“Sampling Tracy”

John Francis Anthony Pastorius passed away in 1987 following a violent altercation at a Fort Lauderdale drinking establishment. Better known as Jaco Pastorius, he was widely acknowledged for his skills as an electric bass player. Perhaps best known for his association with the fusion jazz group Weather Report, Pastorius also played with Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny and Joni Mitchell among others.

The great jazz bassist Charles Mingus is credited with saying “Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.” Pastorius was known for compositions that were vastly complex, yet his dexterity with the bass made them sound rhythmically simple. One of my favorite Pastorius compositions “Portrait of Tracy”, released in 1976, epitomizes this concept. It is an extremely complex piece, constantly changing in meter with eerily shifting harmonics. Yet, Pastorius plays it with a mastery that allows the simplicity of its beauty to fully be displayed.

Twenty years after Pastorius released this song, I was very surprised to hear the opening of it sampled on an R&B record released by the group SWV. The same melody, but the complexity of the original replaced by a soothing ballad on the song “Rain”

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Subsequent examples of “Portrait of Tracy” being sampled appear in the song “Pigeon”, released on the 2001 album “The Cold Vein” by hip-hop artists Cannibal Ox, Amon Tobin’s “Day Trip”, Chingy and Tyrese’s “Pulling Me Back”, Steve Spacek’s “Hey There” and Hot Stylz “Faucet”.

©2010 Ronald B. Cason, All rights reserved.

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