Teen Town Revisited

By Chris Jisi

“Bass players are my favorite people in the world.” So says L.A. keyboard ace and solo artist David Garfield, whose credits include Freddie Hubbard, Cher, Smokey Robinson, Dave Koz, the studio supergroups Los Lobotomys and Karizma, and his longtime role in George Benson’s band. “They provide both the harmonic and rhythmic foundation that lifts us up as keyboard players and enables us to take flight. They’re also some of the nicest, most thoughtful musicians I’ve met.” In tribute, Garfield has recorded a version of the Jaco Pastorius Weather Report bass anthem “Teen Town” [Heavy Weather, 1977, Columbia]. The funkified, multi-groove update is a smile-inducing treat, both in recalling the brilliance of the Pastorius composition and Garfield’s ultra-creative adaptation, and for the guessing game of which bassist is playing what. There are 17 bass heavies onboard — 13 taking on the fierce solo section, a handful playing the melodies, and at least half of them adding sonic goodies throughout. Allin-all, the six-minute track boasts a whopping 27 musicians, including Garfield on keyboards, drummers Steve Gadd, Abraham Laboriel Jr., Gary Novak, Jimmy Branly, and Khari Parker, percussionist Luis Conte, guitarists Michael Thompson and Soren Reiff, and saxophonist Steve Tavaglione.

The 17 featured thumpers represent a cross section of the instrument: session heavies Nathan East, Will Lee, Abraham Laboriel, Jimmy Johnson, Carlitos Del Puerto, John Peña, and Jimmy Earl; jazz greats John Patitucci and Alphonso Johnson; L.A. first-callers Andre Berry [Brothers Johnson, David Sanborn, Rick Braun], Ernest Tibbs [Allan Holdsworth, Simon Phillips, Gladys Knight], and Sean McNabb [Quiet Riot, Dokken, Don Felder]; global upstarts Henrik Linder and Federico Malaman; and regional root royalty in Minneapolis’ Paul Peterson [Prince, Steve Miller, George Benson] and John King [Boom, Good 4 The Soul, Denise Thimes], from Garfield’s native St. Louis.

The impetus for the track is actually part of a multi-album series Garfield has been creating for several years, which he calls “Outside the Box.” He explains, “It started out as a notion to record with all of the amazing musicians I’ve had the privilege of knowing. As schedules allowed, I would bring in great rhythm sections and artists and do a few cover tracks with each.” The results have been critically acclaimed sides like Vox Outside the Box, Jammin’ Outside the Box, Jazz Outside the Box, Alex Ligertwood Outside the Box, and the upcoming Stretchin’ Outside the Box in 2020, which will include “Teen Town.” The song was released as a single in August, with a YouTube video posted in October that reveals much of who played what (see Connect).

As for the track’s spark and long development, Garfield recalls, “I got the idea to cover the song while on a long travel day with George Benson to Mozambique. I was sitting with Khari, our drummer, and I told him I wanted to do a hip-hop version of ‘Teen Town.’ When I got back to L.A., I went into the studio with Nathan East, who recorded a bass line below my scratch melody, and we cut to a click. Back when Los Lobotomys started, Nathan was the original bassist, and he had always wanted to cover Grace Jones’ “Slave to the Rhythm’ [Slave to the Rhythm, 1985, Island]. Remembering that, I told him, ‘Let’s use the groove for ‘Teen Town.’ I had Khari add drums next, and then I got the idea for the middle section to have a Latin feel, with solos from a bunch of different bass players. I sent all of them the files — with some key technical help from Jimmy Johnson — and I asked each one to contribute a four-bar solo.” Garfield, who reveals more about the track below, concludes, “I first met Jaco in 1976 at a jam session, when I was a 19-yearold pianist with Freddie Hubbard. He was tearing it up and I was in awe. I followed his career and loved his solo records, his work with Joni Mitchell, and especially his output with Weather Report. Moreover, I saw the giant influence he had on the next few generations of bass players. He was a true revolutionary whom we lost too soon. I’m honored to be able to pay tribute to him and to all of my bass brothers with my revisit of ‘Teen Town.’”

THE BACK STORY No revisit of “Teen Town” would be complete without first focusing on the original and the man behind it. The song, which Jaco named for a Fort Lauderdale spot he frequented with his buddies, captured the essence of both his early nickname, the “Florida Flash” (through the tune’s lizard-like, darting bass), and “punk jazz,” which is how Jaco described his music (and which became the title of one of his compositions on Weather Report’s 1978 Columbia album Mr. Gone). Within the twoyear span of Jaco’s landmark self-titled solo debut and Weather Report’s Heavy Weather, he cut Charlie Parker’s “Donna Lee,” revealing the influence of bebop horn players; “Come On, Come Over,” echoing his early R&B bass heroes; and the harmonics-infused solo bass pieces “Portrait of Tracy” and “Continuum.” “Teen Town” was something else again, with Jaco on his trademark fretless 1962 Fender Jazz Bass unleashing what can be dually described as the melody and the bass line, due to its range, pocket, short phrases, and in-your-face intensity. Jaco also provides the sizzling drum track, returning to his first instrument.

