Christmas Cheer

Hope your respective Christmasi (or whatever the plural of Christmas is) were magnificent. I received approximately three times as much as I deserved in gifts, which surely is some sort of inverted measurement of how good I’ve been this year. Gifts of note: two DVDs that I’ve wanted for a few years, being “James Taylor Live at the Beacon Theatre” and “Jaco Pastorius: Modern Electric Bass”.

A couple of notes: even if you despise James Taylor, this video is a must-see. The opening tune, “You Can Close Your Eyes” is worth the price of the entire DVD. Opening a concert with an acapella number (yeah, I know, calling four part harmony with guitar “acapella” is technically wrong) is risky, but in this case it really comes off perfectly. Surely one of the best concerts ever put on, anywhere. James looks like he’s really having a great time, and he should be, if he can hear half of what the recorded sound is like in his headset.



Jaco, on the other hand, looks like he’s forgotten to take his morning dose of smack. He’s shaky, pale, disjointed in what he’s saying, obsessively scratching his cheek…all the classic cold turkey symptoms. He has trouble playing some older passages. But despite all of that, he’s still incredible. I mean, he’s fucking Jaco Pastorius, right? The video comes with a booklet filled with exercises that Jaco performs in the video, many of which are not song-specific. I wish I’d had this video when I started playing bass. I’d still suck, but I’d have a better idea of why.