Joe Pass

Joe Pass (born Joseph Anthony Passalaqua, January 13, 1929, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA, died May 23, 1994, Los Angeles, California, USA), was a virtuoso jazz guitarist.

One of the greatest solo jazz artists of all time, Joe Pass also ranks as one of the great guitarists not only for his knowledge of the instrument and technical prowess, but also his composing and improvisational skills.

Born into a non-musical family, Joe started to play the guitar when he was 9. He remembers his father Mariano, a steel mill worker, recognising early that his son had "a little something happening" and pushing him constantly to pick up tunes by ear, play pieces not written specifically for the instrument, practise scales (including whole-tone, chromatic and diminished) and not to "leave any spaces" - that is, to fill in the sonic space between the notes of the melody.

As early as 14, Joe started getting gigs and soon was playing with bands fronted by greats such as Tony Pastor and Charlie Barnet, honing his guitar skills and learning the music business. He began spending significant amount of time away from his home, traveling with small jazz groups and eventually moving from Pennsylvania to New York City. He did not pick up drinking and other bad habits from the musicians directly, but, in his words, "it was part of the whole scene". In a few years Joe fell victim to drug abuse, and spent much of the 1950s in relative obscurity.

Pass managed to emerge from it through a two-and-a-half-year stay at a (since discredited) drug rehabilitation program, Synanon healing. During that time he at first abandoned the instrument completely, and returned to playing very slowly. His first "comeback" record in 1962, titled "The Sounds of Synanon", finds him playing a solid body rock guitar donated to the program.

It was Norman Granz, the keen producer of Verve records, who, upon hearing Pass in 1970, immediately recognised the "new talent" and signed him to the label, bringing Joe into the "stable" that included, among others, Benny Carter, Milt Jackson, Herb Ellis, Zoot Sims, but most importantly Ray Brown, Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen and Oscar Peterson. A drummerless trio with Peterson and one of the two great bassists would become the format in which Pass would make one of his most lasting impressions on the development of hard bop.

In addition to that, the jazz community regards Joe Pass most significantly as a peerless solo guitarist. Contributing to his trademark style are fast single-note runs which make extensive use of hammer-on technique (when the string is made to vibrate by forceful pressing against the fret with the fingers of the left hand) and adoption of the very short pick (in fact, he made them by snapping regular picks in half), which allowed him to combine those runs (or the picked bass line) with dense finger-style chords, often utilizing the little finger on the right hand. His series of solo albums, "Virtuoso" (volumes 1 through 4), is a must-have for any serious jazz collector.

Selected discography:

Solo albums:

• The Stones Jazz
• Virtuoso
• Virtuoso II
• Virtuoso III
• Virtuoso IV
• Virtuoso Live!
• At Montreux Jazz Festival
• Montreux '77 - Live
• I Remember Charlie Parker
• University Of Akron Concert
• Blues For Fred
• What Is There To Say
• Songs For Ellen

With Oscar Peterson:

• A Salle Pleyel
• Porgy and Bess
• The Good Life (with Niels Pedersen)
• The Trio (with Niels Pedersen)
• The Paris Concert (with Niels Pedersen)
• The Giants (with Ray Brown)
• If You Could See Me Now (with Niels Pedersen, Ella Fitzgerald:
• Take Love Easy
• Sophisticated Lady
• Fitzgerald And Pass... Again
• Speak Love
• Easy Living

With other guitarists:

• For Django (with John Pisano)
• Joe's Blues (with Herb Ellis)
• Jazz Concord (with Herb Ellis)
• Seven Come Eleven (with Herb Ellis)
• Two For The Road (with Herb Ellis)
• Ira, George And Joe (with John Pisano)
• Summer Nights (with John Pisano)
• Appassionato (with John Pisano)
• Duets (with John Pisano)
• Live at Yoshi's (with John Pisano)
• My Song (with John Pisano)