Will Lee, who knew Pastorius in Florida and later in New York City (and who has performed “Teen Town” with the late guitar great Hiram Bullock), notes, “The original track is perfection. It’s got every earmark of Jaco in it, starting with his intense feel. That’s how he lived his life — everything he did had an urgency, almost like he knew his time was going to be short, and he had to lay it all down now. He was into jazz horn players, R&B bass greats, and the Latin and Caribbean sounds around him in Florida, and somewhere between the three was where he existed. I first saw him playing with [Florida trumpeter/ saxophonist] Ira Sullivan around 1973, and he was using jazz licks and patterns, like cycles of 1-2-3-5, to mark time and construct his bass lines. He’d use them to find his way around the fingerboard and learn how to get in and out of the chord changes. I felt like I was watching someone who was in the process of figuring it all out in a very fast, urgent kind of way — and indeed, he was his fully formed self not too long after that. All these years later, Jaco still kicks every bass player’s butt. And as we aspire to reach his level, it’s a lot of fun being inspired by him.”

THE INTRO, MELODY & BRIDGE “Teen Town” 2019 begins with 16 bars of greasy groove bass in C major, courtesy of John King (with some quick peek-outs from Andre Berry). Following a four-bar intro at 0:45, where East’s foundation bass line begins, the melody enters at 0:57. Garfield notes, “At first I wanted a non-bass instrument for the melody, and I had Michael Thompson cut it on guitar. But then I decided I wanted Will Lee to have prominent role, because of both our long friendship and him knowing Jaco from the Miami scene. So I had him double Michael’s melody for the first 16 bars and then play the last eight himself.” Offers Lee, “I wanted to do something different, so I re-strung my Sadowsky [NYC Will Lee model] ADGC, and when I doubled Michael’s guitar melody, I included the twist he added to the end of one the phrases [1:17–1:20]. Then I kicked on my MXR M82 Bass Envelope Filter for the rest of the melody [at 1:41].” Example 1 shows Lee’s fill to end the melody at 2:00 and his soulful, improvised excerpts answering soprano saxophonist Steve Tavaglione’s transition melody and solo. The last phrase, in bar 5, echoes a theme from Weather Report’s “Mysterious Traveller” [Mysterious Traveller, 1974, Columbia], but Lee credits the inspiration of Herbie Hancock’s 1973 version of “Watermelon Man” [Headhunters, Columbia] for the lick. Moving to the bridge, at 2:25, Garfield switches from a funk feel to a stadium-rock vibe, marked by a pounding drum figure by Abraham Laboriel Jr. and Gary Novak, inspired by Queen’s “We Will Rock You” [single, 1977, EMI].

THE SOLO SECTION With his idea for a Latin/Afro-Cuban solo section in place, Garfield chose a tempo modulation to pick up the pace. “We go from a quarter-note pulse to a dotted quarter-note pulse, so it’s about one-third faster than the opening tempo.” The section starts at 2:59 with eight bars of drummer Jimmy Branly and percussionist Luis Conte. Then the bass solos begin over the four-bar progression of E7-C#7-A7-F#7. Alphonso Johnson is up first with a deft dash through the changes (at 3:14), followed by John Peña, Garfield’s most frequent bass collaborator. Peña relates, “I first met Jaco at a Latin jam session in Fort Lauderdale. He was very into Afro-Cuban and Caribbean music. You hear a lot of those rhythms in his playing, but there were so many aspects of his style to draw inspiration from. I used my Miura MB2 5-string [with a low B], with the back pickup favored. I thought of Jaco and went for it.” Example 2 contains Peña’s solo (at 3:29), which unfolds as two two-bar phrases. Hearing Garfield’s choice of 13sus keyboard chords, he ascends with an E pentatonic shape, peaking with a “Teen Town”-nodding chromatic line (C#-D-D#), before descending into the montuno-like melody in bar 2. In bar 3, he mines the upper partials of the A13sus and resolves it in bar 4 using modal-sounding 4ths that touch on all the upper color tones of the F13sus. Next up is Jimmy Earl, with a Latin-tinged four bars, followed by Jimmy Johnson’s singing fretless stepout. At 3:43, Ernest Tibbs breaks out with some bebop “language” via his Xotic Lightweight 5-string (with low B). He recalls, “I learned ‘Teen Town’ in the tenth grade. I was such a fan of Jaco that I used to wear a beret, like he did.” He credits his soloing approach to having studied and then taught at Musicians Institute in L.A., specifically under the tutelage of staffer/Sarah Vaughan pianist Carl Schroeder. “I come from the Pat Martino school of approaching dominant chords using minor chord shapes a 5th higher — so, for E13, I’m thinking Bm9. I also practiced the scales for all four chords in the progression on my 5-string in one position around the 12th fret, so that I could play through the changes without having to move my left hand much.” Example 3 shows Tibbs’ solo, which, like John Peña’s, unfolds as two two-bar phrases. Using two chromatic approach notes within the first beat, he ascends outlining a Bm9(11) chord and descends using a G#m9 arpeggio. His second phrase (again with a chromatic approach-note start) ascends through the A13sus chord and, in a cool bit of spontaneity, he reacts to Garfield’s one-time use of an F#13(#11) by employing notes from the C# melodic minor scale (C#-D#-E-F#-G#-A#-B#-C#). “David winked at me for catching that.”

