Former Location –

John Francis Anthony Pastorius III, known as Jaco Pastorius was noted as one of the greatest electric bassists of all time. Although mainly known as a jazz musician, Jaco played with numerous pop and rock artists in his career.

Jaco had a habit of introducing himself by saying, “I’m John Francis Pastorius III. I’m the greatest bass player in the world,” and many people believed this to be a fact.

His first big break came when he was asked to join “Weather Report” by its founder Joe Zawinul and he debuted on their album Black Market.

Besides his solo work and work with Weather Report, Jaco played on many artist’s albums including Joni Mitchell on Hejira, Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter, Mingus and Shadows and Light. 

For some reason, possibly the drugs and alcohol he regularly consumed, Jaco loved to get in bar fights and found himself on the wrong end of many skirmishes. This habit was his downfall on September 11, 1987 when he was ejected from the “Midnight Bottle Club” in Wilton Manors, Florida. In his alcohol fueled rage, he kicked in a glass door at the club and was confronted by the club’s manager who had martial arts training. The manager beat the crap out of him and he was hospitalized for multiple facial fractures and fell into a coma.

A few days later, he suffered a brain hemorrhage and was taken off of life support and died ten days later on September 21, at the age of 35 at Broward General Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale.

Midnight Bottle Club
2248 Wilton Dr
Wilton Manors, FL 33305