Jaco Pastorius was born December 1, 1951 in Norristown, Pennsylvania. His given name was John Francis Pastorius III. His father, known as Jack Pastorius, was a jazz drummer of some fame. In 1958, when Jaco was seven, he moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida with his mother and two brothers. At first, Jaco followed his father by becoming a drummer. He joined a local combo called the Sonics in September of 1963, just before he turned 12. He was playing for professional gigs by age 13. He joined up with a band called Las Olas Brass in the summer of 1966 and it was about one year later that he injured his wrist in a football game, almost severing his hand from his arm, thus damaging his growing career as a drummer. Before the accident Jaco couldnt lay down a heavy back beat for the music and his injury only damaged his playing skills more, making him an unfit member for the band. Just after the accident, a very talented drummer came on the scene in southern Florida and took Jacos place in the band. One week later, the bass player quit the band, and the rest of the members called Jaco and asked if he would be willing to play bass instead. He accepted the offer and took 400 dollars that he had earned from a paper route and bought a Fender jazz bass. From then on, as Jaco put it, he was never out of work.

Jaco was still in high school at this point, and although he wasnt in any of the school ensembles, he was playing in R&B and dance bands with his friends. He played at parties and nightclubs, sometimes performing eight sets in one night from 9 in the evening until 6:30 in the morning. He also worked on tourist cruise ships, traveling to Mexico, Jamaica, the Bahamas, Haiti and the like, learning new styles of music and developing his ability.

By the time he was 17, Jaco was still having problems with his arm because it had never healed correctly, and he underwent surgery to correct the problem. In an interview in a 1977 issue of Downbeat, Jaco said that it took about a year after the operation before I was strong enough to really play the bass. I could get by on it before, then I could play Soul Man and Funky Broadway, [and] play reggae lines and a walk a jazz line in four/four, but I couldnt solo. It was at that time, a year after the operation, that Jaco decided to really get serious about one instrument. Up until that time he had been playing saxophone, piano and guitar as well. In the same Downbeat interview Jaco stated that he finally realized that in order to do something really well, [hed] have to settle on one instrument. The most influential element in Jacos life that pushed him to decide on one instrument was the upcoming birth of his daughter. At 18, Jaco was already married to his wife Tracy. He knew that supporting a family was going to require a concentrated effort. When his daughter was born, Jaco stopped listening to music and reading about the new styles that were up and coming in the music industry. His daughter became an inspiration for him and he knew at that point that he needed to develop a style and sound of his own. As he put it in one interview, he knew music, [he] had the makings of a musician. Now [he] had to become one.

Jaco began playing bass behind various bands that came to Florida, including the Temptations, the Supremes, Nancy Wilson, Johnny Carson, and Bob Hope. In 1972, he joined Wayne Cochran & the C.C. Riders and stayed with them for 7 months, before leaving and joining up with Peter Graves, a trombonist who played in the house band for a popular Ft. Lauderdale club called Bachelors III. Graves recalls that he immediately sensed this enormous talent when he first met of Jaco, and he remembers that it was frightening how on the band could be some nights with Jaco in it. Jaco stayed with the band at Bachelors III for five years.

During his time at Bachelors III, Jaco taught bass for one semester at the University of Miami music department where he met artists such as Paul Bley and Pat Metheny. He was also introduced to jazz musician Ira Sullivan and he wrote charts for Sullivans Bakers Dozen.

In 1975, Jaco met Joe Zawinul, the pianist of Weather Report, outside of the Guzman Theater in Miami. Jaco walked up to Zawinul and said, Im John Francis Pastorius III and Im the greatest bass player in the world. Zawinul wasnt swayed by the statement, but Jaco gave him a rough solo tape anyway and later wrote a letter to follow up. At the time Weather Report already had a bassist, Alphonso Johnson, and there wasnt room for Jaco, but Zawinul kept the young bass player in mind.

