Pastorius spent the last several years of his life searching for a label to release Holiday for Pans, to no avail. At the time of the bassist's death in 1987, the tapes were left in the possession of engineer Kenny Jackel.[2] Against the wishes of the Pastorius family,[3] Jackel sold the recordings to Japanese record label Sound Hills, which released the album in 1993.[3] To date, the album remains unreleased in the United States, although the website of the Pastorius estate now appears to recognize the album.[4]The Penguin Guide to Jazz has labeled the recording "by far the most imaginative project Pastorius ever undertook."[5]
Recording
The sessions for Holiday for Pans took place between 1980 and 1982 in at least three New York City recording studios: The Power Station, KCC Studio, and Jingle Studio.[6] The sessions were produced by Pastorius and Peter Yianilos. The album serves to highlight the steel drum playing of Othello Molineaux, who had become associated with Pastorius shortly after the musician relocated to New York in the mid-1970s. Molineaux performed on many of Pastorius' albums, including his self-titled album, Word of Mouth, Twins and Invitation.[7] Molineaux is now credited as one of the first steel drum artists to break ground in the American jazz scene.[7]
There are disputing accounts regarding the status of Holiday for Pans, with some sources claiming that the record is no more than crude demo tapes, or that it was possibly intended as an Othello Molineaux solo album (with Pastorius' name to be attached as a producer and collaborator). However, Bill Milkowski's 1995 biography of Pastorius clearly asserts that the musician intended Holiday for Pans to be his third solo album, and tried in vain for most of the 1980s to secure a release for the record.[8]
Holiday for Pans was intended as a follow-up to Pastorius' 1981 Warner Bros. release Word of Mouth. However, Word of Mouth garnered lukewarm sales, cooling his relationship with the company. In addition, Pastorius' behavior became increasingly erratic as the 1980s moved forward, due to a combination of the musician's undiagnosed bipolar disorder and a growing substance abuse problem.[9] His actions began to concern those who worked for Warner Bros., concert promoters, as well as the musicians with whom he performed.
Ricky Schultz, one of the record executives responsible for signing Jaco to Warner Bros., stated that the label was "expecting something more in the commercial fusion genre, like Return to Forever or something along the lines of Weather Report's Mr. Gone. But Holiday for Pans was extremely esoteric — it was basically a vehicle for Othello Molineaux that Jaco had produced. It wasn't very well received by the powers at the label."[2] To recoup their losses on the project, Warner Bros. instead released Invitation in 1983, a live album composed primarily of cover songs.
Search for new label
During a May 1983 interview for Guitar World, a scattered Pastorius mentioned his excitement over the project: "I have a record you will not believe: Holiday for Pans, which I adapted from David Rose's "Holiday for Strings" and arranged for Othello Molineaux, the steel drum player who's with me on Word of Mouth."[10] In the same interview, he made the dubious claim that he had funded the recordings himself, stating, "...I have about twenty-four master tapes that I paid for myself."[10]
Following the rejection by Warner Bros., the Holiday for Pans project laid dormant for approximately four years. For some period of time, the master tapes were stranded in a friend's van, which had been impounded in a New Jersey tow-yard.[8] In 1986, during a 17-week stay at Bellevue Hospital, Pastorius began obsessing over the tapes, believing that they were the key to his commercial comeback. After securing a day-pass release from Bellevue, Pastorius mixed down Holiday for Pans at "a small jingle studio on the Upper East Side," with Kenny Jackel engineering.[11] Pastorius left the master tapes in Jackel's possession, instructing him: "Don't give them up to anybody except me."[11] The tapes remained in a closet at Jackel's studio for several years.[12]
During the final months of his life, Pastorius attempted to shop Holiday for Pans around to various labels. He instructed writer and friend Bill Milkowski to dub cassettes of the rough mixes created at Jackel's studio for submission to different record companies.[12] Ultimately, Pastorius was unsuccessful in finding another label to release Holiday for Pans.[13] While he still guested on various releases during the mid-1980s, Pastorius' behavior and deteriorated professional relationships prevented him from securing another record contract before his death in 1987.
