Of course he asked you to back up his statement and was amazed at your answer. This is a common misnomer I've heard many times before. I don't like fret noise. It's that simple. I spent time trying to make a legato sound on an instrument that wasn't known to produce this sound.
Necessity is the mother of invention.
I wanted to try to sound fretless. If I haven't succeeded, I'm close enough that many listeners think that I play the fretless bass. Active sounds, well, too active for my ear. You then played a beautiful Augmented Major 7 chord producing a smile from Jacos' face. Bass players are notorious for their lack of chordal knowledge.