Holiday for Pans

Holiday for Pans is an album by jazz fusion bassist Jaco Pastorius. Recorded between 1980 and 1982 at several New York City studios, the album was intended to be Pastorius' third solo album (following 1981's Word of Mouth).[1]

Holiday for Pans
Studio album by
Jaco Pastorius
Released1993
Recorded1980-1982
StudioThe Power Station
KCC Studio
Jingle Studio
GenreJazz fusion, steel drum
Length56:56
LabelWarner Bros. Records (rejected)
Sound Hills (Japan)
ProducerJaco Pastorius
Peter Yianilos

Pastorius' record label Warner Bros. refused to release the album on the basis that it was "extremely esoteric": Pastorius was well-known as a bass guitar prodigy, yet Holiday for Pans was largely a showcase for steel drum performances by longtime collaborator Othello Molineaux.[2] The album also features contributions from Pastorius' Weather Report bandmates Wayne Shorter and Don Alias, harmonica virtuoso Toots Thielmans, as well as orchestration from the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.[2]

Pastorius spent the last several years of his life searching for a label to release Holiday for Pans, to no avail. At the time of the bassist's death in 1987, the tapes were left in the possession of engineer Kenny Jackel.[2] Against the wishes of the Pastorius family, Jackel sold the recordings to Japanese record label Sound Hills, which released the album in 1993.[3] To date, the album remains unreleased in the United States, although the website of the Pastorius estate now appears to recognize the album.[4] The Penguin Guide to Jazz has labeled the recording "by far the most imaginative project Pastorius ever undertook."[5]

Recording

The sessions for Holiday for Pans took place between 1980 and 1982 at least three New York City recording studios: The Power Station, KCC Studio, and Jingle Studio.[6] The sessions were produced by Pastorius and Peter Yianilos. The album serves to highlight the steel drum playing of Othello Molineaux, who had become associated with Pastorius shortly after the musician relocated to New York in the mid-1970s. Molineaux performed on many of Pastorius' albums, including his self-titled album, Word of Mouth, Twins and Invitation.[7] Molineaux is now credited as one of the first steel drum artists to break ground in the American jazz scene.[7]

There are disputing accounts regarding the status of Holiday for Pans, with some sources claiming that the record is no more than crude demo tapes, or that it was possibly intended as an Othello Molineaux solo album (with Pastorius' name to be attached as a producer and collaborator). However, Bill Milkowski's 1995 biography of Pastorius clearly asserts that the musician intended Holiday for Pans to be his third solo album, and tried in vain for most of the 1980s to secure a release for the record.[8]

In addition to the steel drum work of Molineaux, the recording features Wayne Shorter on "Elegant People" (also written by Shorter).[2] "Mysterious Mountain" was written by Alan Hovhaness, and features orchestration from the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Other covers include The Beatles' "She's Leaving Home" and John Coltrane's "Giant Steps". The title track is a play on the David Rose song "Holiday for Strings". Holiday for Pans also includes three Pastorius originals: "Good Morning Anya", "City of Angels", and "Birth of Island".[2]

Rejection by Warner Bros.

Holiday for Pans was intended as a follow-up to Pastorius' 1981 Warner Bros. release Word of Mouth. However, Word of Mouth garnered lukewarm sales, cooling his relationship with the company. In addition, Pastorius' behavior became increasingly erratic as the 1980s moved forward, due to a combination of the musician's undiagnosed bipolar disorder and a growing substance abuse problem.[9] His actions began to concern those who worked for Warner Bros., concert promoters, as well as the musicians with whom he performed.

Ricky Schultz, one of the record executives responsible for signing Jaco to Warner Bros., stated that the label was "expecting something more in the commercial fusion genre, like Return to Forever or something along the lines of Weather Report's Mr. Gone. But Holiday for Pans was extremely esoteric — it was basically a vehicle for Othello Molineaux that Jaco had produced. It wasn't very well received by the powers at the label."[2] To recoup their losses on the project, Warner Bros. instead released Invitation in 1983, a live album composed primarily of cover songs.

