Editing Jaco Pastorius (section)

===Weather Report===
{{Further|Weather Report}}
Before recording his debut album, Pastorius attended a concert in [[Miami]] by the jazz fusion band [[Weather Report]]. After the concert, he approached keyboardist [[Joe Zawinul]], who led the band. As was his habit, he introduced himself by saying, "I'm John Francis Pastorius III. I'm the greatest bass player in the world."<ref name="DVD">{{cite AV media |people=Trjullo, Robert (Producer) |date=2015 |title=Jaco |medium= DVD|location= Los Angeles|publisher= Slang East/West}}</ref> Zawinul admired his brashness and asked for a demo tape. After listening to the tape, Zawinul realized that Pastorius had considerable skill.<ref name="Milkowski 2005"/> They corresponded, and Pastorius sent Zawinul a rough mix of his solo album.

After bassist [[Alphonso Johnson]] left Weather Report, Zawinul asked Pastorius to join the band. Pastorius made his band debut on the album ''[[Black Market (Weather Report album)|Black Market]]'' ([[Columbia Records|Columbia]], 1976), in which he shared the bass chair with Johnson. Pastorius was fully established as sole band bass player for the recording of ''[[Heavy Weather (album)|Heavy Weather]]'' (Columbia, 1977), which contained the Grammy-nominated hit "[[Birdland (instrumental composition)|Birdland]]".<ref name="opens" />

During his time with Weather Report, Pastorius began abusing alcohol and illegal drugs,<ref name="Milkowski 2005" /> which exacerbated existing mental problems and led to erratic behavior.<ref>Tom Moon 1987</ref> He left Weather Report in 1982 because of clashes with tour commitments for his other projects, plus a growing dissatisfaction with Zawinul's synthesized and orchestrated approach to the band's music.<ref name="Milkowski 2005" />