Robert Trujillo: Jaco: The Film

Robert Trujillo’s hymn to a bass legend.

You can trust Louder Our experienced team has worked for some of the biggest brands in music. From testing headphones to reviewing albums, our experts aim to create reviews you can trust. Find out more about how we review.

A prodigious if impish talent who transformed the way his instrument sounded and then rose to international stardom with a mix of performance (amps were straddled, guitars thrown into the wings) and skill that could make your head spin, Jaco Pastorius flew high and crashed hard with a familiar mix of drink and drug addiction.

Add to this an undiagnosed bipolar disorder and a set of bloody circumstances that lead to a life on the street and a violent and tragic death.

As a work of fiction it would be hard to bear, as real life it’s almost too much. Producer Trujillo and this remarkable parade of talking heads – an effortlessly cool Joni Mitchell, Geddy Lee, Flea, a droll Bootsy Collins – are here to pay homage however. This is a moving love letter to a star that burned just a little too brightly.

Classic Rock 221: Stuff

Philip Wilding

Philip Wilding is a novelist, journalist, scriptwriter, biographer and radio producer. As a young journalist he criss-crossed most of the United States with bands like Motley Crue, Kiss and Poison (think the Almost Famous movie but with more hairspray). More latterly, he’s sat down to chat with bands like the slightly more erudite Manic Street Preachers, Afghan Whigs, Rush and Marillion.