Re: Looping in prehistory

[Tim Nelson <psychle62@yahoo.com>]

--- Warren Sirota <wsirota@wsdesigns.com> wrote:

> I don't know what [Jaco] was using - you can't see
much
> of it - but it was
> really surprising and cool to be watching this great
> music and suddenly see a looper!

>From Guitar Player, 1984:

As Jaco described the effect, "I've got an MXR Digital
Delay, which I put through one amp, leaving the other
amp clean, to cause a natural sort of vibrato. I'ts
almost like an organ Leslie [rotating speaker] effect
or flanger. A good example of that effect is the title
cut from the 8:30 album, or the tune 'Continuum' from
the live Invitation album. I also used that effect a
lot on the Joni Mitchell records, particularly on
'Coyote' and 'Hejira' on Hejira, or 'Goodbye Pork Pie
Hat' and 'God Must be A Boogie Man' on Mingus."

and

Bill Milkowski, in his Pastorius biography, describes
a typical Jaco solo showcase like this:

    During Joni [Mitchell's] road show, Jaco was
featured in a solo bass spot every night. Using the
repeat function of an MXR Digital Delay, he would lay
down an ostinato, loop it, and then play solo lines on
top of the repeating riff. As he played, he would--of
course--slide around the stage on the baby powder
sprinkled beneath his feet, and he would often get the
crowd to clap along with the beat while he danced and
strutted his James Brown moves. As the solo gathered
speed, Jaco would turn up the built-in fuzz tone of
his Acoustic 360 amplifier full blast and launch into
an explosion of feedback, quoting from Jimi Hendrix's
"Third Stone from the Sun" and "The Star-Spangled
Banner" along the way. He would then climax his
showcase by laying his bass down on the stage (pickups
still howling), climbing on top of his amp, and
jumping onto his instrument. Sometimes he would
mockingly whip the bass into submission with his
guitar strap, like some sort of comical Marquis de
Sade. 

-t-


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