One of the best-selling jazz guitar albums up to 1973 was Joe Pass's Virtuoso. The jet black LP with Pass on the cover in shadow came out ahead of the December holidays and gave Norman Granz's Pablo label massive visibility. It also motivated a generation of listeners to take up the jazz guitar. Now Craft Recordings has remastered and released the album as a digital download and a 180-gram LP. Great to hear the music in sterling shape in both formats.
The record features Pass alone, a daunting task for a guitarist, who must be a peerless improviser and swinger, keep flawless rhythm and fill the empty spaces with a range of enticing arpeggios, figures and chords.
Born in 1929 in New Brunswick, N.J., Pass began playing guitar at age 9 following his family's move to Johnstown, Pa. He practiced prodigiously, listened closely to family friends who played guitar and took weekly lessons. He began gigging professionally in Johnstown at 14 and played in several touring big bands, including ones led by Charlie Barnet and Tony Pastor.
As soon as he was old enough, he moved to New York and then enlisted in the service in the late 1940s. Rampant drug use began after his discharge and residence in New Orleans, a port city that was a majorgateway for illegal narcotics. Ferociously addicted, Pass served several jail sentences in the 1950s, which is why his discography starts in 1947 with Pastor and doesn't resume again until 1962.
Early record releases in 1962 were with organist Richard “Groove" Holmes, Johnny Griffin, Les McCann, Gerald Wilson and Bud Shank. He soon became a first-call sideman in Los Angeles and a prolific studio guitarist and recorded steadily for World Pacific and Pacific Jazz.
His remarkable initial leadership albums included For Django (1964), A Sign of the Times (1965) and The Stones Jazz (1966), easily my favorite interpretation of Rolling Stones hits. In 1973, Granz started his Pablo label after success with Clef, Norgran and Verve, uniting the American songbook and jazz for jazz artists such as Charlie Parker and Ella Fitzgerald, and producing hundreds of jazz albums.
In '73, Granz signed Pass, who recorded his first album for Pablo—Duke's Big Four, with Duke Ellington (p), Joe Pass (g), Ray Brown (b) and Louie Bellson (d). Late that year, Pass began recording steadily and exclusively for Pablo.
Virtuoso was Pass's fourth Pablo recording and immediately made him a household name. With the success of the solo model, he would would record an additional five Virtuoso volumes.
For this new entry in its series of Original Jazz Classic releases, Craft hired Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio to cut the Virtuoso LP lacquers from the original tapes and had the recording pressed on 180-gram vinyl at RTI. Album jackets reproduce the original artwork and back-cover notes. The music has also been released as hi-res audio for downloading and streaming.
Joe Pass died in 1994 at age 65.
JazzWax clips: Here's The Song Is You (crank it up!)...
And here's Here's That Rainy Day...
The record features Pass alone, a daunting task for a guitarist, who must be a peerless improviser and swinger, keep flawless rhythm and fill the empty spaces with a range of enticing arpeggios, figures and chords.
Born in 1929 in New Brunswick, N.J., Pass began playing guitar at age 9 following his family's move to Johnstown, Pa. He practiced prodigiously, listened closely to family friends who played guitar and took weekly lessons. He began gigging professionally in Johnstown at 14 and played in several touring big bands, including ones led by Charlie Barnet and Tony Pastor.
As soon as he was old enough, he moved to New York and then enlisted in the service in the late 1940s. Rampant drug use began after his discharge and residence in New Orleans, a port city that was a majorgateway for illegal narcotics. Ferociously addicted, Pass served several jail sentences in the 1950s, which is why his discography starts in 1947 with Pastor and doesn't resume again until 1962.
Early record releases in 1962 were with organist Richard “Groove" Holmes, Johnny Griffin, Les McCann, Gerald Wilson and Bud Shank. He soon became a first-call sideman in Los Angeles and a prolific studio guitarist and recorded steadily for World Pacific and Pacific Jazz.
His remarkable initial leadership albums included For Django (1964), A Sign of the Times (1965) and The Stones Jazz (1966), easily my favorite interpretation of Rolling Stones hits. In 1973, Granz started his Pablo label after success with Clef, Norgran and Verve, uniting the American songbook and jazz for jazz artists such as Charlie Parker and Ella Fitzgerald, and producing hundreds of jazz albums.
In '73, Granz signed Pass, who recorded his first album for Pablo—Duke's Big Four, with Duke Ellington (p), Joe Pass (g), Ray Brown (b) and Louie Bellson (d). Late that year, Pass began recording steadily and exclusively for Pablo.
Virtuoso was Pass's fourth Pablo recording and immediately made him a household name. With the success of the solo model, he would would record an additional five Virtuoso volumes.
For this new entry in its series of Original Jazz Classic releases, Craft hired Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio to cut the Virtuoso LP lacquers from the original tapes and had the recording pressed on 180-gram vinyl at RTI. Album jackets reproduce the original artwork and back-cover notes. The music has also been released as hi-res audio for downloading and streaming.
Joe Pass died in 1994 at age 65.
JazzWax clips: Here's The Song Is You (crank it up!)...
And here's Here's That Rainy Day...
This story appears courtesy of JazzWax by Marc Myers.
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