Jaco Pastorius

Jaco Pastorius — John Francis Anthony Pastorius III — American jazz bassist and composer who reinvented the electric bass as a melodic lead voice, died in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on September 21, 1987, after a beating left him in a coma. He was thirty-five. Born December 1, 1951, in Norristown, Pennsylvania, and raised in South Florida, he played with Weather Report, recorded a self-titled debut that stunned peers, and collaborated with Joni Mitchell, Pat Metheny, and Herbie Hancock. His fretless tone, harmonics, and thunderous groove on pieces like “Portrait of Tracy” and Weather Report’s “Teen Town” made bassists rewrite their practice routines. Mental illness and addiction shadowed later tours; brilliance and volatility became inseparable in the public story, even as younger bassists studied every recorded fill. On September 11, 1987, after being refused entry to a Fort Lauderdale-area club, he was beaten; brain hemorrhage followed, and life support was withdrawn ten days later at Broward General Medical Center. The funeral in Wilton Manors drew musicians who knew the instrument would never sound the same. Queen of Heaven Cemetery in North Lauderdale holds the grave; the recordings hold the argument that the bass could sing like a horn. He died in Fort Lauderdale on September 21, 1987. Students still chase the harmonics; bands still argue about how he did it. Pastorius’s gift was melodic courage — treating the bass as a soloist’s instrument without abandoning the pocket. Notice Nearby keeps the death date so September 21 remembers the Florida bassist who changed jazz fusion’s low end forever.