Big band originally led by electric bassist Jaco Pastorius from 1980 to 1982. During Pastorius' lifetime, the band was featured on one studio album released under Pastorius' name ([m49085]), and was recorded live on several occasions, leading to one live album during Pastorius' lifetime ([m129936]), and several released posthumously, again mostly under Pastorius' name alone, including [m1175692], [m232274], [m1532922], and [m927391].

The band was revived by trombonist Peter Graves in 2003 as The Jaco Pastorius Big Band and released two studio albums featuring guest bass players who typically played on one or two tracks per album.