JOE PASS

Joe Pass, born Joseph Anthony Passalaqua January 13, 1929 – May 23, 1994) was a jazz guitarist. His extensive use of walking basslines, melodic counterpoint during improvisation, and use of a chord-melody style of play opened up new possibilities for jazz guitar and had a profound influence on future guitarists.

Early life

Born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, Joe Pass, the son of Mariano Passalacqua, a Sicilian-born steel mill worker, was raised in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Born into a non-musical family, Pass started to play the guitar after being inspired by actor Gene Autry's portrayal of a guitar playing cowboy. He received his first guitar, a Harmony model bought for $17, on his 9th birthday. Pass' father recognized early that his son had "a little something happening" and pushed him constantly to pick up tunes by ear, play pieces not written specifically for the instrument, practice scales and not to "leave any spaces" - that is, to fill in the sonic space between the notes of the melody.

As early as 14, Pass started getting gigs and was playing with bands fronted by Tony Pastor and Charlie Barnet, honing his guitar skills and learning the music business. He began traveling with small jazz groups and eventually moved from Pennsylvania to New York City. In a few years, he 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 Synanon, drug rehabilitation program. During that time he slowly returned to playing. In 1962 he recorded The Sounds of Synanon.

Discovery and subsequent career

Pass recorded a series of albums during the 1960s for the Pacific Jazz label, including the early classics Catch Me, 12-String Guitar, For Django, and Simplicity. In 1963, Pass received Downbeat magazine's "New Star Award". Pass was also featured on Pacific Jazz recordings by Gerald Wilson, Bud Shank, and Les McCann. Pass toured with George Shearing in 1965. Mostly, however, during the 1960s he did TV and recording session work in Los Angeles.

He was a sideman with Louis Bellson, Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan, Joe Williams, Della Reese, Johnny Mathis, and worked on TV shows including the The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, The Merv Griffin Show, The Steve Allen Show, and others. In the early 1970s, Pass and guitarist Herb Ellis were performing together regularly at Donte's jazz club in Los Angeles. This collaboration led to Pass and Ellis recording the very first album on the new Concord Jazz label, entitled simply Jazz/Concord (#CJS-1), along with bassist Ray Brown and drummer Jake Hanna. In the early 1970s, Pass also collaborated on a series of music books, and his Joe Pass Guitar Style (written with Bill Thrasher) is considered a leading improvisation textbook for students of jazz.

Norman Granz, the producer of Jazz at the Philharmonic and the founder of Verve Records signed Pass to Granz's new Pablo Records label in 1970. In 1974, Pass released his landmark solo album Virtuoso on Pablo Records. Also in 1974, Pablo Records released the album The Trio featuring Pass, Oscar Peterson, and Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen. At the Grammy Awards of 1975, The Trio won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance by a Group. As part of the Pablo Records "stable," Pass also recorded with Benny Carter, Milt Jackson, Herb Ellis, Zoot Sims, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, and others.

Pass and Ella Fitzgerald recorded four albums together on Pablo Records, toward the end of Fitzgerald's career: Take Love Easy (1973), Fitzgerald and Pass... Again (1976), Speak Love (1983), and Easy Living (1986).

Joe Pass died from liver cancer in Los Angeles, California at the age of 65.

Legacy

In addition to his ensemble performances, the jazz community regards Joe Pass as an influential solo guitarist. His solo style was marked by an advanced linear technique, sophisticated harmonic sense, counterpoint between improvised lead lines, bass figures and chords, spontaneous modulations, and transitions from fast tempos to rubato passages.

Pass's early style (influenced by guitarist Django Reinhardt and saxophonist Charlie Parker), was marked by fast single-note lines and a flowing melodic sense. Pass had the unusual lifelong habit of breaking his guitar picks in half and playing only with the smaller part. As Pass made the transition from ensemble to solo guitar performance, he preferred to abandon the pick altogether, and play fingerstyle. He found this enabled him to execute his harmonic concepts more effectively. His series of solo albums, Virtuoso (volumes 1 through 4) are a demonstration of Pass's refined technique.