Also in 1975, Blood, Sweat and Tears was scheduled to play a short gig at the Bachelors III. Jacos wife was working at the club, and she and the other workers persistently told Bobby Columby, the drummer for Blood, Sweat and Tears, about Jaco and his abilities. There are two stories about what happened when Jaco finally met Columby. The first, told by Jaco himself, is that Columby never bothered to hear Jaco play. He simply offered him a record date. The other story, told by Columby, is that Jaco introduced himself as the best bass player in the world and then played solo for the band members. Despite the differing stories, in the end, Columby was impressed by Jacos skills and offered him a recording on the Epic label.

So in 1976, Jacos debut album, entitled Jaco Pastorius was released by Epic records. The musicians on the record include Michael Brecker, Peter Graves, Randy Brecker, Alex Darqui, Wayne Shorter, and Herbie Hancock. The album was nominated for two Grammy Awards. In a very short amount of time, Jaco was on his way up in the musical world.

Jacos chance for true renown came when Alphonso Johnson, the bassist of Weather Report decided to leave the band. Weather Report was in the middle of producing the album Black Market at the time, and the loss of Johnson forced them to find another bass player. Zawinul still remembered Jaco and the solo album that had changed hands between them, and he asked Jaco to fill in. Jaco went to the studio and played on two of the charts with Weather Report. Jacos work with the group turned out to be his unofficial audition for the group and he was invited to join the band on April 1, 1976. Jaco then played on and co-produced the album Heavy Weather with the group. Jaco toured all over the world with Weather Report, building his reputation as one of the best bass players of all time.

In 1982 Jaco left Weather Report and toured the world with his band, Word of Mouth. It was about this time that Jacos career and his life began to fall apart. On his 1982 Japan tour with Word of Mouth, Jaco was arrested for riding naked around Tokyo on a motorcycle. Fellow band member Peter Erskine recalls that it was around that time when Jaco really got out of hand when he really got heavily into painting his face with magic markers, stripping and running around naked. Also in 1982, he was removed from the stage at the Playboy Jazz Festival for various destructive actions such as knocking over the equipment. In 1983, on an Italy tour with the Word of Mouth band, Jaco fell twenty-five feet from a balcony, breaking his wrist and cracking three ribs. In 1984, after multiple incidents of disturbances and other crude behavior, Warner Brothers dropped Jaco from their label. Other labels followed suit and refused to work with him. In 1985 he was arrested for attempting to break into the house of his father. Shortly after, he entered a rehabilitation center in Pennsylvania where he was put on lithium to suppress his outbursts of manic behavior and was released after a few weeks.

After the summer of 1986, which is known as the nightmare of Jacos life, he was committed to the psychiatric ward of New Yorks Bellevue Hospital. He stayed for only six weeks and he refused to talk about the severity of his problems and the reasons behind them. Jaco was diagnosed as manic-depressive, placed on medication and eventually released late in 1986.

During the first few months of 1987, Jaco seemed to have pulled his life back together. He got back into practicing and exercising, and he stopped drinking. He seemed to be back on track and he was working hard at his music until March when he started drinking again. His mood swings and impulsive behaviors returned and he went back to crashing gigs and starting fights. He began panhandling on the streets of New York City. He was always drunk and never had a place to stay.

The destructive spiral of Jacos life came to a conclusion in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida on the night of September 12, 1987. He was removed from a Santana concert earlier in the evening for jumping on stage, and he then showed up at the door of the Midnight Bottle Club. The club was members only and Jaco had been barred from entering. He attempted to kick down the front door after he was not allowed to enter. The club manager, Luc Havan, subdued Jaco by beating him unconscious with several karate-chops to the head. Jaco was lying face down in his own blood, with a fractured skull and a ruptured eye when help arrived.

Jaco was taken to the Broward General Medical Center in Ft. Lauderdale. He remained in a coma and it was said that he would be paralyzed on one side if he ever came out of it. He seemed to be making progress until the night of Saturday September 19, when a blood vessel burst in his brain, destroying his left-brain cognitive functions. By the next day, there was no brain activity and Jaco was eventually removed from the respirator. Although he stopped breathing, his heart pumped for three more hours. Jaco Pastorius died on September 21, 1987 at 9:25 pm at the age of 35.