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Today is the birthday of Joe Pass and I thought we could share some memories and thoughts of him.
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01-13-2022 01:42 PM
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I saw him at a small club in Harvard Square. He was a god to me at that time. He was HILARIOUS!!!
At one point he was between tunes and he reached down to a table and grabbed a napkin while he was talking. "A lot of you guys, I know why you're here. You're here to steal my shit." and proceeds to drape the cloth over his left hand and play Cherokee at lightning speed-his hand covered the whole time. THen he whips the napkin off like a magician's reveal...and proceeded to play an improvisation so fast that nobody could follow what he was doing anyway.
Later he was going to play Green Dolphin Street. He said "People are always saying playing guitar is hard. I'm going to show you guys a secret. It's not." and he played the head all with voicings he could play with just one finger, chords, chord melody, all played strategically so they could be played with his index finger alone.
This was LONG before phone cams, but I wish SOMEBODY had filmed that.
Stuff of legend.
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Certainly one of the all-time greats and a personal favorite. Unfailingly melodic and simultaneously rhythmically robust. Live at Montreaux was my first album of his; there were more. Really dug his solo approach. Also seemed pretty down to earth. Would have loved to have spent time with him, smoking cigars and listening to him, talking or playing, or both. The Man, in my book.
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Live at Montreux is great. We are so fortunate that he was so prolific. So many great recordings.
I just listened to Tudo Bem after not hearing it for a couple years and was blown away again. Such deep grooves and endless, imaginative lines.
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I corresponded with Joe Pass for the year or two prior to his death. We had a little fun over the fact that his birthday was also the day that Wyatt Earp died, and Jan 13 is my own wedding anniversary and the birthday for my best man. He cracked that pretty soon we'd be in JFK Assassination theory territory. His wife called me when he was at death's door and I flew to attend his funeral. It was a moving service and the priest did a good job with the message. I published a little article about my correspondence with Joe in Acoustic Guitar and will be happy to send it to anyone who is interested.
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He was a real mensch for sure, who touched a lot of people personally and musically.
I remember finding a copy of Virtuoso in a box someone had left behind in my room at the frat house in college. It was the first I had ever heard of JP. I taped the record onto cassette, in case the kid came back to claim the box, which he did.
I pretty much wore the tape out, and eventually got quite a few of his records. He did influence my playing, in a negative way! At one point I got frustrated trying to play like him and pretty much gave up on guitar for years.
But I came back, cause I came to realize that playing guitar badly is still more creative and enjoyable than not playing at all.
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I was lucky to have seen him perform at a small club in San Jose, CA (in the 80's I believe). What a thrill!
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I really loved his quartet with John Pisano, Colin Bailey, and Jim Hughart. What a tight and swinging group. I saw them at Jazz Alley in Seattle , which I believed was they're last performance as a group. Even as ill as Joe was, he played wonderfully. He was playing that custom es175 style guitar that Gibson had made for him. The one with less body depth. He even sang the tune when you're smiling.
Later, when I saw John Pisano at the Jazz Bakery, he mentioned that that was the last show. He looked very sad when he said it. Must have been difficult to lose that kind of musical brother.
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His Virtuoso album totally blew me away in 1973.I couldn't believe what he was doing.A friend of mine at the time kept insisting it was overdubbed with two guys playing.
I was lucky enough to see him 3 times.Twice i saw him with Ella Fitzgerald and Oscar Peterson.The three of them had such great rapport together.My favorite concert with him was a concert called Solo Flight at Carnegie Hall.Besides Pass was Charlie Mingus,John Lewis,Art Blakey,Gary Burton and Joe Venuti.Each guy did a 20 to 30 minute solo set and they all jammed on a couple of tunes together.It was really mind blowing.Wish someone had recorded it and put it out.
When he passed in 1994,even though i wasn't fortunate to know him,it felt like a family member died after spending so many countless hours with his recordings.
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Got to see him a bunch of times over the years, usually solo, though once he did a twin bill w/the Jim Hall trio.
Joe played the first set and Jim's trio the second, then Joe came out and played w/Jim and his trio. He said 'we haven't played together in what, 30 yrs?' we were all on the edge of our seats but you could tell they hadn't played together in a long time.
Maybe the most memorable was a solo gig in a very small venue. I drove up w/my wife and a friend and the road to the hall led straight to the front steps. Joe was standing there smoking and I stopped to let everyone out right in front of him. As I was approaching he had a look on his face like he thought I was going to keep going and run him down, hah
Once inside he played great of course and bantered w/the audience between tunes. At one point he said 'yeah, it's nice that you came out to see me and this is fun but you see my daughter has this new boyfriend, and whenever I come home from a gig he's always in her face on the couch. I mean every time. So while you all are sitting here listening to me I'm thinking about my daughter's boyfriend back home.
