I UTFSF and this hasn't been done before.

Nooristown, ho!

He is extremely talented. Some of his albums can be a little much, though.

Not crap overall.

fantasic first album, with sadly diminishing returns as he succumbed to drugs. Reinvented the bass as an instrument in a way that has not since been repeated, as well as being a great melodic writer.

Stands well clear of all the manrings and wootens in my opinion, as he established a good balance between technique and the material, as opposed to just playing all over the song for no good reason

not crap

Not Crap, but he sure as fuck inspired a lot of it.

Not Crap. The way I see it he was the second most important bass guitar player in the history of the instrument. I do agree with Antero that he did inspire a lot of crap. To me that is a testament to how important he was in the grand scheme of bass guitar history.

Who would you say the first is, James Jamerson?

Yes.

jamerson definatly did kick start the exploration of bass, as did larry graham, manring was a student of jaco, and unfortunatly much like all techincal marvles on any instrument, he over plays and as a result stinks up a storm. i myself am pretty influenced by jaco and claypool. but alas i do not play like that anymore, it was fun when i was a kid but it gets old fast. its all about the space in between the notes for me now!

Not crap, but yes he did indeed inspire mountains of wank.

A couple of year's ago on Valentine's Day, I played "Crisis" by Jaco on my radio show for no particular reason really, and while it was playing, this dude, who was at the time going out with a girl that I sort of had a thing for my freshman year, called me and told me to play something more romantic for that girl and him.

Jaco isnpired me in my early youth. It was fun playing fast and complicated lines. I did it for the fun, never in a song with a band or something.

He was the Jimi Hendrix of bass and only one or two records he played were crap.

Go Teen Town!