Rick Suchow  is a bassist and songwriter who has worked with 

Ringo Starr, Roberta Flack, Larry Graham, and many others.  

Venue - Breckers'

Date - April, 1981

My one and only meeting with Jaco was back in April of 1981, when he unveiled his new "Word of Mouth" band at the Breckers' small Seventh Avenue South club in NYC.  It was their first gig, and the band was a quintet: Jaco, Don Alias (percussion), Peter Erskine (drums), Mike Brecker (sax) and Bob Mintzer (sax).  I remember a small little drawing in the window of the club with the words 'Word Of Mouth' on it - no mention of the players.

Jaco and the band were burning that night - fortunately for me, I had brought my little cassette recorder.  The recording quality was a bit weak, but the historical value priceless, and I have since burned the recording on CD to make sure I have it forever.  I sent one to Erskine. Erskine said that at one point during 'Invitation' (the opening tune, and done at a blazing fast tempo) he and Brecker felt like they were lost and he remembered the two of them looking at each other on stage.  Peter said he got a kick out of hearing that one tune in particular.

Anyway, at the end of the set I boldly knocked on the band's dressing room door, and met Jaco.  I showed him a sketched drawing of his first album cover I had brought with me, which my artist girlfriend had drawn a few days earlier.  Jaco kind of stared at it for a minute and had this big grin on his face.  We chatted for a little while, and he was sure that he knew me from somewhere, in fact asked me several times.  I assured him that I had no memory of meeting him prior.  In any event, he autographed the drawing (wrote "Jaco '81 Breck's") and then gave it to the rest of the band to sign (everyone did except for Alias, who I think was not in the room).  He was very gracious and I'm glad I had the opportunity to meet him.

My other memory of that night was seeing Marcus Miller in the crowd as I was getting ready to leave, and going over to ask him if he would sign the drawing that Jaco and the band had just signed - but he laughed and said no thanks, I think he was as in awe of Jaco and the performance he had just seen as everyone else in the club was.