Joe Pass let some instrument manufacturers use his name, but he only used those instruments to fulfill its engagement against those brands, or as travelling ones. He really used to play a Gibson ES-175 guitar (mainly) and a guitar made for him by master crafter Jimmy D'Aquisto. Epiphone has produced an edition of the Emperor line of semi-acoustic Guitar in his honour. Previously Ibanez had a Joe Pass model jazz guitar, as they continue to for influential jazz guitarists George Benson and Pat Metheny.

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
Unforgettable
Blues Dues
Joe pass guitar interludes psyche jazz lp

With Oscar Peterson

A Salle Pleyel
Porgy and Bess
The Good Life (with Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen)
The Trio
The Paris Concert (with Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen)
The Giants (with Ray Brown)
If You Could See Me Now (with Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Martin Drew)
A Tribute to My Friends (with Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Martin Drew)
"Face to Face" (With Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Freddie Hubbard)

With Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen

Chops
Northsea Nights
Digital III at Montreux (1979)
Eximious

With Ella Fitzgerald

Take Love Easy (1973)
Fitzgerald and Pass... Again (1976)
Speak Love (1983)
Easy Living (1986)
Gee Baby 'Aint I Good To You (1986)
Sophisticated Lady (2001)

With other musicians

Sounds of Synanon (with Arnold Ross, Dave Allan, et al.)
Moment of Truth (with the Gerald Wilson Orchestra)
Portraits (with the Gerald Wilson Orchestra)
On Stage (with the Gerald Wilson Orchestra)
Somethin' Special (with Les McCann)
On Time (with Les McCann)
Jazz As I Feel It (with Les McCann)
For Django (Joe Pass Quartet, with John Pisano, Jim Hughart, and Colin Bailey)
Simplicity (Joe Pass Quartet, featuring Clare Fischer)
Catch Me! (with pianist Clare Fischer, bassist Ralph Pena, and drummer Larry Bunker)
Brassamba (with Bud Shank)
Folk 'n' Flute (with Bud Shank)
Intercontinental (with Eberhard Weber and Kenny Clare)
Joe's Blues (with Herb Ellis)
Jazz Concord (with Herb Ellis, Ray Brown, and Jake Hanna)
Seven Come Eleven (with Herb Ellis)
Two for the Road (with Herb Ellis)
Ira, George, And Joe (with John Pisano, Jim Hughart, and Shelly Manne)
Summer Nights (with John Pisano)
Quadrant (with Milt Jackson, Ray Brown, and Mickey Roker)
Appassionato (with John Pisano)
Duets (with John Pisano)
Live at Yoshi's (with John Pisano)
My Song (with John Pisano)
Tudo Bem (with Paulinho Da Costa) (1992)
After Hours (with Andre Previn and Ray Brown) (1989)
Roy Clark and Joe Pass Play Hank Williams (with Roy Clark) (1995)

Selected bibliography

Mel Bay Presents Joe Pass "Off the Record". Mel Bay, 1993. ISBN 1-56222-687-8
Complete Joe Pass. Mel Bay, 2003. ISBN 0-7866-6747-8
Miyakaku, Takao. Joe Pass. Tokyo: Seiunsha, 2000. ISBN 4-434-00455-7 (photograph collection)

Sources

Joe Pass Unedited

---------------

Joe Pass (1929 - 1994) began playing the guitar when he was nine years old and by age fourteen he was playing in local bands in the Johnstown Pennsylvania area. In 1947, at eighteen, he went on the road with the Tony Pastor band for a short time before returning to high school. He appears on several Pastor recordings from this period as a rhythm player. 

He left school again shortly after returning and began playing in and around New York. During this time in New York he started using drugs and he began a decline that ultimately ended with time in several rehabilitation centers and jail. During this time Pass continued to play and he appeared on a handful of commercial recordings. 

After being busted several times and spending more than 10 years trying to kick drugs, Pass entered the Synanon Center in California. After 15 months in Synanon Joe Pass made his famous Sounds of Synanon (1961) recording with Arnold Ross, another Synanon resident. Following this recording Pass worked in the Los Angeles studios for more than 10 years before he signed with the Norman Granz’s Pablo label. It was with this label that Pass made many of his most essential recordings, including his famous Virtuoso series. 

