Jaco Pastorius – Word Of Mouth

"Word Of Mouth" is bass virtuoso Jaco Pastorius' second album, released in 1981 while he was still a member of Weather Report. As a solo artist, he toured with the Word Of Mouth Orchestra until 1986. While his album focused on his extensive skills on electric bass, "Word Of Mouth" focused more on his skills as a composer with arrangements for a larger band than the one still used on his self-titled debut. Still, tracks like the solo opening of "Chromatic Fantasy" and the title track show that Pastorius can let the bass do the talking like no other. His bass is distorted here and flows into the arrangements, making them shine

The music ranges from "Blackbord" by the Beatles to some Bach-to-Jaco originals with jazz, Coltrane-like entries and fusion. Featured here are Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Peter Erskine, Jack DeJohnette, Michael Brecker, Don Alias and Toots Thielemans, who plays harmonica.