Trio Of Doom John McLaughlin, Jaco Pastorius, Tony Williams 1. Drum Improvisation 2. Dark Prince 3. Continuum 4. Para Oriente 5. Are You The One, Are You The One? 6. Dark Prince 7. Continuum 8. Para Oriente 9. Para Oriente 10. Para Oriente John McLaughlin - Guitars Jaco Pastorius - Bass Guitars Tony Williams - Drums / Percussion John McLaughlin recently honored Jaco Pastorius on his album "Industrial Zen" with the song "For Jaco"; their relationship may have been rocky but it was infused with mutual admiration,
Jaco and I went back a long time. The first time I met him I was rehearsing with the last edition of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, which was with Narada Michael Walden,
Ralphe Armstrong and Stu Goldberg on keyboards. We were at S.I.R. studios in New York and at some point the rehearsal room door swings open and in walks Jaco. Now,
I didn't know Jaco from Adam and he said, "Hey man, let's jam!" You know Jaco...walk right in, move in, take over. And I said, "Oh yeah' What do you play'" And he
said, "I play bass." So I said, "Oh, OK, let's jam." And he was unbelievable. But before we started jamming he said, "Hey man, can you lend me $20. I got a flat tire
driving in from Florida. My car's parked outside... I got a flat." And it took him like 17 years to pay back the $20, not that I wanted it back. But it was very sweet.
I used to tease him about it all the time. But he came in that day and he was playing unbelievable. I mean, if I didn't have Ralphe at the time...Ralphe was and still
is a great bass player. So I told Jaco, "I got a great bass player, man." But I called Tony Williams that night and said, "Tony, you gotta hear this kid play. He's
unbelievable." Next thing I knew...it must've been a couple of months later, I know he did some gigs with Tony. Tony did call him to play but nothing much came of it
because shortly after that Jaco got hooked up with Wayne (Shorter) and Joe (Zawinul). So he moved in and took over Weather Report, as you remember. But actually, he
did a good job because he did a lot of renewal feelings in that he brought this modern kind of sound and tone into the band. I mean, he brought the Jaco sound, and that
was wonderful. And that was great what happened to Weather Report. At that time too, the edition of Weather Report with Jaco and Alex Acuna and Manolo Badrena toured with
Shakti. And it was a great combination for a tour. We did a lot of tours together but what was amazing was every night we'd be playing and the Weather Report guys would be
at the side of the stage digging it, and then on their set we'd be at the side of the stage, because they were killing! This must've been '76-'77. That was amazing. And then
we'd jam too, every now and then. I remember one great jam we had in London at the Hammersmith Odeon. I have some great memories of Jaco and I have a great picture at home
too of Joe, Jaco and me on the beach of Havana. Remember the Bay of Gigs. Do you know that story about him and Tony and me?
The Havana gig was a CBS 3-night festival in March 1979 on Cuba. It's not clear what came first, but around that time McLaughlin and Williams took part in Joni Mitchell's
experimental sessions working towards her "Mingus" album. McLaughlin remembers Pastorius jumping up and down in front of him, thrusting his bass in his face and basically showing
off, but the rehearsals went well and they continued to prepare for the Havana gig. Soon afterwards, McLaughlin was shocked to learn that everything he had recorded for Mitchell
had been chopped although he is still sometimes wrongly credited. Mitchell may have turned a blind eye to Pastorius' shenanigans but the next time they collaborated in Cuba, things
came to a head,
Yes indeed, the Trio of Doom. That trio was unbelievable. It was amazing. When they were on it was unbelievable to play with those guys. Anyway, rehearsals were phenomenal. We had
only three tunes that we were going to play (at the historic Havana Jam in Cuba). So we went down to Havana and we had a tune each. We started off with my tune, "The Dark Prince",
which was a kind of blues in C minor with some altered changes. But the thing is, Jaco altered everything. He turned his amp up to 11 and started to play A major, which is like a
little far away from C minor ... and unbelievably loud! So we start to play the tune, Tony's looking at me, I'm looking at Tony and it's like, "What the fuck", and in the meantime
Jaco's upfront with the bass between his legs, doing his thing ... it was almost like Jimi Hendrix. And the whole set went like that. When we finished the set, I was so angry at
Jaco. Tony too. And we walked off stage and Tony was already up and running to the bathroom ... he was about to throw up. Anyway, Jaco came down and said, "Oh, man, you bad mother!"
