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I'm getting old. I first got hooked on the music of Joe Pass back in the early Seventies. But through all the years, I've never tired of listening to his genius on the guitar.
This morning I was working on his CDs especially with Ella Fitzgerald on YouTube. And truth be told, I think I like these albums better than the Virtuoso series. The reason is that you see and hear the full magic of his craft. For example, his comping with Ella singing standards. There just is no one better in my opinion. And in that role with a singer, Joe was forced to slow down. Just a bit. But I like it when he takes the pace more leisurely than he often did on his solo tour de force albums. I get to savor the notes longer and feel the emotions stronger.
On the DVD Duets from Hanover (1975) I think I hear Joe at the peak of his skills. In the first part of the program he is playing solo. Laura, Wave, My Funny Valentine...Darn That Dream - these songs just flow like a river out of his mind and guitar. Then he is joined by Ella for that other comping side of his playing which is just as fascinating to me. I believe Joe is playing a Gibson on this album - looks like a 175, but I'm not sure. (Maybe someone more knowledgeable can chime in on the guitar he is playing.) Often criticized for the tone on some of his recordings, the tone here is great to my ears.
As I play along with these videos, I feel like I'm in a Master class with Joe. I was musing that if some young talented guitar player aspiring to play jazz guitar but with the choice of only one video to take to a desert island asked for my opinion, I would recommend this one.
I also realize that there are a lot of fine jazz guitarists through modern history, but I cannot really think of anyone as complete as Joe Pass. Not trying to start a "who's the best..." war - just my humble opinion.
And I know there are other styles more modern today, though I think Joe could have hung with the best in any case. His technique and feel are just so dominant yet sensitive to the vibe of the songs. In my view after all these years Joe is still King.
I also realize that Joe has probably been the subject of umpteen threads, so this isn't breaking any fresh ground. But I enjoyed myself so much and felt like I got so much out of this morning's "practice" that I just had to talk about it. If anyone has any thoughts about Joe as a guitarist and historic figure or personal reflections on the man behind the guitar, I'd love to hear them.Last edited by Veritas; 04-25-2017 at 09:26 AM.
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04-25-2017 09:20 AM
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04-25-2017, 09:49 AM #2Dutchbopper GuestYou are preaching to the choir. Nobody in his right mind would dispute Joe's central place in the history of solo jazz guitar playing. He is the master of masters in this field. The classic of classics. He owns that category. That said, I MUCH prefer his 1960s recordings to everything he created in the 70s, when he embarked on so many solo guitar projects.
Originally Posted by Veritas
To be honest, I'm not much of a solo jazz guitar fan. I much prefer the dynamics of ensemble playing. Joe was a remarkable single line player. His single note bop lines are a hallmark of jazz guitar playing too. For Django, Joy Spring, Intercontinental, Sounds of Synanon, Catch Me, Simplicity. To me those are the best years in his recording career.
DB
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To this very day, Joe Pass remains my all-time favorite guitarist. He did it all. Solo playing, ensemble playing, accompaniment, heck he even had a great recording with strings "Joe Pass in Hamburg" that has tone to totally die for.
This choir member loves to hear that sermon! Especially when people seem to like to pick on Joe Pass. When the great lion is dead, smaller spirits love to come out and tug on his mane.
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I tend to agree with you on preferring ensemble to solo, in general and Pass specifically. As in interlude in the midst of ensemble playing, solo playing (on any instrument, not just guitar) can be great. But an entire set of pretty much anybody's solo playing (except maybe Art Tatum) kind of leaves me wanting something more. Originally Posted by Dutchbopper
John
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Joe Pass was, and for me will always be, The Man.
Django, Jimi, and Joe. The Big Three.
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I can't pick a favorite. I love JP, but there's something, I don't know, contained? Somehow not quite wild and funky enough and/or pushing the envelope harmonically and timbrally with him. I don't mean this as a knock. He has phenomenal energy, technique, solo construction. Brilliant execution of the idiom, kind of the perfect expression of what He, Kessel, Farlow, Ellis and Raney were going for (with Raney and Farlow being the biggest risk-takers of the bunch, IMO). But I also need people who risk more artistically, or get funkier, or travel different paths. I couldn't live on Pass alone. I need Wes, Martino, Metheny, Burrell, Sco, Benson, Ulmer, etc. Originally Posted by lawson-stone
John
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It's funny how we can all see the same thing differently. I hear Joe's playing as really dangerous. All that brilliant execution is improvised! He will change keys, re-harmonize, switch styles, on the fly. he even did it in ensembles and expected the band just to keep up. When he went finger-style but starting playing these blazing bop lines finger style, with it not sounding like Charlie Byrd (who is fabulous, just a more traditional finger style sound) or Chet Atkins... it still sounded like bebop with a lot of attack and drive, that was as revolutionary (IMO) for jazz guitar as Wes Montgomery playing with this thumb. Originally Posted by John A.
