by David Ross SmithPDB, an acronym for the trio Pastorius, Dennard and Bullock, has the distinction of being the weakest of the posthumously released Pastorius live sessions. Recorded in Feb. 1986 in Boston, the compact disc features overall poor sound quality and, more importantly, a flat, washed-out bass which takes a back seat to the guitar and percussion. The playing is generally good as is the selection of cuts. Pastorius plays keys on his beautiful composition "Three Views of a Secret" which features occasional, sudden outbursts of frenetic drumming by Kenny Dennard, a highlight on this otherwise uneventful recording. Pastorius' bass solo is barely audible on Hiram Bullock's "Son of Creeper" as well as on Pastorius' "Continuum" where it should have been quite prominent throughout. The trio's fiery but truncated rendition of "Ode to Billy Joe" falls short of their earlier performance of this same composition on Live in New York City, Vol. 2. In fact, several volumes of the Live in NYC recordings give the listener a better idea of the capabilities and potential of the PDB trio.