Jaco Pastorius Quotes

Many classical musicians lack pulse and rhythmical strength and precision, so for us it was very important to acquire and learn those.

I play more rhythmically than I do a lot of notes.

There's not much music I'll listen to if it doesn't have pretty heavy swing. Rhythm is so important. Punk rock would have more power and feeling if it had swing.

It was never so much the heavy metal thunder that got me. I was into players who played with taste and did these walking bass parts. If you can play like that, it really opens up the music. You can't just pound away. After a while it's like, 'So what? What else you got?'

I started as a drummer. The feet are an extension of that.

They said Bird played bebop, but Bird could still swing. I've heard a lot of guys play bebop, but they wasn't swinging.

I just think swing is a matter of some good things put together that you can really pat your foot by. I can't define it beyond that.

The focus of my playing is the groove, and every time I find a new rhythm, I find I can write a bunch of new songs. Learning how to dance, or drum, or to swing my body in a new way is the fundamental way I find a new riff. Because when you learn to swing your body in a new way, you begin to swing with your instrument differently.

'Swing' is an adjective or a verb, not a noun. All jazz musicians should swing. There is no such thing as a 'swing band' in music.

I just love dancing. When the music is really hitting my soul, then I really want to get into it.

As a drummer, I'm rhythmically so disabled that it's hilarious.

I find that drummers are the coolest people in the world. I play a little bit of drums.

The core of all the music I love is a good bass line and a good rhythm.

My techniques are basics, but my willingness to be in the pocket and see things is very high level.

I'm not much of a dancer.

I'll be honest: I'm not really the best at dancing.

We've always been fans of groups like Little Feat, Steely Dan, the Eagles, or Dire Straits that have that quality. Bands that sometimes are perceived as not the 'cool' band, because they're so good in a technical sense.

I think you've gotta be smart enough to be competent, but you've gotta be crazy enough to go out there and just let it all happen. I mean, you can rehearse and still not be musical, be tight and not be musical; we all hated that.

I'm attached to the beat. The beat speaks words. I love music.

My playing is always just a little on top of the beat. I can't lay down the kind of groove that Brad Wilk can. I'd really have to lay back to do that; it just doesn't feel natural to me.

I'm more a percussion instrument than a dancer.

I can dance to just about anything.

There's a lot of personality in Lars's drumming. That's what makes it unique.

Any time you sit out, it could throw off your rhythm a little bit, and I'm kind of a rhythm player.

I've listened to musicians who say that using a metronone makes you robotic, that it decreases your 'feel.' That's ridiculous. Either you have feel or you don't. Feel is one of those intangibles that can't be taught. But if you do have feel, using a metronome will allow you to play cleaner - and that'll make your 'feel' have more, well, 'feeling.'