The Best of Joe Pass: A Step-by-Step Breakdown of the Styles and Techniques of the Jazz Guitar Virtuoso

90 Pages·2003·43.078 MB·English

by  Wolf Marshall

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accomp
CD
U.S. Book S12.95, CD S10.00 =Pkg $22.95

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CONTENTS

Page Title CD Track

4 Introduction

5 Discography

5 The Recording

6 A Joe Pass Axology

Tuning 2

7 C.E.D. 3

15 Milestones 4

18 The Night Has a Thousand Eyes 5

29 There Is No Greater Love 6

41 Django 7

47 Rosetta 8

56 For Django 9

62 Cavalerie 10

71 Nobody Else but You 11

77 Blues for Basie 12-15

82 One for My Baby (And One More for the Road) 16

86 I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance 17

Outro 18
INTRODUCTION

Joe Pass is one of the greatest guitarists in the history of jazz. A genuine master
of all its idioms, he was equally at home with a burning bebop line, a down-home blues
groove, a sensitive rubato ballad, or a gentle chord-melody solo. Pass was also highly
sought after as a sideman in many diverse ensembles-including a surprisingly success­
ful set with Roy Clark covering Hank Williams tunes. He also served as accompanist to
singers like Ella Fitzgerald and instrumentalists like Oscar Peterson and J.J. Johnson.
Since the early 1960s, the name Joe Pass has been synonymous with jazz gui­
tar, and his effect on his contemporaries and subsequent generations of players is unde­
niable. He was a favorite performer of Wes Montgomery during the height of Wes's pop­
ularity, and along with Howard Roberts, Barney Kessel, and Herb Ellis, he defined the
West Coast jazz guitar school. Pass was also an important and influential paternal figure
to emerging players like Larry Carlton, Lee Ritenour, Jack Wilkins, Emily Remler, and
Mark Whitfield.
This is the first Signature Licks book to explore the music of Joe Pass in depth.
The emphasis of this volume is on his work as a jazz performer in a group context.
Accordingly, a great deal of attention is devoted to his Pacific Jazz years-often acknowl­
edged as his "classic" years-when he was hot, hungry, and ready to show the world what
he could do. For many years, these recordings-seminal masterworks and essential lis­
tening for previous generations of guitarists-were unavailable on CD. Consequently they
languished in obscurity, and their relevance and inclusion in a Joe Pass compilation was
problematic, despite the excellence, profundity, and importance of the music. Today, these
classic Pass albums have been rightfully given a new lease on life through the laudable
re-issue efforts of companies like Blue Note, Euphoria, and most of all, Mosaic Records.
And happily, this most influential and musically rich period of his career can now be given
its due attention in this Signature Licks volume.
Several pieces in this volume are representative of Pass's later Pablo Records
period, when he attained greater fame as a solo performer through albums like the
Virtuoso series. The unaccompanied original "Blues for Basie" is depictive of this aspect
of his musicianship. Blues was a favorite form for Pass, and he usually included one or
more blues pieces on his solo albums. Also included in this Signature Licks overview are
a couple of tracks from the final phase of Pass's career. I have selected two must-know
standards, "One for my Baby (And One More for the Road)" and "I Don't Stand a Ghost
of a Chance," to illustrate his jazz ensemble work of this era.
As a youth I was fortunate to have seen Joe Pass countless times at various night­
club gigs and concerts in LA He was the town's leading jazz player in the 1970s, and
every performance was special and unique. A true improviser, Pass routinely called tunes
off the top of his head and spontaneously created masterpieces before the eyes and ears
of an appreciative audience. These moments are permanently etched in my memory. I
was luckier still to have studied briefly with Joe then, and some of what he taught me is
in this book. His improvisational approach, advanced harmonic concepts, and chord style
are SUbjects he was eager to discuss and share, yet his mode of expression was hardly
disciplined, pedantic, or scholarly. Nonetheless, Joe was a great communicator... if you lis­
tened. He spoke, as in performance, through his instrument-spontaneously, casually,
and with humor and great feeling, punctuating his musical discourse with a favorite com­
ment: "Stop me when you hear something you like." Needless to say, he got stopped a lot.
Joe wrote several instructional books with the goal of sharing his expertise with
neophytes and seasoned guitarists alike, but often mentioned that learning as many tunes
as possible was the most valuable lesson for a player. He hoped that aspiring guitarists,
regardless of style, would find that spark of individuality and creativity that he discovered
in his youth and cultivated in his earliest playing experiences. In this spirit, I proudly pre­
sent the following work on the style a d ec niques 0' Joe Pass.
4
Grab your guitars, devour the transcriptions, play along with the CD, and feel free
to stop it as often as you like. Most of all, as Joe would have it, use these tunes, and his
innovations and contributions, as a springboard for your own creativity and inspiration.
This one's for you, Joe. You are sorely missed but will never be forgotten.
-Wolf Marshall
DISCOGRAPHY
The titles in this volume are found on the following recordings:

