Joe Pass (born Joseph Anthony Jacobi Passalacqua; January 13, 1929 – May 23, 1994) was an American jazz guitarist.[1][2] Although Pass is well known for his work stemming from numerous collaborations with pianist Oscar Peterson and vocalist Ella Fitzgerald, his status as one of the most notable jazz guitarists of the 20th century is generally attributed to his work on his solo albums, such as Virtuoso.[3]
Early life
Pass was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, [4] on January 13, 1929. His father, Mariano Passalacqua, was a steel-mill worker who was born in Sicily. The family later moved to Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Although it is commonly believed that Pass became interested playing guitar after seeing Gene Autry perform in the Western film Ride, Tenderfoot, Ride[5] (an account that had been given by Pass himself),[6] Pass later stated he did not remember who or what inspired him to pursue music.[7]
Pass received his first guitar and started creating music when at age 9. Pass stated his first guitar was a Harmony, and that he had asked for a guitar for his birthday. He began playing for neighbors, and learned chords from his father's Italian friends.[8] He attended guitar lessons every Sunday with a local teacher for six to eight months and practiced for up to six hours per day, rapidly advancing in skill level.[5][9] As he improved his craft, he participated in the local music scene of Johnstown, where he would enjoy the company of other guitarists and listen to the music that was being created.[10]
Pass was finding paying gigs at dances and weddings in Johnstown as early as age 14, playing with bands led by Tony Pastor and Charlie Barnet,[11][12] honing his guitar skills while "learning the ropes" in the music industry. He began traveling with small jazz groups and moved from Pennsylvania to New York City.
Pass would continue to perform with big bands until 1947, when he enlisted and served in the US military.[13]
Pass developed an addiction to heroin after his tenure in the military had ended.[14] He lived in New Orleans for a year, playing bebop at strip clubs. Pass later revealed that he had suffered a "nervous breakdown" in New Orleans due to virtually unlimited access to drugs that enabled the musician to engage in severe benders. Pass recalled, "I would come to New York a lot, then get strung out and leave."[5]
Pass spent much of the 1950s in and out of prison for drug-related convictions.[15] Pass said, "staying high was my first priority; playing was second; girls were third. But the first thing really took all my energy." He recovered after a two-and-a-half-year stay in the Synanon rehabilitation program, largely putting his music on hold during his prison sentence.[16][17]
Pass recorded and released a series of albums during the 1960s under Pacific Jazz Records, including Catch Me,12-String Guitar,For Django, and Simplicity. In 1963, he received DownBeat magazine's New Star Award.[20][21]
He also played on Pacific Jazz recordings by Gerald Wilson, Bud Shank, and Les McCann. Pass was a member of the George Shearing Quintet from 1965 through 1967.[22]
Pass was diagnosed with liver cancer in 1992.[13] Although he was initially responsive to treatment and continued to play into 1993, his health eventually declined, forcing him to cancel his tour with Pepe Romero, Paco Peña, and Leo Kottke. Pass performed for the final time on May 7, 1994, with fellow guitarist John Pisano at a nightclub in Los Angeles. Pisano told Guitar Player that after the performance Pass said "I can't play anymore", an exchange that Pisano described as "like a knife in my heart."[5] Pass died from liver cancer in Los Angeles 16 days later, at the age of 65. Prior to his death, he recorded an album of Hank Williams songs with country guitarist Roy Clark.[28]
Speaking about Nuages: Live at Yoshi's, Volume 2,Jim Ferguson wrote:
The follow up to 1993's Joe Pass & Co. Live at Yoshi's, this release was colored by sad circumstances: both bassist Monty Budwig and Pass were stricken with fatal illnesses. Nevertheless, all concerned, including drummer Colin Bailey and second guitarist John Pisano, play up to their usual high levels...Issued posthumously, this material is hardly sub-standard. Bristling with energy throughout, it helps document the final stages in the career of a player who, arguably, was the greatest mainstream guitarist since Wes Montgomery.[29]