In the Virtuoso series of solo guitar recordings Joe Pass redefined solo guitar playing. His complete mastery of finger style playing brought a new depth and complexity to solo guitar. These solo recordings and his solo concerts made him famous. He was consistently listed in the jazz polls year after year mostly based on the success of his solo work. During this same period at Pablo he recorded a set of records with Ella Fitzgerald on which he provided accompaniment with his solo guitar. These recordings remain some of the very best examples of vocal accompaniment with the solo guitar. 

It was with the solo guitar that Joes Pass had his greatest influence, but he was also one of the best small group (Live At Donte’s) ensemble players of his time. Throughout the 1970’s, 1980’s and 1990’s Joe Pass recorded several important jazz recordings with some of the best jazzmen of the time. He recorded with Oscar Peterson (The Trio), Conti Candoli (Better Days), Chet Baker (A Sign Of The Times), J.J Johnson (We’ll Be Together Again), Duke Ellington (Duke's Big Four) and most of the best west coast jazz players. He formed a special relationship with John Pisano and together they made a number of recordings that were showcases for Joe Pass’ amazing prowess as a soloist and Pisano’s amazing abilities as a rhythm player. Joe Pass rose to prominence as a jazz guitarist on the strength of his solo playing, but his total discography describes a complete musician able to perform in any venue. 

In 1947 – 1950 when Joe Pass was in New York, players like Billy Bauer, Bill DeArango and Johnny Smith were the top players in the studios and on the local jazz scene. While they were making jazz guitar history Joe Pass was consumed by drugs and dropped out of sight for 12 years. But, with his enormous talent, Joe Pass still found his rightful place as one of the greatest jazz guitarists of the 20th century. 

©Copyright 2005 Classic Jazz Guitar

---------------

Joe Pass started playing guitar when he was 9 and he was already playing at weddings when he was 14. In his 20's he moved to New York, where he could listen to some of the best jazz musicians of that time. Joe Pass got captured by the sound of bebop, but unfortunately he also picked up a habit well known to jazz musicians of that time : heroin. The next decade was wasted for Joe Pass, spending time in jails, until he entered Synanon, a drug rehabilitation center. In the center he formed a band with other patients and recorded the album 'Sounds of Synanon', which was very well received by the jazz critics.

After 3 years in the center he was cured of his addiction and he could move on with his musical career. He started playing in Los Angeles and got involved in the studio scene.
In 1973 he recorded 'Virtuoso', an album that made him famous for solo jazz guitar playing.
He recorded a duo album with Ella Fitzgerald and played with a lot of famous jazz musicians like Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington and Oscar Peterson.
Joe Pass died from cancer in 1994.

---------------

Joe Pass almost didn't make it as a musician due to his early battle with drug addiction. But following a successful rehab at Synanon and a recording session with fellow recovered musicians entitled Sounds of Synanon, the guitarist was signed by Dick Bock to the Pacific Jazz label. Pass made several albums as a leader and sideman for Bock, though work started drying up in the late 1960s as rock dominated the music marketplace.

But it was when Joe Pass met impressario Norman Granz that the guitarist's career took off. Granz signed him to his new Pablo label in the early 1970s and recorded him extensively, as a soloist (especially the oustanding Virtuoso series), in duos, trios and as a part of many studio and concert jam sessions. By this time Pass had developed such a virtuoso technique on his instrument that he was considered the “Art Tatum of the guitar” by many critics. Pass especially excelled in his many recordings with piano great Oscar Peterson, as the two men were energized by the stimulation of playing with a fellow master, often at a ridiculous tempo.

Strangely, Joe Pass was rarely happy with his recordings, telling liner note writer Ken Dryden that “I always feel like I could have done better.” Following a single session as a leader for Telarc, Pass made one final CD with Roy Clark (of Hee Haw fame): Roy Clark & Joe Pass Play Hank Williams, though a number of previously unissued collections of his recordings would appear after his passing. Joe Pass died of liver cancer on May 23, 1994 in Los Angeles.