Joe Pass Chord Melody arrangments

[frillylizzard]

Hello,

This is a great forum,ive been lurking a while,so decided to join.

Ive been listening to, and watching lots of Joe Pass lately,and love it, some of his books he talks of CM style improvisation.how much of his songs would be improvised and which parts are actually composed.They are amazing as it is and even more so if they are improvised even partially.

thanks for reading

[swampguide]

I was listening to his live solo recording "Blues Dues" last night. Here is a quote from him from the liner notes (emphasis is mine):

"My approach has never been to make an arrangement (though identifying cliches are present in everything you play in one way or another), so what comes out is what you live with - the compensation lies in finding something fresh and new (spontaneous)."

So it sounds like all of what he does is more or less improvised. Amazing...

[mr. beaumont]

I have heard several recordings of Joe Pass doing the same tune. Sometimes the recordings are wildly different. Sometimes, there is obviously a framework he's working from--but it's fluid--everything can be tweaked on the fly.

This is for the "heads" of the tune. Once he goes into the solos, he's truly improvising.