Home > Joe Pass

One of the greatest solo jazz artists of all time, Joe Pass also ranks as one of the great guitarists not only for his knowledge of the instrument and technical prowess, but also his composing and improvisational skills.

Born into a non-musical family, Joe started to play the guitar when he was 9. He remembers his father Mariano, a steel mill worker, recognising early that his son had "a little something happening" and pushing him constantly to pick up tunes by ear, play pieces not written specifically for the instrument, practice scales (including whole-toneIn music, a whole tone scale is a scale in which each note is separated from its neighbors by the interval of a whole step. There are only two whole tone scales, both hexachords, each using half of the pitches in the chromatic scale: {C, D, E, F#, G#, A#}, chromaticThe chromatic scale is a musical scale that contains all twelve pitches of the Western tempered scale. All of the other scales in traditional Western music are currently subsets of this scale. Each pitch is separated from its upper and lower neighbors by and diminishedIn music, a diminished scale is a scale in which the notes of the scale ascend in alternating intervals of a whole step and a half step. Because a scale constructed in such a way has eight tones (versus seven for conventional scales), it is sometimes call) and not to "leave any spaces" - that is, to fill in the sonic space between the notes of the melody.

As early as 14, Joe started getting gigs and soon was playing with bands fronted by greats such as Tony Pastor and Charlie BarnetCharles Daly Barnet ( October 26, 1913 September 4, 1991) was an American jazz saxophonist and bandleader. He was one of the first bandleaders to integrate his band; the year is variously given as 1935 or 1937. He was an outspoken admirer of Count Basie a, honing his guitar skills and learning the music business. He began spending significant amount of time away from his home, traveling with small jazz groups and eventually moving from Pennsylvania to New York CitySkyline, with Statue of Liberty New York, New York" redirects here. For alternate meanings, see New York, New York (disambiguation). New York — officially named City of New York and often called New York City to distinguish it from the state of New York,. He did not pick up drinking and other bad habits from the musicians directly, but, in his words, "it was part of the whole scene". In a few years Joe fell victim to drugThis article is about chemical substances. For other meanings of the word "drug", see Drug (disambiguation A drug is any substance that can be used to treat an illness, relieve a symptom, or modify a chemical process or processes in the body. The word "dr abuse, and spent much of the 1950sCenturies: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s Years: 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 Events and trends Technology United States tests the first fusion bomb. in relative obscurity.

Pass managed to emerge from it through a two-and-a-half-year stay at a (since discredited) drug rehabilitation program, Synanon healing. During that time he at first abandoned the instrument completely, and returned to playing very slowly. His first "comeback" record in 1962, titled "The Sounds of Synanon", finds him playing a solid body rock guitar donated to the program.

It was Norman Granz, the keen producer of Verve records, who, upon hearing Pass in 1970, immediately recognised the "new talent" and signed him to the label, bringing Joe into the "stable" that included, among others, Benny Carter, Milt Jackson, Herb Ellis, Zoot Sims, but most importantly Ray Brown, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen and Oscar Peterson. A drummerless trio with Peterson and one of the two great bassists would become the format in which Pass would make one of his most lasting impressions on the development of hard bop.

In addition to that, the jazz community regards Joe Pass most significantly as a peerless solo guitarist. Contributing to his trademark style are fast single-note runs which make extensive use of hammer-on technique (when the string is made to vibrate by forceful pressing against the fret with the fingers of the left hand) and adoption of the very short pick (in fact, he made them by snapping regular picks in half), which allowed him to combine those runs (or the picked bass line) with dense finger-style chords, often utilizing the little finger on the right hand. His series of solo albums, "Virtuoso" (volumes 1 through 4), is a must-have for any serious jazz collector.