Guitarra - Joe Pass

Plus Bonus tracks: Joe Pass In Concert Brecon Jazz Festival 1991

The Genius of Joe Pass
by Jim Ohlschmidt
Photo courtesy of Fantasy Records

In 1978 jazz guitarist extraordinaire Joe Pass told Downbeat writer Lee Underwood that in the future, “the idea of solo [jazz] guitar playing won’t be so strange. Lots of guys will be doing it, and doing it well.” Time has shown Pass’ prediction wason the money. Twenty years later, we have brilliant artists such as Martin Taylor, Tommy Crook, Jim Nichols, and others who play solo jazz guitar as though it was always meant to be played that way. Although he may not have originated the concept, Joe Pass unquestionably showed the world how it should be done, a feat which earned him a rightful place alongside Django Reinhardt, Charlie Christian,Les Paul, Wes Montgomery, and Tal Farlow as one of the instrument’s great innovators. “The Genius of Joe Pass” offers prime examples of his breathtaking solo work, and shows how his exquisite improvisations evolved and became increasingly sophisticated as Pass became more confident and free with his playing. This video is by no means a complete retrospective of his work. Pass’ discography isimmense; such a compilation would require many hours of viewing, and the difficulties in obtaining and licensing that much footage make such a project nearly impossible. The footage assembled here unequivocally documents what made Joe
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Pass truly unique among the jazz guitarists of his time, and the huge debt those who have followed his example owe to this remarkable man. Joseph Anthony JacobiPassalaqua was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey on January 13, 1929. While he was still a toddler, the Passalaquas moved to the coal and steel country of Johnstown, Pennsylvania where Joe’s father, Mariano, labored as a steel worker to support his growing family. By the time Joe became interested in the guitar at age nine, he had three younger brothers and a sister. Although neither of his parentswere musicians, Joe’s father took a keen interest in his eldest boy’s desire to make music and bought him a $17 Harmony guitar. Pass told Downbeat that in Johnstown there were “a lot of local Italian cats in the neighborhood who drank wine, and sang, and played the guitar. So when my father got me the Harmony, he had some of these friends of his to come over and show me a G chord, a D, and an A.Pretty soon I could play ‘em better than they could!” It wasn’t long before Mariano became Joe’s musical taskmaster. In a 1976 article for Guitar Player magazine, Pass gave writer Jon Sievert a detailed account of his father’s stern influence and the arduous regimen of daily practice he imposed. Pass recalled: “Dad’s thing was to play, play, play. He wasn’t a musician – he was a steelworker – buthe seemed to know what was necessary. I would say ‘Play what?’ and he’d say ‘Play this,’ and he’d whistle a little melody line off the top of his head. He’d bring home all kinds of piano music – classical, popular, all kinds – he’d make me sit down and figure it out. Vincente Gomez used to have a fifteen minute radio show on Sunday, and Dad would make me sit right by the radio with my guitar. Gomezwould play all of this wild flamenco music, and Dad would say, ‘Get that, get that.’ It was really hard. I was only eleven years old.” The gruelling practice schedule lasted several years. Pass told Sievert: “Dad would get up for work at 6:00 a.m., wake me up at 6:30, and I’d practice ‘til I went to school at 8:00. I’d get home from school at 3:00, and he’d be home from work at 3:30; I’d have topractice from 4:00 until dinnertime. Then I would practice from 7:00 until 9:00. And on the weekends, when I didn’t have to go to school the next day, I might play until 1:00 a.m. All the time he
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kept telling me, ‘I’m doing this because I don’t want you to have to be a steelworker or a coalminer.’” Pass told Downbeat: “My father would insist that I learned tunes, and then fill them up....