Dixie Dregs feat. Jaco Pastorius - Blues Jam( Live in 1982)

Here's a recording someone requested recently of Jaco Pastorius sitting in and jamming with the legendary jazz/rock/country fusion band Dixie Dregs. (T. Lavitz - keyboards, Steve Morse - guitar, Rod Morgenstein - drums) The gig took place on September the 26th in Fort Lauderdale in 1982, in other words only weeks after Jaco had returned from his turbulent tour of Japan with the WOM big band which as we all know is the first period where the most severe symptoms of his bipolar disorder really started to manifest themselves, although there had been signs before. There is however nothing in this performance that indicates that Jaco was not having anything but a great time! His playing here is focused, full of dynamics and he drives the band like few if any other bassists could do at the time. He's tearing it up, it's as simple as that! The guitarist in the band, Steve Morse, had known Jaco since the early years in Miami and had the following to say about their friendship in a recent interview:

"Jaco Pastorius was a friend. He was someone I knew in Miami when I was attending the University of Miami’s School of Music. One of the highlights of my time there was going to his place and jamming with him. When he joined Weather Report, it became one of my favorite bands.
He ended up going through a real bad phase, but he was very coherent and sincere with me back when we were in school. He had so much energy. He literally couldn’t play it off. If he was in a band and they did a gig with five or six sets a night, that still wasn’t enough for him. He was an absolute powerhouse and he had this natural energy that infected everyone around him. He was a lot of fun.
One time, he sat in with the Dregs and started playing a solo. We hadn’t planned on that or anything. It was during the end of our set. Jaco just kept going on and on and on until we finally put down our instruments and walked off stage. And then he just kept on playing! [laughs] That was Jaco. He was into his thing and he couldn’t stop playing.
When I jammed with Jaco, he was hard to keep up with. He would fly in and keep changing the starting point of what we were doing, but I enjoyed being around such an amazing talent.
Jaco used to always give me ideas for the Dregs. Once, he said “Here’s a thing I think you guys would be great at doing.” I said, “Jaco, we don’t have horns.” He replied “Yeah, but it’s just that one part. You can do it.” A lot of his ideas didn’t fit us. He’d often give us horn charts and stuff to play, but we never did. I said “Look, I’m just doing my thing with this, but I appreciate it.”
I really hated seeing him lose his perspective and kind of go overboard. I hate what happened to him. It’s horrible. It’s something I’m sure could have been straightened out with some kind of prescription—something to mellow him out a little bit. He was an uncontainable force. He literally had too much to say to the world. He was such an incredible player when he was in a band. Nobody could see him play and not just start smiling."