Portrait of Tracy

“Portrait of Tracy“ is a composition by bassist Jaco Pastorius. It appears on his landmark self-titled debut album, and is widely recorded as a tribute by bassists such as Joe Ferry, Marcus Miller, Victor Wooten, Brian Bromberg, and others. It is considered by many a bass guitar standard, and is often used as a benchmark for a bassist’s abilities. The song is played almost exclusively with natural harmonics, giving it a dreamy, unfamiliar tone for the bass, which is common in Pastorious’ Style. The song has been sampled as well, most notably, SWV’s “Rain“, Cannibal Ox’s “Pigeon“, Amon Tobin’s “Daytrip“, Chingy and Tyrese’s “Pulling Me Back“, Wagon Christ’s Mr. Mukatsuku, Steve Spacek’s “Hey There“and Hotstylz Faucet.