ALL THAT JAZZ

You may have seen the 2014 documentary Jaco, produced by Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo, which enjoyed its European premiere at the London Bass Guitar Show. It’s an astonishing tale, following Jaco from his early life through to stardom with Weather Report and as a solo artist, before his struggle with bipolar disorder and his tragically early death in 1987 at the hands of a nightclub bouncer.

Along the way, the most commonly-seen bass guitar is the famous 1962 Fender Jazz, which Jaco defretted and used to devastating effect on many seminal recordings. Stolen from him in 1982, the bass vanished from the public eye until 2006 or thereabouts, when