We've become so acclimated to Joe Pass' historic breakthroughs in jazz guitar playing that we take him for granted, I think. But he could switch up and change up on the fly like few others.
Which is not to slight any of the other names you mentioned. I love those guys too!
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From where I stand, the big three would be Wes, Jimi and Joe. But Django is right up there to be sure. Originally Posted by citizenk74
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Intercontinental was the first Joe Pass record I ever bought and still one of the best. I think I've listened to just about everything he recorded that was released, but you never know. While I like ensemble playing, I personally enjoy solo guitar as much or more for the organic nature of the musical expression. All in one. But I also favor the duets with Ella for their intimacy and the beauty of Pass' comping as the bed for Ella's melody singing. I even have an Ella abraca Jobim CD of Ella "sings the AC Jobim Songbook" where Joe plays the great composer's music with his own twist to the Brazilian ensemble, a recording from 1980 and '81. I just don't think I ever heard anyone in this type of setting do it better.
One reason I was studying this aspect (duet with a singer) is that I've got some gigs coming up backing a singer/guitarist. So I'm working on the comping in particular. And always looking for new tunes.
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I didn't mean to imply that JP took no risks at all, or was completely vanilla, which is obviously not the case. But it's a matter of type and degree. Also, there's no getting around the reality that, at least on recordings, Farlow, Raney, and Kessell all got to some of the things you're describing earlier. I think you could make the case that JP's execution was cleaner, and that his solo concept was more developed than those guys', and that the result was maybe a more complete style. But I think some other people's reaches exceeded their grasps (in a good way) more than JP's did. Anyway, all of this is just a long-winded way of saying I have many musical itches that can't be scratched by any one player, which means I can't really pick a favorite, but I certainly get why you would pick JP. Originally Posted by lawson-stone
As to who got where first, I think one of the great unanswered questions of jazz guitar is "what did Joe Pass sound like before Synannon?" We have a fair amount of documentation of the development arc of Farlow, Kessell, Raney, and Ellis (and even Wes with the recently early recordings), but nothing of Pass before the early 60s.
John
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Pretty much my thoughts exactly, but I'll trade Tatum for Bill Evans. My ears even find the genius of Tatum too "relentless" after a while. Originally Posted by John A.
My favorite Joe on record is Johnny Griffin's "Grab This." Not sure why I love that record so much, but I do.
Joe is not in my personal top 3, but man, I'd never say anything to diminish what he could do. The guy was just other-worldly.
Now his tone on some of those records from the 70's and 80's, THAT I'll diminish...yuck.
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First time I heard Joe didn't know who he was I was a young guitar player and surfer. Evenings we surf by the Synanon building and sometimes hear the band rehearsing and go listen. So heard a young Joe Pass.
I got into Pass in the 70's in music school and got to see him a few times over the years. Like others have mentioned I preferred him with a band or with a singer than solo. Live his solo playing could get hard to follow because he would take songs so far away unless you kept the song going in your own head you weren't sure where he was until brought the song back to finish it.
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I traded letters with Joe Pass for maybe the last 2 years of his life. In a couple of them he referred to his "pre-synanon" life as playing in lounges with red naugahyde upholstery, and just playing hard-core bebop all the time. So I imagine the Synanon recordings pretty much capture what Joe was doing before, except that before he'd have been very erratic due to the addiction problems. Later, to me, it's Joe Pass's utter consistency that I find really amazing. Lots of folks could play a few tunes solo guitar, but Joe could play any tune that way, could play an entire eventing or album that way, and could switch up the style, doing "Giant Steps" as a bossa-nova, "Joy Spring" as a ballad, change keys in mid-phrase, acoustic, electric, 12-string, whatever. I think that's the genius of the man. Others could do some of those things, he did them all, all the time, any where, on any tune. Originally Posted by John A.
Even recorded "Feelings"
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I've playing Feelings recently. It's got that descending line cliche.
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I love Joe Pass. When I hear him it just makes me happy and feel good. But then I realize how hard it is to do what he makes sound so easy. And he could really play those fast tempos too like Limehouse Blues and even make those sound relaxed.
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"Fabled jazz violinist Joe Venuti once told an audience, "I'm gonna do something very unusual tonight. I'm gonna take requests for the first time in my whole career" (it was the mid-'70s, and Venuti had been performing for over fifty years).
Someone in the audience called out, "Play 'Feelings'!"
