Last Flight Essence

I came across a very, very interesting album today. I am a HUGE Jaco P fan, as most of you who know me will have found out fairly quickly, if you discuss music taste with me. I was on Amazon, just looking through some Jaco albums for a bargain, and I came across one that I'd never heard before. This album, Last Flight Essence, was right at the end of the search, and I'm surprised I haven't heard it before.

You can download it here, I'm not so sure how legal it is, but hey... -> Download

The album consists of 3 quite long tracks, and if you've got a short attention span, I advise against listening to this. It appears to just be a 1-off jam between a few friends around the mid 1980s, who just wanted to lay down a few tracks. Listening through the entire album non-stop today, I found it absolutely breath-taking. You can tell it's Jaco playing fairly quickly, as he lays down some well known funky grooves, from Reza to an extract of Three Views, which Jaco fans will know inside-out. I seriously recommend just having a listen, and getting lost in it. Put the biggest pair of headphones you have on, and just lie-down and listen to this. If it's too heavy, go and buy (or listen to it on Spotify here, but the idiots who put the Jaco tracks have gotten some of them mixed up with the recordings from the Birthday Concert...) 'Word of Mouth' by Jaco, and give it a try.

Right, that's enough brown-nosing of my hero.

'til next time...

Thanks ~ The Jazzbone

Introduction

My name is Nathan Moore, and I'm a keen jazz enthusiast. I am 19 years old, and I've just finished school to move on to the Royal Northern College of Music in September to study tenor trombone performance. My music influences and interests are deeply rooted in the purity of music, music made for enjoyment and love of music, for the advancement of musical ideas, not for financial gain.

I wanted to create this blog as a place where I can share my views and opinions on the topic of jazz music. I don't have many friends that appreciate jazz music, and I know that there are people with the same views as myself, I would be glad of feedback, anonymously or not.

I was inspired to write this after listening to just one track on Mysterious Voyages: A Tribute to Weather Report (http://open.spotify.com/album/1JG4UtwPgK1bni2ztoe1gh). You will quickly realise that Jaco Pastorius is my main influence from jazz music, and he has given me an even greater love for music.

I would regularly listen to music whilst I'm doing something else, like talking on MSN to someone, or doing schoolwork, and the first time I listened to Jaco Pastorius properly was one of those times. It was his self titled album, which I had asked to borrow from a friend. Our school big-band was performing Pee Wee Ellis' The Chicken, and I wanted to hear an original recording. So I typed The Chicken into Limewire, and found Jaco Pastorius as one of the top artists. I had never heard of him before, and I really enjoyed listening to the track (http://open.spotify.com/track/5mUwcFTA1LNLn39b8noWJv). I didn't think any more of it until I mentioned it to my friend and he said about having an album. So I got home, put the CD on, and started on some work. From the first second of the first track, I stopped what I was doing and just listened. For 55.3 minutes, I just sat in my room and listened to this amazing music. Every track was something new and mind-blowing, and my idea of music changed from that day.

There was 1 track in particular that took my breath away, and that was track 5; Portrait of Tracy (http://open.spotify.com/track/3BmlWjFycxYSDCUnjdxe8B). For any of you who have heard this, you know what I'm talking about. I listened to that one track on repeat for days, and it by far stands out as the most amazing piece of music I've ever heard.

From there my jazz interest grew and grew, stemming from Jaco, leading me to Weather Report, Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, Roy Hargrove etc etc.

I intend to talk about albums I've listened to and comment on them, to talk about artists and their contributions to jazz, to talk about where jazz is going, and what I intend to do about it. Even if no-one reads this, I want this to be a standing testament to a new generation of jazz enthusiasts who still know what jazz is all about.

Thanks ~ The Jazzbone