy to play harmonics, anyone can do it. It's another thing to be able to swing, to make to make a band swing, to create a groove. Harmonics ain't everything. Being able to play harmonics certainly does not make you a good bass player. Cleverness is no substitute for true awareness. — Jaco Pastorius

Trumpets! Can you bring your ... uh ... extracurricular tubing necessities next rehearsal? — Jaco Pastorius