Japanese release
In 1993, Billboard reported that the head of Japanese label Sound Hills Records (owned by distribution company Super Stop) paid cash for the Holiday for Pans master tapes; Sound Hills released the album in Japan on April 26, 1993. The label would go on to press Holiday for Pans several more times over the years: as The Full Complete Sessions 3-CD set in 1999 (featuring several outtakes), and again as The Comprehensive Brand New Edition in 2001 (featuring one outtake). [14][15]
The Billboard article notes that the family was joined by Molineaux and Yianilos in pursuing legal action to recover the master tapes, and had requested the FBI's assistance in banning import or sale of the Sounds Hill pressing of Holiday for Pans within the United States.[3]
However, on his website, Othello Molineaux collaborator Rich Lamanna noted that engineer Terry James had spoken to him about the Holiday for Pans recordings: "Mr. Jackel tried very hard to bring the tapes back to the family and was rejected every time as the project owed money to about four different studios who were not going to release the tapes without being paid. "No musicians were ever added to replace Jaco... What happened after the tapes went to Japan was just a case of lousy mixing."[16]
Reception
AllMusic summed up the Holiday for Pans saga in their review, noting: "In 1986, Pastorius remixed four of the tracks, but years later (after his death).
In their 1994 review, The Penguin Guide to Jazz gave the record four stars, labeling it "an oddity, but a rather marvelous one. The imaginative use of steel drums is a throw-back to the bassist's Florida upbringing."[5] They ended by saying that although Holiday for Pans is "idiosyncratic in the extreme, it's by far the most imaginative project Pastorius ever undertook."[5] In 1999, The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz also gave Holiday for Pans a four-star review.[17] Writing for The Rough Guide to Jazz in 2004, Ian Carr selected Holiday for Pans as one of three touchstone recordings by Pastorius that readers should seek out. Carr describes the album as "Pastorius in collaboration with Michael Gibbs and an ensemble which includes the great Toots Thielemans, in a joyfully creative orchestral deployment of West Indian steel drums."[18]
Not all reviews were as warm. In their 1994 review, Gramophone called the title track "a rather ghastly reworking of 'Holiday for Strings.'"[19]
Legacy
In 2003, "Good Morning Anya", was included on the Warner Bros./Rhino Records compilation Punk Jazz: The Jaco Pastorius anthology, a collection that brought "together rarities, live tracks, and material recorded for several different labels";[9] the release marked the first time any music from Holiday for Pans was released in an official capacity.[20]
The 1993 pressing of Holiday for Pans is now recognized on Jaco Pastorius' official website.[4]
John Francis "Jaco" Pastorius III was an American jazz bassist, composer, and producer. He recorded albums as a solo artist and band leader and was a member of the jazz fusion group Weather Report from 1976 to 1981. He also collaborated with numerous artists, including Pat Metheny and Joni Mitchell.
Yellowjackets is an American jazz fusion band founded in 1977 in Los Angeles, California.
Word of Mouth is the second solo studio album by American bassist Jaco Pastorius, released in 1981, while he was still a member of the jazz fusion group Weather Report, and also the name of a big band that Pastorius assembled and with which he toured from 1981 to 1983.
Heavy Weather is the seventh album by Weather Report, released in 1977 through Columbia Records. The release sold about 500,000 copies; it would prove to be the band's most commercially successful album and one of the best sellers in the Columbia jazz catalog. DownBeat magazine gave Heavy Weather a 5-star review, and later its readers voted it jazz album of the year.
Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Isidor, Baron Thielemans, known professionally as Toots Thielemans, was a Belgian jazz musician. He was mostly known for playing the chromatic harmonica, as well as his guitar and whistling skills, and composing. According to jazz historian Ted Gioia, his most important contribution was in "championing the humble harmonica", which Thielemans made into a "legitimate voice in jazz". He eventually became the "preeminent" jazz harmonica player.
Jaco Pastorius is the debut solo album by Jaco Pastorius, released in 1976 by Epic Records. The album was produced by Bobby Colomby, drummer and founder of Blood, Sweat & Tears.
Michel Hatzigeorgiou is a Belgian bass guitarist.
David W. Bargeron is an American trombonist and tuba player who was a member of the jazz-rock group Blood, Sweat & Tears.
Mr. Gone is the eighth studio album by jazz fusion band Weather Report released in 1978 by ARC/Columbia Records. The album reached number one on the Billboard Jazz Albums chart.
