Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter was released in 1977 as a double-LP, once again featuring Jaco’s lengendary bass work. Bringing in a group of jazz players such as Larry Carlton and Wayne Shorter, the album consists of many improvisational tracks. Shortly after the release of this album, Joni was contacted by Charles Mingus, which eventually led to her next album, Mingus.
Live & Unreleased
Released in October of 2002, this 2-CD release is a collection of live recordings from 1975-1983, featuring a wide variety of musicians that made up the group over the years. Jaco fans will be pleased with the number of tracks he performs on as well, including a live performance of “Portrait of Tracy”. This album was released to critical acclaim and is the first “new” music from Weather Report in many years.
Mr. Gone
Mr. Gone is one of those recordings which causes debate among fans of Weather Report and Jaco. The album features two Jaco compositions, including “River People” and “Punk Jazz”. Jaco elaborated about “River People” during an interview with the BBC’s Clive Williamson: “I have a tune, ‘River People’, and I wanted a certain kind of feel, so I decided to play drums on it. We were in a transformation period, I broke my right wrist and we had some time off, and just Joe and I were in the studio. So we did ‘River People’ that way, building the tune up on the spot. It was all written out, so all Joe had to do was play his parts, and I played mine, and it just all gelled together, and I did some overdubs. In fact, we played the bass parts together ‘coz he got this synth sound, sort of a little twang, almost like a little guitar on the top, with my bass rolling on the bottom. So we just played to the click track, and I went back and overdubbed the drums with that, as opposed to ‘Teen Town’ where I played the drums first, and overdubbed the bass part afterwards.”
Heavy Weather
Weather Report’s best-selling album is also Jaco’s first as a co-leader. Here, Zawinul’s mega hit “Birdland” leads off the album, followed by Jaco’s lyrical fretless work on “A Remark You Made” and Jaco’s own “Teen Town” (with Jaco on bass and drums). Jaco was nominated for a Grammy (Best Jazz Soloist) for his work on this album.