Video of Herb Ellis and Joe Pass together????

**MarkRhodes** · 08-07-2018, 03:01 PM

Herb and Joe played together many times. Put out a few albums together.("Joe's Blues," "Seven, Come Eleven" and "Two for the Road." Perhaps others.) Yet I don't think I've ever seen video of them performing together. Has anyone?

**ThatRhythmMan** · 08-07-2018, 04:16 PM

According to my research, they made an appearance on the Merv Griffin Show. I haven’t been able to find this video anywhere.

**MarkRhodes** · 08-07-2018, 05:00 PM

Originally Posted by ThatRhythmMan

According to my research, they made an appearance on the Merv Griffin Show. I haven’t been able to find this video anywhere.

Thanks for the information. Maybe that video will surface someday.

I'm surprised there's no footage of them from the Concord Jazz Festivals.

**Steven Herron** · 08-07-2018, 05:42 PM

Hi Mark,

Come to think of it, I've never seen any video footage of Ellis and Pass playing together either.

Which is pretty strange when you consider their duets together during the 70's were a big deal that was talked about often.

**MarkRhodes** · 08-07-2018, 05:56 PM

Originally Posted by Steven Herron

Hi Mark,

Come to think of it, I've never seen any video footage of Ellis and Pass playing together either.

Which is pretty strange when you consider their duets together during the 70's were a big deal that was talked about often.

Yes, I think it is strange too. They both performed live often and were often filmed. Perhaps they appeared less often together than I think. I really don't know.

Either way, here's a bit of audio of them together.

**ragman1** · 08-07-2018, 08:30 PM

Ha! That's a very good point. All those duets but ne'er a video. I've never seen one either.

You don't think it was a contractual thing, do you? Maybe they couldn't be filmed together for some reason - although that seems a bit daft to me.

**lawson-stone** · 08-07-2018, 10:13 PM

Originally Posted by ragman1

Ha! That's a very good point. All those duets but ne'er a video. I've never seen one either.

You don't think it was a contractual thing, do you? Maybe they couldn't be filmed together for some reason - although that seems a bit daft to me.

Maybe it could have caused some kind of explosion?

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

**ragman1** · 08-08-2018, 05:04 AM

Someone, somewhere, has a film of Herbie and Joe together...

What's interesting is that such a film is conspicuous by its absence. I can't believe it's just because no one ever bothered. At least I don't think so.

**sgosnell** · 08-08-2018, 10:03 AM

There are also no videos of Charlie Christian. Coincidence?

**MarkRhodes** · 08-08-2018, 01:18 PM

Originally Posted by sgosnell

There are also no videos of Charlie Christian. Coincidence?

BB King claimed in his autobiography that he saw a video of Charlie Christian when he, BB, was young. It deeply impressed him. But recording of musicians was not as popular then as it came to be later. (And Charlie died very young.)

There are MANY videos of Herb Ellis and Joe Pass---hours of them: performance, instruction, interview----but not any (I know of) of them playing together. Though they played together several times. That's curious.

They seemed to do most of their playing together at Concord Jazz Festivals. Perhaps those weren't filmed. (Perhaps someone is sitting on hours of such film. I have no idea.)

**sgosnell** · 08-08-2018, 02:11 PM

There is a great deal of Herb Ellis footage at Concord Jazz Festivals, but all, AFAIK, of the Great Guitars. I'm aware that there are tons of video of Herb and Joe separately. I was alluding to the possible conspiracy to quash video of Herb and Joe together, like Charlie Christian alone.

**MarkRhodes** · 08-08-2018, 02:29 PM

Originally Posted by sgosnell

There is a great deal of Herb Ellis footage at Concord Jazz Festivals, but all, AFAIK, of the Great Guitars. I'm aware that there are tons of video of Herb and Joe separately. I was alluding to the possible conspiracy to quash video of Herb and Joe together, like Charlie Christian alone.

