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'A Remark You Made' by Weather Report and the rest of the 1976 WR CD 'Heavy Weather'. Jaco's definitive moment with that band and an LP that changed the way we heard the bass forever. 'A Remark You Made' is actually quite easy to play and should sound convincing quite quickly so its a good place to start. Percy Jones plays great fretless but his style is so personal it is very hard to relate it to things outside of Brand X. Very creative, tho'. There are a few great Joni Mitchell CDs with Jaco on called 'Shadows & Light', 'Hejira' and 'Mingus'; fantastic use of space and text book melodic fretless bass playing. The fretless bass is an infintely more expressive instrument than a fretted one. I rarely play fretted since I got a Wal Custom in 1986. Can't get past the clanky sound of metal on metal instead of metal on wood. I hope you learn to love it as much as I have.

I think there is a point to be made here. Many of these monster bass lines/solos are played by people in an improvised setting. Take Jaco's 'Havona'. He didn't have to 'learn' that bass line as he had constructed his lines around the tunes he had written and used a couple of dozen of his own stock licks. Anyone who has spent any length of time listening to Jaco will know that he, like all musicians, repeats himself over and over, using his own signature licks to leave his mark on a piece. But it is important to note that much of what he does is made up on the spot ('Teen Town' being an obvious exception). It is actually a [b]lot[/b] harder to learn a passage that is played like that than it is to burn one of your own. In a more conventional setting, someone like Bruce Foxton would have written a line that felt comfortable under his fingers and that he could play without too much difficulty. Noone in their right mind would compose a complex line for a song that he could pull off only 3/10 times. Someone once said 'amateurs practice until they get it right. Professionals practice until they can't get it wrong'. Geddy Lee plays that solo lick off 'YYZ' perfectly everytime. It can't be hard for him as a, he wrote it and b, he has played it 200 times a year ever since. But have you heard him crucify 'Girl From Ipanema'? Easiest song in the world and he f***s it up! Francis Prestia is known as THE finger style funk player but that's all he does. He can barely put together a jazz bass solo, probably can't play a fretless in tune and definately can't read music. It is more important to play musically and to your strengths than it is to be able to execute every great line you have ever heard. Work on your technique, yes, but learn to play the music not the musicians! And don't get dispondent you can't pull off 'Red Right Returning' by Michael Manring. He probably can't play 'Ace of Spades' like Lemmy either (can you?).