MUSIC THEORY BOOKS
New PDFs Available!
Book 1: Running Triad Arpeggios
Book 2: Triad Resolutions
Book 3: Planning Inside & Outside
Book 4: Pentatonic Semitone Study
Book 17th: Running 7th Chord Arpeggios
BUY HERE
OTHER MUSIC THEORY BOOKS BY FELIX PASTORIUS
Hot Dog Dinners focuses on the four most common scales in western music and their basic structure.
Scales from Rhythm and Outer Space features 38 individual 7 note scales, and their inherent rhythms, modes, and triads.
Just ASIP of Coffee & The Chromatic Scale breaks down the scale into even notational distances.
Felix Pastorius: ”Even if Jaco wasn’t my father, I’d still be comparing myself to other bassists”
Felix Pastorius on the importance of an artist’s individuality, managing fans’ expectations and befriending your bass… By
…Our questions for Felix are arguably aimed at his late father just as much as they aimed at him. Although Jaco didn’t live to see his son follow in his musical footsteps, the inevitable associations of that unique surname connect their creative mindset to a profound degree.
Consider the case of the late John Lennon and his sons Julian and Sean; it’s not too much of a stretch to consider the two father-son relationships as parallel.
To Felix’s immense credit, he responds to our questions with tolerance and good humor – exactly, we hope, as his dad might well have done.
”Yes, I’m very fortunate that way. I have a touring band called Hipster Assassins, and I’ve done a lot of tours over the last 11 years with the drummer Cindy Blackman-Santana, who is such a great person to play and work with.
”We’ve just recorded a live album with her band. I also play with Jazz Is Phish, which has a lot of musicians in it from bands such as Ghost Note and Snarky Puppy, and I’m a part of a group called Social Experiment.
”I really want to mention Venture, which is me, Mike Clark on drums, Mark Sherman on vibraphone and Chase Baird on saxophone: we’ve recorded an album and we’ll be touring when that becomes possible again. There’s also a collaboration with Keith Carlock, Nir Felder, and Jeff Coffin which I’m really enjoying.”
Read the full article here
Felix Pastorius Pursues Multiple Paths
By Bill Milkowski | Jul. 23, 2019
Seeing Felix Pastorius in action with his band, the Hipster Assassins, it’s impossible not to think of his famous father, Jaco Pastorius (1951–’87). The familial likeness is uncanny, but the 6-foot-6-inch Felix is much taller than his dad was.
He possesses a couple of other distinctive Pastorius traits—double-jointed thumbs, and unusually long fingers that allow for some singular chordal voicings and stretches on the fretboard of his bass. What’s different about father and son is that Jaco was a four-string bassist who developed his signature voice on a fretless axe, while Felix plays a six-string, fretted bass. And while Jaco’s legacy might have weighed heavily on his son’s shoulders early on in his career, Felix, at age 37, has developed his own vocabulary on the instrument and built an impressive career.
“Being a bass player and being Jaco Pastorius’ son can’t be easy, but this guy’s got a graceful way of wearing all that,” said veteran drummer Mike Clark, who plays alongside Pastorius in the cooperative quartet Venture; the band made its recorded debut in 2018 on Ropeadope. “He’s just his own guy. He’s kind of a lone wolf and he’s quiet. He’s kind of chill compared to all the sharks up here in New York. But he can play, there’s no doubt.”
…Since 2001, Felix has played with Jeff Coffin’s Mu’tet, a group the saxophonist leads when he’s not on the road with the Dave Matthews Band. “Felix has become the bass player I always knew he could be,” Coffin said. “He’s been fiercely dedicated to whatever he does since I’ve known him and he puts all of his focus and effort into it. His decision to be a great bass player was a conscious one, I believe. He’s always had an incredible feel and time, and everything else worked its way in through experience. I am exceedingly proud of him and thrilled that more people have found out about his incredible musicianship. It was only a matter of time.”
It was Victor Wooten, an important mentor in Pastorius’ life, who recommended the young bassist for the Mu’tet gig nearly 20 years ago. “I remember when Felix first visited one of my music camps,” said Wooten, who encountered the aspiring bassist at his Bass/Nature retreat in the Tennessee woods back in 2001. “I was walking up to a building with my friend, Steve Bailey, and heard what sounded like a newer version of Jaco Pastorius coming from inside. We knew it had to be Felix. The sound was authentic. Felix has been impressing me and raising the bar ever since. He has developed into a complete musician with his own sound.”
Read the full article here
Felix Pastorius: Next in the Continuum
By Bill Milkowski | April 26, 2019
Jaco’s son honors his father’s legacy in his own terms
It was only a matter of time. You could see the potential there nearly 20 years ago, when an 11-year-old Felix Pastorius participated in a 1993 tribute to his father, the late, great Jaco, who’d passed six years prior. At the now-defunct Cat Club in Manhattan, Felix performed renditions of “Continuum” and “Come On, Come Over” with his twin brother, Julius. Sporting baseball caps, high-top sneakers and matching Fender basses, the boys were a cute and touching sight to behold, but they were also nailing Jaco’s anthems note-for-note. Read more
Felix Pastorius
The son of Jaco Pastorius, Felix Pastorius has worked hard and achieved his own voice on the electric bass. He continues to write and release his own Music Theory books. He is the bassist for his bands Hipster Assassins and Social Experiment; and tours with Cindy Blackman Santana and Jeff Coffin’s Mutet; and has worked with the Yellowjackets, A$AP Rocky, Onyx Collective, etc.