Ha, I don't think there's a conspiracy in either case. I've seen a lot of video of Herb as part of the Great Guitars. Question: why was Joe never part of that? Maybe he preferred to work alone, I don't know, but he was never part of that ensemble, was he? Curious.... Concord was a West Coast thing. Maybe Joe didn't spent a lot of time out there.

**jameslovestal** · 08-08-2018, 04:02 PM

Originally Posted by MarkRhodes

Ha, I don't think there's a conspiracy in either case. I've seen a lot of video of Herb as part of the Great Guitars. Question: why was Joe never part of that? Maybe he preferred to work alone, I don't know, but he was never part of that ensemble, was he? Curious.... Concord was a West Coast thing. Maybe Joe didn't spent a lot of time out there.

I believe the reason is that Joe had a contact with Pablo Records and while he was able to be on the first album produced by Concord, Seven, Come Eleven, he was keep very busy by Pablo. I don't know if Joe's Pablo contract was an exclusive one, but I assume there were some restrictions.

**sgosnell** · 08-08-2018, 07:56 PM

No, Joe was never in that group. It did include Tal Farlow and Mundell Lowe at different times, though. Herb and Charlie Byrd were the only constants. Maybe Charlie didn't like Joe? Nah, I don't think that's it. Obviously a conspiracy by someone, though.

**ragman1** · 08-08-2018, 08:23 PM

Sometimes the family keep recordings back for reasons of their own. I've known that to happen.

**MarkRhodes** · 08-08-2018, 09:24 PM

Carol Kaye offers a CD and transcription of a half-dozen duets Joe and Herb played.

Herb and Joe played together so well---their styles and temperaments blended seamlessly. I wish they had done more shows together and had at least one filmed!

**jameslovestal** · 08-09-2018, 07:04 PM

Originally Posted by sgosnell

No, Joe was never in that group. It did include Tal Farlow and Mundell Lowe at different times, though. Herb and Charlie Byrd were the only constants. Maybe Charlie didn't like Joe? Nah, I don't think that's it. Obviously a conspiracy by someone, though.

Note that Tal Farlow had a record deal with Concord Records (founded and run by Carl Jefferson). That is the reason Tal can be found on those Concord Great Guitars albums.

I'm sure Jefferson wanted to hire Joe Pass but he was THE jazz guitar player in terms of fame at the time E.g. his solo Virtuoso albums on Pablo were 'hot' in the jazz market: Virtuoso outsold nearly every other release in the Pablo catalog and established Pass as the premier mainstream jazz guitarist of the time.

A guitar player that Carl Jefferson did have a beef with was Cal Collins; Note that the albums he made for Concord were never released on CD.

**maggles55** · 08-10-2018, 06:04 PM

Originally Posted by jameslovestal

A guitar player that Carl Jefferson did have a beef with was Cal Collins; Note that the albums he made for Concord were never released on CD.

from my CD collection: Video of Herb Ellis and Joe Pass together????-img_0899-jpg

Video of Herb Ellis and Joe Pass together????-img_0900-jpg

**lawson-stone** · 08-10-2018, 09:08 PM

Originally Posted by maggles55

from my CD collection:
Video of Herb Ellis and Joe Pass together????-img_0899-jpg

Great CD! I have it and enjoy it! I also have a video (tape!) of Cal Collins and Jimmy Raney playing together in Cincinnati. Amazing stuff.

**jameslovestal** · 08-10-2018, 10:02 PM

Originally Posted by lawson-stone

Great CD! I have it and enjoy it! I also have a video (tape!) of Cal Collins and Jimmy Raney playing together in Cincinnati. Amazing stuff.

I have this Ohio Style CD. I should have mentioned I was talking about the 3 Cal made before this one (the last one for Concord I believe).

One couldn't get those early ones; Blues on My Mind, By Myself, Cincinnati Style , at a < $15 price like many of the other CD's Concord put out. OR, did I just mess up and I couldn't find them 25 or so many years back, when I replaced all my albums with CDs??? (and those Cal Concord albums were my favorite from the label).

PS: I just checked Amazon and those early records are not available in a digital format from what I can see. But if someone know of a source please let me know!