I'm actually answering emails of people inquiring about my brief encounter with Jaco Pastorius [and an audio tape tape of us playing together with Kenwood Dennard on electronic drums].

Thomas from Austria writes [edited]

Dear Mr. Sessum,

Doing a web search for Jaco Pastorius I found out about your weblog and
really enjoyed reading your thoughts on Jaco Pastorius. Thanks very much
for sharing this. Bummer that the "Jaco on congas" didn't work out.

I was just thinking about that the other day, when Jaco offered to play congas on my tune. That whole experience gets replayed in my mind especially the significance of this man making such an offer. I've gone through many changes thinking about Jaco and the price that is paid for being of prodigious talent. I've often wondered if it is worth it...
I've known others with that intense gift and more often times than not, their lives end up in tragedy. There is a pattern with most prodigies that needs to be documented and analyzed and shown to the general public [especially here in the States, because of the abundance of linear thinking...]

I will post an audio snippet of that encounter very shortly...

I've been silent a long time...I know. So many fun things happening since last time I blogged and I will docublog that in a minute [A minute is a thousand days to some...]
An acquaintance on a discussion group inspired me to rant today concerning the music business:

This is just my opinion based on 33 years of seeing it up close:
As long as it's fun, keep doing what your doing [this applies especially to the artists]. It's a big money making industry, almost like any other business.I say almost because there are two sides: there's the artistic side and there's the business side. For either side to survive, there's a forced marriage of the two it seems.
The more you can detach yourself from the artistic side, the better because music in the business world is considered simply a product. On the other hand, the artist is a sensitive creator of a vision. This a beautiful thing to behold; the process of creating.
Now my dilemma has always been,'How do I switch roles and become a business-minded person to 'sell' my artform [so I can keep creating and keep the bills paid] and maintain a creative veiwpoint at the same time. It can't be done...not by me anyway.
Let's look at this: There's the Artist(s) on one side and then there's the a non-artistic related team on the other. Manager,road manager, promoter, agent, executive producer/investor, record company etc. are the team the artist depends on to make the 'dream' a reality and the reality is 'business'.
Your team has to work together flawlessly to pull this off. And more times than not, things can go very, very wrong on both sides of the camp. Oh there's room for error but if enough of the pieces of the team run into trouble, business can get fouled up swiftly. Sometimes a domino effect can be triggered by something going wrong on either side.

I was in the middle of a domino effect. It wasn't very pretty. Something was going on with the record label, management was acting funny, guys in the band weren't taking care of business and things were going into a 'me first' mode like never before. The band probably could've overcome the problem with flying colors but there was so much dis-unity [is THAT a word?] it was doomed -with or without me. I got tired and angry, but I knew that one piece off of the group wouldn't hurt it so, I decided to leave before a) I hurt someone [in the band...and I don't mean feelings...] or b) hurt myself and in turn hurting the people I love. But, digress...

I've been playing alot of musicalS the last 2 years, getting my bearings straight and now I'm gearing up for the next career move. Is it possible....? A solo album...? Stay tuned