Memories of the other Ted Heath, plus Parisien delights.

[Serial_Apologist]

Sound thinking Ian. Perhaps there is some merit in considering Jaco as a bass player first and foremost without the need for genre labels. That said, he could pop off some pretty impressive walking bass lines (Donna Lee) but he'd decorate them in his own inimitable way with all those added harmonics and tricks. I came to him late, after he'd died but I was pretty smitten by the way he used the instrument and learnt much from watching the late video he made with Jerry Jemmot, showing almost everything he knew, not for a novice player!
Not all of his output was consistent, as, I think, even his most ardent fan would have to admit, that goes for most musicians though. Weather Report certainly caught my ear later but Zawinul was very much a shape-shifter and I wasn't that taken by his later material.
Nevertheless, whether or not Jaco was a jazz player or not he certainly knew a four string bass better than anyone. And he was versatile, a decent composer who could get around some interesting harmonic ideas and, with some help, come up with some colourful scores for W of M Band.
I'd certainly concur that Erskine was much sought after and rightly so.

If one thinks of British bass guitarists, in some ways we were ahead of the Yanks: viz. Colin Hodgkinson's highly ornate virtuosity with Alex Korner as early as 1969, and thereafter with the remarkable proto free funk trio Back Door where he managed to combine bass guarding duties with guitar harmonist; and Colin McKenzie with Trevor Watts's Amalgam, from 1976 onwards. We've got our own Pastoriuses (Pastorii?) of course, and they have their own characters: Dill Katz, who was with Barbara Thompson's Paraphernalia and, if I'm not mistaken (better check!) Ian Carr's Nucleus. And there's Fred "Thelonius" Baker, most often associated with the Canterbury jazz-rock scene, eg Phil Miller's In Cahoots (what happened to them, Phil?). Fred T Baker was also with the late great Harry Beckett.

[cloughie]

If one thinks of British bass guitarists, in some ways we were ahead of the Yanks: viz. Colin Hodgkinson's highly ornate virtuosity with Alex Korner as early as 1969, and thereafter with the remarkable proto free funk trio Back Door where he managed to combine bass guarding duties with guitar harmonist; and Colin McKenzie with Trevor Watts's Amalgam, from 1976 onwards. We've got our own Pastoriuses (Pastorii?) of course, and they have their own characters: Dill Katz, who was with Barbara Thompson's Paraphernalia and, if I'm not mistaken (better check!) Ian Carr's Nucleus. And there's Fred "Thelonius" Baker, most often associated with the Canterbury jazz-rock scene, eg Phil Miller's In Cahoots (what happened to them, Phil?). Fred T Baker was also with the late great Harry Beckett.

Jack Bruce was pretty good too!

[Braunschlag]

And Daryl Runswick, what a remarkably versatile musician in all kinds of ways.