Venuti: "Feelin's? FEELIN'S!? That's the worst goddam song I never heard in my whole life! THAT'S IT! NO MORE REQUESTS!"
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Joe Pass seemed to enjoy taking requests. Word has it on the original "Virtuoso" sessions, which is Virtuoso I and also the 2 discs sold as "Virtuoso 4" Joe just asked folks in the studio what they thought he should play. His absolute command of a vast repertoire of tunes, on any of which he could comp, improvise lines, or improvise solo-guitar, in pretty much any key, continues to leave me rather stunned.
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That's cool, Lawson. I think the narrative arc of his JP's life is pretty interesting -- immigrant/blue-color family with an abitious father pushing him to be a musician, journey through the wilderness of addiction and crime, redemption and success, premature death. Sort of a "Man with the Golden Arm" with a bittersweet rather than fully dark/tragic denouement. The details may actually be way less dramatic and way more boring than I imagine, but it has always struck me as a great source for novelization or bio-pic. Originally Posted by lawson-stone
John
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True. We've seen some other jazz bio-pics, many of which end most unhappily. Joe died prematurely, but he died happy, at the top of his game musically, and generally receiving the recognition, at least from the jazz world, that he deserved. His letters to me even in talking of his illness, breathe a pretty happy outlook. I could be wrong, since I never knew him face to face, but I'm told when he died, the grimace caused by the pain faded into his characteristic little grin and that he died at peace. Originally Posted by John A.
Someone (Jude Hibler?) was writing his biography some years ago, but I don't think anything ever came from it. Maybe folks didn't want to talk much about those dark years?
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I sometimes find Joe's solo stuff a bit 'busy', in some ways I prefer 'Catch Me' for example.
But I saw him many times playing solo at Ronnie Scott's, and it was always mesmerising and exciting.
I think it's all too easy to forget that the real impact of any jazz performer is LIVE, much more so than on any recordings.
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I was very fortunate to spend some private time with Joe, even got a two-hour lesson, which was mostly playing tunes and him stopping every once in a while to physically move my fingers to the position he thought was best for the moment in the tune, whether a chord voicing or a voice-leading situation. he was among the most "natural" of musicians I've met, not a bog theory spouter, but his ears always led him to the best possible changes and lines for the phrase. I listen to Intercontinental, the Ella recordings and the Jobim recording regularly, as I do the Desmond/Hall recordings, for the pure beauty or the art form.
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Yup, that's my fav too, there's a great pervasive spirit to it. Originally Posted by Veritas
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Not perhaps one of Mr Pass's best known albums but it displays his familiarity with the Brazilian sound.Wonderful fluency and a great rhythm section.
My favourite Ella/Pass duet is "Lush Life".Exquisite playing.
college harry.
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Joe was probably the most complete Jazz guitarist of all time when you look at the breadth of what he could do. He had amazing ears but worked ridiculously hard as a a young man (hours and hours of practice) to acquire the skills and technique he showed later on. I agree that he wasn't a particularly funky or groove-oriented player but he sure was a master of jazz phrasing. For me, Intercontinental, Virtuoso I and his records with Ella are my favorites. Ella was past her prime but sang with great feeling and Joe placed an astounding carpet of sound underneath that lifted her up with such elegance and grace.
Funny. Yesterday I was listening to Herb Ellis who just never moves me in any way. I can hear that he's an accomplished, even glib soloist who hardly ever sounds like there's any effort in his lines. He's like a faucet of post Charlie Christian lines that are the essence of great jazz phrasing yet my reaction is always: meh. I'm not sure why but Joe always gets my attention. He had even more technique than Ellis but to my ears, used it in more interesting ways. Barney Kessel always sounds like he's working on uptempo tunes but I kind of appreciate that feeling of manhandling the guitar to get out the music you hear in your head even if it's sometimes tantalizingly just out of reach. Both Barney and Joe shared that sense of adventure IMHO while Ellis did not.
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One album that I think captures something about Joe Pass that is hard to describe but that I love is Appassionato. First of all, the tunes! Some are very well known, but others are rescued from obscurity like "Red Door" or "That's Earl, Brother" or "Stuffy" alongside some others that are more familiar but still not too shopworn. The familiar tunes are played with a panache that I find exhilarating: "Relaxin at Camarillo," "Nica's Dream" stand out.
On top of all this, it's played entirely on an acoustic archtop, an old Epiphone, and every tune has a relentless swing that makes it impossible for me to play the album without stopping what I'm doing and just listening.
The fact that Joe could do an album like this, right along side his usual solo work, as well as his quartet playing (here and "Summer Nights"), and that he could do it with the swing and swagger needed, is exciting.
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