and I said, "What! You have the nerve to speak to me after this travesty on stage. I don't even want to see your face, I don't want to hear you, I don't want to see you." And it all
came out, and in about 15 minutes later it was fine. But Tony couldn't get it out, right, and it was such a farce. Anyway, CBS called me about two weeks later and said, "So, we're
going to put it out." And I said, "You're going to put what out' You're not going to put that out. You put it out over my dead body. That's terrible." So they asked if we wanted to
re-record it over at Columbia Studios on 52nd Street. So we all went into the great CBS Studio on 52nd Street where we did all those great things with Miles - In A Silent Way, Bitches
Brew and all of that. So we start re-recording the tunes and in the meantime, Tony's not looking at Jaco. I mean, forget about speaking, he's not even looking at him. And Jaco's already
very nervous. So we start playing and we did my tune again. So we do one take and we go in the control room to listen back and Jaco says, "Well, I think we can do it better." And all of
a sudden Tony jumps in front of Jaco and says, "Better' Better, motherfucker'!!" He pushed Jaco up against the wall. I had never seen Tony angry but that was like a little volcano action,
man, I tell you. And Jaco's like ... "Hey man, I'm sorry, man, I'm sorry." Tony didn't hit 'em or anything, but when Tony got mad you just get out of the way. He had Jaco up against the
wall and Jaco was like apologizing profusely. He knew he fucked up bigtime. So after 10 minutes of Tony blasting him with both barrels, Tony went into the studio and destroyed his drumkit.
And I said, "You gotta record with this!" He destroyed his kit and walked out of the studio and that was it. What a shame. But hey, who's perfect in this world? But I told Jaco off right
away back in Havana. I got rid of all the rats and snakes right off the stage, but Tony had it balling up, stewing around there for a while for he finally exploded. He always had difficulty
with getting it right out. So yeah ... Jaco was crazy, but what a player! He was too much. Boy I miss him. I miss Tony too. What a tragedy.
So what you have here are those original live tracks plus the previously unreleased studio recordings, giving the complete story. A historic musical document and vital for collections, but
don't expect it to be earth shattering; the magic probably happened onstage, however chaotic it was, but returning to the studio was an afterthought that didn't necessarily work. However,
as a piece of history it is still remembered warmly,
Ingrid Jun 16th, 2006 - 9:59 AM Re: Trio Of Doom I was present at the rehearsals, John, Tony, and Jaco ripped! It was beautiful and memorable. I didn't go to Cuba with them, but heard that too many "mojitos" got in the way of performing ...alas...GBJ Ingrid Jun 20th, 2006 - 5:11 PM Re: Trio Of Doom Hello John! I remember being at the studio while they were rehearsing, the first time they got together. Do not know whether it was recorded at that time, sure would have been the smart thing to have done. What happened in Cuba, and in the studio thereafter I know nothing about first hand. Jaco didn't come home telling me about what had happened. From what John is quoted as saying, only his tune was recorded in one take at a studio session after the show, so perhaps we are about to hear the rehearsals? Jeroen Sep 28th, 2006 - 2:19 PM Re: Trio Of Doom Hi Ingrid and friends, The plot thickens, last month I spoke to a well known Cuban musician who also played during Havana Jam. Of course I asked him about what happened on stage during the performance of Trio of Doom. I expected to get stories about Jaco's behavior in stead he told me that the Tony Williams actually was the spark that ignited the fire! He continued rambling about Tony's reputation, which I shall not repeat here because of the abundance of dirty words. Bottom line: according to him Tony trashed the concert, not Jaco. Of course I don't have the facts, but it IS an interesting perspective.... Jeroen |