Artistry
Technique
Pass's playing style has been described as "conventional". He was particularly noted for his ability to simultaneously play melody, harmony and basslines at extremely high tempos.[30] Pass's single-note playing style is similar to the instrumental stylings of classic bebop and hard bop, drawing comparisons to the tones and timbres of wind instruments used in jazz music, such as the saxophone and trumpet, as well as other string instruments such as the piano. Jazz educator Wolf Marshall said Pass's musical flavorings were "hornlike and on par with his wealth of ideas and immense vocabulary, allowing single-note improvisations to flow like a saxophonist's stream of consciousness."[31]
As Pass's career progressed, he developed an increasingly harmonic approach to improvisation that made extensive use of chord-melody solos, which produced a similar effect to that of a piano. He also employed a variety of different picking techniques such as fingerpicking, hybrid picking and "flat picking".[32]
Pass's style was also said to have exhibited a "tougher funky aspect" by incorporating string bends, double stops and partial chords that variously borrow from blues, R&B and swing styles.[33]
Influences
Throughout the 1940s, Pass became interested in modern jazz sounds that were emerging from New York City, where would jam with many quintessential bebop musicians. Pass cited Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum and Coleman Hawkins as influences during this time. Pass was later influenced by the piano stylings of Oscar Peterson. Ironically, only three of the various jazz musicians he had cited as influences on his playing were actually guitarists; he cited Charlie Christian, Django Reinhardt and Wes Montgomery as instrumental in his development as a musician.[34]
Pass in concert in 1974 playing his Gibson ES-175 guitar
New York magazine wrote: "Joe Pass looks like somebody's uncle and plays guitar like nobody's business. He's called 'the world's greatest' and often compared to Paganini for his virtuosity. There is a certain purity to his sound that makes him stand out easily from other first-rate jazz guitarists."[2]
He weaves his own fast-moving chords and filigree work so nimbly that it is hard to believe fingers can physically shift so quickly. Slight moustached, fairly balding, he frowns over his fretwork like a worried head waiter with more guests than tables but the sound that comes out could only be the confident product of years of devotion to the instrument... But it is when he plays completely solo, which he does for half of each set, that he comes into his own, because without hindrance of the rhythm section he can completely orchestrate each number. Sometimes it is by contrasting out of tempo sections with fast-moving interludes, sometimes by switching mood from wistful to lightly swinging, sometimes by alternating single-note lines with chords or simultaneous bass line and melody – the possibilities seem endless.
— Miles Kington on Pass in an October 1974 article in The Times.[38]
Veteran jazz writer Scott Yanow has conferred the titles of "the ultimate bebop guitarist", "the epitome of virtuoso guitarists", and "one of the top jazz voices of his generation" on Pass.[39][40]
^ abNew York Media, LLC (17 September 1979). "New York Magazine". Newyorkmetro.com. New York Media, LLC: 62. ISSN0028-7369. Retrieved 23 November 2011.
^Yanow, Scott (April 1, 2013). The Great Jazz Guitarists. Backbeat Books. p. 148.
^Yanow, Scott (April 1, 2013). The Great Jazz Guitarists. Backbeat Books. p. 148. His technique was conventional (no tapping) but was at such a high level that he could play melody, harmony and bass lines simultaneously at blazing tempos.
^Marshall, Wold (2012). Jazz Guitar Icons: An In-Depth look at the Styles of 25 Masters. Hal-Leonard. pp. 94–95.
^Marshall, Wold (2012). Jazz Guitar Icons: An In-Depth look at the Styles of 25 Masters. Hal-Leonard. pp. 94–95.
^Marshall, Wolf (2012). The Great Jazz Guitarists. Hal-Leonard. p. 95.
^Marshall, Wolf (2012). The Great Jazz Guitarists. Hal-Leonard. p. 95.
^Marshall, Wolf (2012). The Great Jazz Guitarists. Hal-Leonard. p. 95.
^Marshall, Wolf (2012). The Great Jazz Guitarists. Hal-Leonard. p. 95.
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