Fusion bassists, including the utterly unique and underpraised
Percy Jones, have always labored in the shadow of
Weather Report's
Jaco Pastorius. Of all the musicians who strapped on fretless electric basses during the '70s through to today,
Jones certainly deserves attention beyond the seemingly inevitable
Pastorius comparisons. Most assuredly, the '70s and '80s British fusion outfit
Brand X would have sounded far more ordinary without
Jones, as would such classic
Brian Eno LPs as
Another Green World and
Before and After Science. After his years in the heyday of British fusion and art rock,
Jones moved to New York City and began occasionally showing up as a performer on the so-called downtown scene, as logical a place for him to attempt a fresh start as any. He recorded
Cape Catastrophe in 1988 and 1989 at a studio in East Harlem. Using an array of the era's available hardware (including, as the product-placing liners indicate, a Casio synthesizer, Roland sequencer, Yamaha drum machine, and Korg digital delay),
Jones laid down tracks ranging from two-and-a-half minutes to over 23 minutes in length, and then accompanied the tracks live on his five-string (Wal V, for those interested in brands) bass as the direct-to-digital recording was made. The results were generally quite impressive, and stand the test of time into the new millennium. There is certainly a lot here for electric bass-aholics to enjoy;
Jones' burbles, pops, and plonks are all here, and his tone on the sustained notes is rich with harmonic overtones as expected.