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During intermission one time, I asked him about playing chord melody. He said "Learn melodies! You guys get all hung up on chords and scales and theory, but it is the melodies that you need to learn". Of course, he was right.
Tony
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I would love hear what you remember about Joe and Jim playing together. That must have been exciting.
Originally Posted by wintermoon
Got to see him a bunch of times over the years, usually solo, though once he did a twin bill w/the Jim Hall trio.
Joe played the first set and Jim's trio the second, then Joe came out and played w/Jim and his trio. He said 'we haven't played together in what, 30 yrs?' we were all on the edge of our seats but you could tell they hadn't played together in a long time.
Maybe the most memorable was a solo gig in a very small venue. I drove up w/my wife and a friend and the road to the hall led straight to the front steps. Joe was standing there smoking and I stopped to let everyone out right in front of him. As I was approaching he had a look on his face like he thought I was going to keep going and run him down, hah
Once inside he played great of course and bantered w/the audience between tunes. At one point he said 'yeah, it's nice that you came out to see me and this is fun but you see my daughter has this new boyfriend, and whenever I come home from a gig he's always in her face on the couch. I mean every time. So while you all are sitting here listening to me I'm thinking about my daughter's boyfriend back home.
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Living in NY in the Village at the time, The top of the gate was a club that featured Jim regularly, and Joe, and Bucky and Slam too. But I never saw them together, but the vibes in that club... pure heaven. Originally Posted by guitarcarver
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What a beautiful tribute you wrote, Lawson. Those letters must be a treasure to you. I didn’t realize today was Joe’s birthday but interestingly enough I listened to “I Remember Charlie Parker” on my drive in to work this morning. I attended one of the shows from Joe’s last tour, but it was announced the night of the show that he would not be performing that night. I was very disappointed, and learned only a few weeks later of his passing. Originally Posted by lawson-stone
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What a great article Lawson. 1996 and you quote “throwaway culture” to think it only got worse since then. Originally Posted by lawson-stone
Check out the line up in that Tal Farlow tribute show!
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Lawson, that was beautiful. I believe you have shared that article before or at least talked about it. An insight into the man behind the guitar, who seems to have pretty much been the same man as with the guitar. No artifice there. I think that playing great jazz requires that sort of honesty.
My memory of Joe Pass is of not seeing him. He came through town on the tour with Leo Kottke et al (Leo is from hereabouts); I would have had to trade shifts at the hospital, etc., and it was going to be pretty inconvenient to go- so I didn't. And then he was gone...
One of my regrets in life. But we still have and will always have the music he left for us, so that cheers me up.
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They would never play together, because they hated each others' playing. Originally Posted by guitarcarver
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Wintermoon mentioned seeing Joe play with Jims trio. Originally Posted by sgcim
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That was just cause they were on the same bill. They never would've done it otherwise. They just saw the music differently. Originally Posted by guitarcarver
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Really?? Never knew that but I could see it! Any quotes or reading on the matter? Originally Posted by sgcim
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Here is a little excerpt from one of Joe's letters about different kinds of playing. I always liked this. Originally Posted by sgcim
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There was a story I had read online. A man who was working as a bartender (in a not so popular bar) is setting up for his shift and he hears a knock at the backdoor. The guy gets worried and asks who the person is and he hears "It's Joe Pass" etc etc
It was told in a much better way reflecting how unassuming and humble Joe Pass was. I could not find the source with Google.
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Don't know about hate as a pretty strong word for either of them but Jim Hall had expressed feeling intimidated by players who could play very fast lines so he had to develop his own approach that did not require speed. The other aspect was Jim Hall received university level education in composition whereas Joe Pass was mostly (if not completely) self-taught. Originally Posted by sgcim
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I saw Joe several times at Ronnie Scotts, as regulars we knew the staff well and they always gave us the front table, so it was great for me to watch Joe from a few feet away.
As I’ve mentioned before, once I happened to be in London after a work do one evening, so I went to Ronnies and found that Joe was going to be on for the next set. So I went downstairs to the bar, and there was Joe all by himself. We got chatting and he bought me a drink. Such a friendly, down-to-earth guy, I will never forget it. Unfortunately I was rather drunk by this time so I can’t remember what we talked about!
The only thing I recall is that he always started his set with 3 tunes in a row, then couldn’t remember what the first 2 tunes were! He would ask the audience to tell him what he’d played. He told me this was because he was so concentrated on the tune he was playing, that everything before that just went out of his mind completely.
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