The Bass Genius Who Made the Street His Home

Jaco Pastorius was one of the most influential electric bass players in jazz. In the mid-1970s, in his twenties, he toured with Weather Report and made his name on the group's 1977 album Heavy Weather, which included Birdland and Teen Town. He topped readers' polls in Down Beat and Guitar Player, and his solo work, including the album Word of Mouth, earned Grammy nominations. He worked with Joni Mitchell, who described him in a 1985 interview as one of those rare impulsive musicians. He left Weather Report in 1982.

The Miami Herald, in an article dated 20 September 1987, traced his years afterwards. From 1984 he moved away from the music scene in New York and spent weeks at a time living on the street, often playing basketball in the park on West Fourth Street in Greenwich Village. His instruments, left unattended, were stolen more than once, and he was committed for treatment at least twice. In August 1985, in an interview in Washington Square Park, he cried and said he just wanted to go home, to his four children in Florida. In summer 1986 he spent four months at Bellevue Hospital.

He returned to Florida in December 1986. A friend, Kevin Kaufman, let him stay for a few weeks. Through the following summer he wandered Fort Lauderdale's Holiday Park with a basketball, a Weather Report album and an acoustic guitar. The paper says he was arrested nine times during 1987 on charges ranging from vagrancy to driving a stolen car around the park's track. Late in the year he was released from jail and visited guitarist Randy Bernsen's studio, where he played a new piano composition.

In September 1987 he was removed by security after jumping on stage at a Carlos Santana concert, and hours later was found badly injured on a sidewalk in Wilton Manors after an altercation outside a club. The article ends with him in a coma and in serious condition. He died later that year, aged 35.