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Joe Pass

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.

Joe Pass: Meditation

by Ken Dryden
February 16, 2023

Although a few jazz guitarists still perform solo concerts in the early days of the 21st century, none of them has produced anything approaching the series of live recordings by Joe Pass during his two decades as a Pablo artist. Incredibly, Pass maintained that playing unaccompanied on stage wasn't even his idea. During my November 1993 interview with him, Pass recounted this verbal exchange: “I don't know why I did it. I was asked to do it. I was put ...

The Jazz Life

To Dream the Impossible Dream: the quest for a music education

by Peter Rubie
May 22, 2019

I've been thinking a lot about how jazz is taught recently. I realize now, my search for a real musical education was not a simple thing, but a series of life changing moments. My son, on the other hand, is planning to study music in college after he finishes high school. Though it would fill his grandparents with dread were they still around to see it, to Ben and his peers it is a natural choice, focused on finding the ...

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Album Review

Roy Clark and Joe Pass: Play Hank Williams

Read "Play Hank Williams" reviewed by Samuel Chell

by Samuel Chell
January 17, 2007

No, your eyes aren't deceiving you--the title means what it says. Birdland comes to Hee Haw on this all-instrumental session, which features the country music icon mixing it up with the once-dominating master of jazz guitar (Oscar Peterson et Joe Pass à la Salle Pleyel, Pablo, 1975). From the perspective of a city boy, this combination might seem as likely as Ornette Coleman and Kenny G getting together to record the music of John Tesh. But trust many guitarists to ...

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Film Review

Norman Granz' Jazz In Montreux Presents: Joe Pass '75

by John Kelman
August 11, 2006

Joe Pass Norman Granz' Jazz In Montreux Presents: Joe Pass '75 Eagle Eye Media 2006 (1975)

It's not often you get a second chance in life, but the late guitarist Joe Pass was one of the fortunate few. After starting out playing in big bands like Charlie Barnet's in the 1940s, Pass' drug addiction and resulting jail sentence kept him off the scene for a decade until 1962, when he returned with a series ...

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Not For Sale

Joe Pass Live at the Four Queens Hotel, Las Vegas, 1988

by Ken Dryden
May 25, 2006

By the time of his death from cancer in 1994, Joe Pass was widely recognized as one of the top jazz guitarists of all time, especially for his virtuoso solo performances. Prior to his passing, I had an opportunity to do a phone interview with Pass and was rather surprised that the guitarist found it difficult to listen to his recordings, as he always felt that he could have played better. The 1988 broadcast of his appearance at ...

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First Time I Saw

Does Anybody Here Remember Joe (Pass)?

by Craig M. Cortello
April 21, 2006

Does anybody here remember Joe? That's the question I asked myself in May of 1994 when I learned that my hero had died. As the television show Entertainment Tonight rolled the closing credits one evening, they noted that the legendary jazz guitarist Joe Pass had passed away, while a brief clip from one of his live performances closed the show. I doubt that Mary Hart knew the magnitude of the words she read, but few of the ET viewers probably ...

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Multiple Reviews

Joe Pass: Virtuoso

by C. Michael Bailey
February 9, 2005

Joe Pass was born Joseph Anthony Passalaqua, January 13, 1929 in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Pass was born into a blue-collar non-musical family and began to play the guitar when he was 9. The guitarist's father, a steel mill worker, realized early that his son was musically talented and encouraged him to listen to all music and pick out songs by ear. Pass's forward-thinking father also encouraged his son to play pieces not originally written for the guitar and to ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Joe Pass

Source: Michael Ricci
January 13, 2023

All About Jazz is celebrating Joe Pass' birthday today!

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 ...
read more

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Joe Pass

Source: Michael Ricci
January 13, 2022

All About Jazz is celebrating Joe Pass' birthday today!

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 ...
read more

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Joe Pass

Source: Michael Ricci
January 13, 2021

All About Jazz is celebrating Joe Pass' birthday today!

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 ...
read more

Recording

Joe Pass: Tudo Bem!

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
February 4, 2020

In the winter of 1977, guitarist Joe Pass toured Brazil for the first time. When he returned to the U.S., he found himself energized by the understated and sensual samba and bossa nova. Though the bossa nova had been influencing American popular music since the early 1960s, Pass had avoided recording an entire album of Brazilian compositions as a leader. As a sideman, he was on Bud Shank's Brazil! Brazil! Brazil! in 1966 and there were Antonio Carlos Jobim originals ...
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Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Joe Pass

Source: Michael Ricci
January 13, 2020

All About Jazz is celebrating Joe Pass' birthday today!

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 ...
read more

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Joe Pass

Source: Michael Ricci
January 13, 2019

All About Jazz is celebrating Joe Pass' birthday today!

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 ...
read more