Joe Pass (born Joseph Anthony Jacobi Passalacqua; January 13, 1929 – May 23, 1994) was an American jazz guitarist. He recorded and performed live with pianist Oscar Peterson, composer Duke Ellington, and vocalist Ella Fitzgerald. He is highly respected as one of the most well-known jazz guitarists of the 20th century for his solo guitar playing, which can be heard on recordings such as Virtuoso.

Early life

Pass was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, 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. Pass became interested in playing guitar after seeing Gene Autry perform in the Western film Ride, Tenderfoot, Ride.

Pass received his first guitar and began creating music when he was 9 years old. He said his first guitar was a Harmony, and that he had asked for a guitar as a birthday gift. He played for neighbors and learned chords from his father's Italian friends. He attended guitar lessons every Sunday with a local teacher for six to eight months and practiced for up to six hours each day, quickly improving his skills. As he grew more skilled, he joined the local music scene in Johnstown, where he met other guitarists and listened to their music.

Pass found paying jobs at dances and weddings in Johnstown as early as age 14, playing with bands led by Tony Pastor and Charlie Barnet. He continued to improve his guitar skills while learning how to work in the music industry. He began traveling with small jazz groups and moved from Pennsylvania to New York City.

Pass performed with big bands until 1947, when he joined the U.S. military.

After leaving the military, Pass developed an addiction to heroin. He lived in New Orleans for a year and played bebop music at strip clubs. He later said he experienced a mental health crisis in New Orleans due to the easy access to drugs, which led to long periods of heavy drug use. He recalled, "I would come to New York a lot, then get strung out and leave."

Pass spent much of the 1950s in and out of prison for drug-related crimes. He 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, but he took a break from his music during his time in prison.

Career

Pass released his first album, Sounds of Synanon, on July 1, 1962. During the 1960s, he recorded and released several albums with Pacific Jazz Records, including Catch Me, 12-String Guitar, For Django, and Simplicity. In 1963, he won DownBeat magazine's New Star Award. He also performed on recordings by Pacific Jazz artists such as Gerald Wilson, Bud Shank, and Les McCann. From 1965 to 1967, Pass was a member of the George Shearing Quintet.

During the 1960s, Pass mainly worked on television and recording sessions in Los Angeles, including performing with television orchestras. Norman Granz, the producer of Jazz at the Philharmonic and founder of Verve Records, signed Pass to Pablo Records in December 1973.

In December 1974, Pass released his solo album Virtuoso on Pablo. That same year, Pablo also released The Trio, featuring Pass, Oscar Peterson, and Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen. Pass performed with this group many times during the 1970s and 1980s. In 1975, The Trio won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance by a Group. As part of Pablo Records' artists, Pass recorded with musicians such as Benny Carter, Milt Jackson, Herb Ellis, Zoot Sims, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, and Count Basie.

Pass and Ella Fitzgerald recorded six albums together on Pablo toward the end of her career: Take Love Easy (1973), Fitzgerald and Pass… Again (1976), Hamburg Duets – 1976 (1976), Sophisticated Lady (1975, 1983), Speak Love (1983), and Easy Living (1986).

Later life and death

Pass was diagnosed with liver cancer in 1992. He responded well to treatment at first and continued to perform music until 1993. However, his health worsened over time, which led him to cancel a tour with Pepe Romero, Paco Peña, and Leo Kottke. Pass gave his final performance on May 7, 1994, with guitarist John Pisano at a nightclub in Los Angeles. After the performance, Pass told Pisano, "I can't play anymore," a moment Pisano described as "like a knife in my heart." Pass passed away from liver cancer in Los Angeles 16 days later at the age of 65. Before his death, he recorded an album of songs by Hank Williams with country guitarist Roy Clark.

Speaking about Nuages: Live at Yoshi's, Volume 2, Jim Ferguson wrote:

Artistry

Pass's playing style was known for his ability to play melody, harmony, and basslines at the same time or in a way that alternated between them, using both steady rhythms and more free-flowing, less structured patterns. His single-note playing style was similar to the techniques used in classic bebop and hard bop music, and it was often compared to the sounds of wind instruments like the saxophone and trumpet, as well as string instruments like the piano. Jazz educator Wolf Marshall described Pass's playing as having a "hornlike" quality, with a wide range of musical ideas that allowed his single-note improvisations to sound smooth and expressive, like a saxophonist's thoughts flowing freely.

As Pass's career continued, he began to focus more on harmony in his improvisations, often using chord-melody solos that created sounds similar to those of a piano. He also used different picking techniques, such as fingerpicking, hybrid picking, and flat picking.

Pass's style also included a "tougher funky aspect," which involved using techniques like string bends, double stops, and partial chords that drew from blues, R&B, and swing music.

During the 1940s, Pass became interested in modern jazz sounds coming from New York City, where he played with many important bebop musicians. He named Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, and Coleman Hawkins as influences during this time. Later, he was influenced by the piano playing of Oscar Peterson. Interestingly, only three of the musicians he cited as influences were guitarists: Charlie Christian, Django Reinhardt, and Wes Montgomery.

Equipment

In his early recordings, Pass played Fender solid-body electric guitars, such as the Jaguar and Jazzmaster. Additionally, he experimented with a Fender Bass VI 6-string bass on his 1963 album Catch Me. In 1963, Pass was given as a gift a Gibson ES175D arch-top electric-acoustic guitar that had twin humbucking pickups.

Legacy

New York magazine stated: "Joe Pass looks like someone's uncle and plays guitar with extraordinary skill. He is often called 'the world's greatest' and compared to Paganini because of his exceptional talent. His sound has a clear and unique quality that sets him apart from other top jazz guitarists."

— Miles Kington wrote about Pass in an October 1974 article in The Times.

Experienced jazz writer Scott Yanow has described Pass as "the ultimate bebop guitarist," "the epitome of virtuoso guitarists," and "one of the top jazz voices of his generation."

Internet personality and music analyst Rick Beato noted that Pass was an early influence. In several interviews, he mentioned that as a teenager, Pass performed songs from Virtuoso at the suggestion of his father.