Search for new label

During a May 1983 interview for Guitar World, a scattered Pastorius mentioned his excitement over the project: "I have a record you will not believe: Holiday for Pans, which I adapted from David Rose's "Holiday for Strings" and arranged for Othello Molineaux, the steel drum player who's with me on Word of Mouth."[10] In the same interview, he made the dubious claim that he had funded the recordings himself, stating, "...I have about twenty-four master tapes that I paid for myself."[10]

Following the rejection by Warner Bros., the Holiday for Pans project laid dormant for approximately four years. For some period of time, the master tapes were stranded in a friend's van, which had been impounded in a New Jersey tow-yard.[8] In 1986, during a 17-week stay at Bellevue Hospital, Pastorius began obsessing over the tapes, believing that they were the key to his commercial comeback. After securing a day-pass release from Bellevue, Pastorius mixed down Holiday for Pans at "a small jingle studio on the Upper East Side," with Kenny Jackel engineering.[11] Pastorius left the master tapes in Jackel's possession, instructing him: "Don't give them up to anybody except me."[11] The tapes remained in a closet at Jackel's studio for several years.[12]

During the final months of his life, Pastorius attempted to shop Holiday for Pans around to various labels. He instructed writer and friend Bill Milkowski to dub cassettes of the rough mixes created at Jackel's studio for submission to different record companies.[12] Ultimately, Pastorius was unsuccessful in finding another label to release Holiday for Pans.[13] While he still guested on various releases during the mid-1980s, Pastorius' behavior and deteriorated professional relationships prevented him from securing another record contract before his death in 1987.

Japanese release

In 1993, Billboard reported that the head of Japanese label Sound Hills Records (owned by distribution company Super Stop) paid Kenny Jackel $155,000 in cash for the Holiday for Pans master tapes;[3] Jackel fled the United States for Thailand shortly prior to the sale. Sound Hills released the album in Japan on April 26, 1993.[6] The label would go on to press Holiday for Pans several more times over the years: as The Full Complete Sessions 3-CD set in 1999 (featuring several outtakes), and again as The Comprehensive Brand New Edition in 2001 (featuring one outtake).[14][15]

Through their lawyer, the Pastorius estate released a statement: "During the period of confusion and chaos for Jaco, a man named Kenny Jackel ingratiated himself and convinced Jaco to 'store' the 13 2-inch reels containing the unfinished, unmixed rhythm tracks." The press release also claimed that Jackel hired a studio musician to perform "counterfeit Jaco" bass performances over some of the tracks, and that Pastorius plays no bass on the album.[3]

The Billboard article notes that the family was joined by Molineaux and Yianilos in pursuing legal action to recover the master tapes, and had requested the FBI's assistance in banning import or sale of the Sounds Hill pressing of Holiday for Pans within the United States.[3]

Reception

AllMusic summed up the Holiday for Pans saga in their review, noting: "In 1986, Pastorius remixed four of the tracks, but years later (after his death), Kenny Jackel claimed all engineering responsibilities for the project, stole the master tapes of the recordings and sold them to Super Stop, an Osaka-based distribution company." Despite the fact that AllMusic gave the album a one-and-a-half star rating — largely on the grounds that the album was not officially sanctioned by the Pastorius estate at the time of its release — their review notes that "the CD does contain some great passages."[1]

In their 1994 review, The Penguin Guide to Jazz gave the record four stars, labeling it "an oddity, but a rather marvelous one. The imaginative use of steel drums is a throw-back to the bassist's Florida upbringing."[5] They ended by saying that although Holiday for Pans is "idiosyncratic in the extreme, it's by far the most imaginative project Pastorius ever undertook."[5] In 1999, The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz also gave Holiday for Pans a four-star review.[16] Writing for The Rough Guide to Jazz in 2004, Ian Carr selected Holiday for Pans as one of three touchstone recordings by Pastorius that readers should seek out. Carr describes the album as "Pastorius in collaboration with Michael Gibbs and an ensemble which includes the great Toots Thielemans, in a joyfully creative orchestral deployment of West Indian steel drums."[17]