"Birdland" is a jazz/pop song written by Joe Zawinul of the band Weather Report as a tribute to the Birdland nightclub in New York City, which appeared on the band's 1977 album Heavy Weather. The Manhattan Transfer won a Grammy Award with their 1979 version of the song, which had lyrics by Jon Hendricks. Quincy Jones won two Grammy Awards for the version of the piece he included on his 1989 album Back on the Block. The leading Cuban band Los Van Van included an extended interpolation of the piece in their song Tim Pop/Birdland.
Gerald Stenhouse Jemmott is an American bass guitarist. Jemmott was one of the chief session bass guitarists of the late 1960s and early 1970s, working with many of the period's well-known soul, blues and jazz artists.
The Birthday Concert is a live album by Jaco Pastorius released posthumously in 1995. It was recorded in Florida in 1981 to celebrate Pastorius' 30th birthday. Guests included his friends, such as Michael Brecker and the Peter Graves Orchestra.
Reed Mathis is a bassist, producer, singer, and guitarist who is best known for his 15-year stint as co-leader of the Tulsa progressive jazz band Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey. The Bay Area rooted player has also notably worked with Grateful Dead members Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann. He played with Steve Kimock Band, and is a former member of Tea Leaf Green.
The Trio of Doom was a short-lived jazz fusion power trio consisting of John McLaughlin on guitar, Jaco Pastorius on bass, and Tony Williams on drums. They were brought together by Columbia Records in 1979 to play the Havana Jam festival in Cuba alongside Billy Joel, Kris Kristofferson, Rita Coolidge, and others.
Othello Molineaux is a jazz steelpan player who spent much of his early career with Jaco Pastorius. He was among the earliest musicians to adapt the steelpan to jazz. He has worked with Monty Alexander, Chicago, and David Johansen.
Passionfruit is a jazz vocal album by Michael Franks, produced and arranged by Rob Mounsey and released in 1983 on Warner Bros. Records. The album reached No. 4 on the Billboard Traditional Jazz Albums chart.
Invitation is the third album by Jaco Pastorius, released in December 1983. This is a live album recorded at various venues during a tour of Japan in September 1982, featuring his "Word of Mouth" big band. While his debut album showcased his eclectic and impressive skills on the electric bass, both Invitation and his previous album, Word of Mouth focused more on his ability to arrange for a larger band.
"The Chicken" or simply "Chicken" is an instrumental funk tune composed by Pee Wee Ellis that was the B-side to James Brown's 1969 single "The Popcorn". The tune gained greater exposure with versions by jazz bassist Jaco Pastorius.
Randy Bernsen is an American jazz guitarist.
Bill Milkowski is an American jazz critic, journalist, and biographer. Since the 1970s he has written thousands of articles for magazines and album liner notes. He has written for DownBeat, JazzTimes, Jazziz, The Absolute Sound, Paste, Jazzthing and Guitar Club. He is the author of a biography of bassist Jaco Pastorius, a biography of Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, an annotated history of jive music, a collection of interviews., and a biography of saxophonist-composer Michael Brecker.
1 2 3 4 5 6 Milkowski, Bill (1995). Jaco: The Extraordinary and Tragic Life of Jaco Pastorius, "The World's Greatest Bass Player". San Francisco: Miller Freeman. p.135. ISBN0-87930-361-1.
1 2 The Emergence of the U.S. School Steel Band Movement: The Saga of Steel by Brandon L. Haskett, 2018. p. 23-24.
1 2 Milkowski, Bill (1995). Jaco: The Extraordinary and Tragic Life of Jaco Pastorius, "The World's Greatest Bass Player". San Francisco: Miller Freeman. p.190. ISBN0-87930-361-1.
1 2 Milkowski, Bill (1995). Jaco: The Extraordinary and Tragic Life of Jaco Pastorius, "The World's Greatest Bass Player". San Francisco: Miller Freeman. p.191. ISBN0-87930-361-1.
1 2 Milkowski, Bill (1995). Jaco: The Extraordinary and Tragic Life of Jaco Pastorius, "The World's Greatest Bass Player". San Francisco: Miller Freeman. p.199. ISBN0-87930-361-1.
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