Following Tibbs is Dirty Loops’ Henrik Linder, craftily combining a chordal and jazz approach; Paul Peterson using a pick to pump out some tasty phrases; Sean McNabb unleashing a mini-storm of overdriven taps, hammers, and bends; John King returning for an expressive series of solo statements; and Abraham Laboriel Sr. applying his signature galloping rolls and slides. John Patitucci is next, manning his prototype Yamaha semi-hollow 6-string. He explains, “Jaco was an innovator who influenced and inspired every bass player. ‘Teen Town’ was amid the wave of his most creative period, and it messed everyone up — we all had to learn it. What makes it unique is it’s very bass-oriented. It doesn’t sound like a horn or vocal melody. It’s a series of funky, bluesy motifs articulated in Jaco’s unique, percussive way, due to his background as a drummer, and coming up around the R&B and Afro-Cuban/ Caribbean sounds of Florida. From his jazz influences, there’s his use of parallel harmony both on ‘Teen Town’ and ‘Havona’ [also on Heavy Weather], which employ unrelated chord changes moving in set intervals. That started in jazz with composers like [tenor saxophonist] Joe Henderson on his album Inner Urge [1966, Blue Note], as well as with Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock. All of them impacted Jaco’s writing.” Example 4 shows Patitucci’s solo at 4:29. Starting with some wide intervallic leaps through the upper partials of the E13 and C#13 chords, he hits upon a rising theme in the third measure that he develops right through the bluesy string bend in the last measure. “It’s a challenge to develop an idea in only four bars that are going by quickly. I tried to play motifs and tell a story. The key is to create melodies with linear integrity through harmonic motion and voice leading, so it doesn’t sound like you’re just playing a bunch of licks.”

Patitucci is followed by Carlitos Del Puerto, who provides the track’s lone upright bass contributions. He remembers, “I was blown away the first time I heard ‘Teen Town.’ I couldn’t believe how powerful Weather Report sounded with the addition of Jaco. What excited me was the tune’s harmonic movement, which was so fresh, and the call-andanswer between Jaco’s bass playing and his drumming throughout.” Example 5 shows Del Puerto’s solo, at 4:35. Employing a classic Jaco device in the first two measures, he locks into a four-note descending groove figure (root-7th-5th-root an octave below) and repeats it four times with a 16th-rest in between, causing it to shift rhythmically over the 4/4 meter. He then climbs through the chord tones of the A13sus in the third measure, setting up a slick, syncopated polyrhythm for the last measure, as he ascends via an F# triad. He says, “I was trying to pay tribute to Jaco and his spirit by playing from the heart and having fun.” Rounding out the soloists is Italian icon Federico Malaman, with a crescendoing, horn-like finale.

MELODY & OUTRO Following the bass solos (and still in the Latin tempo) comes Tavaglione’s four-bar interlude melody and the first four measures of the returning eight-bar bass melody. The first two-bar phrase is grabbed by Patitucci, the second by Peña. Then the time shifts back to the starting tempo, with the return of the stadium-rock drum figure, as Jimmy Johnson plays the last four bars of the melody. Last, the outro is marked by a return to the original swung funk feel and the melody’s final seven notes (F#-F#-E-F#-F#-E-F#) repeated in unison by the ensemble. A handful of bassists contribute additional bits and pieces, but this is where Nathan East steps forward. He fills between the repeated melody beginning at 5:18, using his signature Yamaha BBNE2 5-string (as he did for his earlier bass line), this time with the back pickup favored slightly. Says East — who turned Eric Clapton onto the Heavy Weather album, which made such an impact that Clapton used “A Remark You Made” as an intro to “Layla” on his tours — “We can use the word genius without hesitation when it comes to Jaco. And ‘Teen Town’ stands as one of the most exceptional pieces of music ever composed and performed on bass. I got to meet Jaco at Devonshire Studios in L.A., where Weather Report would record, and he was fun to be around. He was into the brotherhood of the bass, and he was always enthusiastic about what he was recording and excited to have you check it out.” Example 6 contains East’s improv, which perfectly captures Jaco’s original “Teen Town” ethic of playing a series of melodic motifs. Especially “Teen”-like are the climb in bar 3 and the bop-ish descending phrase in the bars 5 and 6. “I just tried to honor Jaco by doing my version of his style.”