Not all reviews were as warm. In their 1994 review, Gramophone called the title track "a rather ghastly reworking of 'Holiday for Strings.'"[18]

Legacy

In 2003, "Good Morning Anya", was included on the Warner Bros./Rhino Records compilation Punk Jazz: The Jaco Pastorius anthology, a collection that brought "together rarities, live tracks, and material recorded for several different labels";[9] the release marked the first time any music from Holiday for Pans was released in an official capacity.[19]

The 1993 pressing of Holiday for Pans is now recognized on Jaco Pastorius' official website.[4]

Tracklisting
  1. "Mysterious Mountain" (Alan Hovhaness) – 1:32
  2. "Elegant People" (Wayne Shorter) – 6:44
  3. "Good Morning Anya" (Jaco Pastorius) – 5:31
  4. "She’s Leaving Home" (John Lennon/Paul McCartney) – 3:34
  5. "Holiday For Pans" (based on "Holiday for Strings") (David Rose) – 3:13
  6. "Giant Steps" (John Coltrane) – 3:12
  7. "City of Angels" (Pastorius) – 8:53
  8. "Birth of Island" (Pastorius) – 23:44

Personnel

Credits as listed in the 1993 Sound Hills CD release[6] and The Penguin Guide to Jazz:[5]

  • Jaco Pastorius – Bass, steel drums (bass pan), percussion, keyboards, vocals
  • Othello Molineaux – Steel drums

Additional musicians

References
  1. AllMusic review: Holiday for Pans.
  2. Milkowski, Bill (1995). Jaco: The Extraordinary and Tragic Life of Jaco Pastorius, "The World's Greatest Bass Player". San Francisco: Miller Freeman. p. 135. ISBN 0-87930-361-1.
  3. Billboard Magazine article: "Pastorius CDs in Japan Bogus, Estate Alleges" by Steve McClure. July 10, 1993.
  4. Jacopastorius.com page: "Holiday for Pans"
  5. The Penguin Guide to Jazz on Compact Disc by Richard Cook and Brian Morton, p. 1197.
  6. Discogs entry for 1993 Sound Hills release of Holiday for Pans
  7. The Emergence of the U.S. School Steel Band Movement: The Saga of Steel by Brandon L. Haskett, 2018. p. 23-24.
  8. Milkowski, Bill (1995). Jaco: The Extraordinary and Tragic Life of Jaco Pastorius, "The World's Greatest Bass Player". San Francisco: Miller Freeman. p. 190. ISBN 0-87930-361-1.
  9. Bohemian article: Review - Punk Jazz
  10. Guitar World article: "Jaco Pastorius Opens Up in His First Guitar World Interview From 1983" by Peter Mengaziol.
  11. Milkowski, Bill (1995). Jaco: The Extraordinary and Tragic Life of Jaco Pastorius, "The World's Greatest Bass Player". San Francisco: Miller Freeman. p. 191. ISBN 0-87930-361-1.
  12. Milkowski, Bill (1995). Jaco: The Extraordinary and Tragic Life of Jaco Pastorius, "The World's Greatest Bass Player". San Francisco: Miller Freeman. p. 199. ISBN 0-87930-361-1.
  13. Went to See the Gypsy: An Amazing Journey to the Heart of Rock n' Roll by Mark Fogarty. p. 315.
  14. Discogs entry for Holiday for Pans: the Full Complete Sessions.
  15. Discogs entry for Holiday for Pans: the Comprehensive Brand New Edition
  16. The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz by Colin Larkin, 1999. p. 669.
  17. The Rough Guide to Jazz by Ian Carr, Digby Fairweather, Brian Priestley, Charles Alexander, 2004. p. 613.
  18. Gramophone Magazine review: Holiday for Pans
  19. The Guardian article: "Review - Punk Jazz: The Jaco Pastorius Anthology
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