THE BEST OF JOE PASS-Pacific Jazz 7243-8-54944-2-0: "C. ED.," "Milestones."

THE COMPLETE PACIFIC JAZZ JOE PASS QUARTET SESSIONS-Mosaic MD5-207:

"Django," "Rosetta," "For Django," "Cavalerie," "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes," ''There Is

1\10 Greater Love."

SIMPLICITY / A SIGN OF THE TIMES-Euphoria 183: "Nobody Else But Me."

VIRTUOSO #2-Pablo PACD-231 0-788-2: "Blues for Basie."

ONE FOR MY BABY-Pablo PACD-231 0-936-2: "One for My Baby (And One More for the

Road)," "I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance."

Of great value and highly recommended are the following videos and DVDs:
THE GENIUS OF JOE PASS-Vestapol 13073
JOE PASS IN CONCERT-VestapoI13025
LEGENDS OF JAZZ GUITAR: VOLUMES 1, 2, and 3-Vestapol 13009, 13033 and
13043.
THE RECORDING
Wolf Marshall: guitar

Jackson Blue: piano, organ

Bob Magnusson: bass

Mike Sandberg: drums

Recorded at Pacifica Studio, Los Angeles, CA, and Marshall Arts Music Studio, San

Diego, CA

Produced by Wolf Marshall

Special thanks to Gibson USA.

Wolf Marshall uses Gibson archtop guitars, Fender, Polytone, and Audio-Image Clarus

amplifiers, Raezer's Edge cabinets, and Thomastik-Infeld Swing series jazz strings.

Extra special thanks to John Pisano for his invaluable insights and participation.

All selections transcribed by Wolf Marshall
A JOE PASS AXOLOGY

Many guitarists have been surprised to learn that Joe Pass played Fender solid­
body guitars on his early recordings. Normally associated with surf and rock 'n' roll per­
formers, the Fender Jazzmaster and Jaguar models seem unlikely foils for his advanced
bebop style, but Pass made the most of his circumstances. His Fender guitar sound is
heard on recordings like 1961 's Sounds of Synanon, 1962's Something Special ("Groove"
Holmes) and Moment of Truth (Gerald Wilson), and 1963's Catch Me, his first album as a
leader. He also employed a Fender Bass VI six-string bass guitar for a couple of tracks on
the latter date. Pass used a thinline Gibson ES355 briefly during 1963. This was heard on
his sessions as a sideman with Les McCann.
Pass played these atypical jazz axes until a kind and generous soul, Mike Peak,
laid a Gibson ES-175D on him in 1963. This guitar is an archtop electric-acoustic with two
humbucking pickups, a sunburst finish, and a 16-inch laminated body. The 175 produced
the definitive Joe Pass sound and became his workhorse instrument for most of his
career. It is heard prominently on such classic recordings as 1964's For Ojango and Joy
Spring, 1967's Simplicity, and 1973's Jazz Concord (with Herb Ellis).
In the 1970s and 1980s, Pass dabbled with a few other archtop guitars, including
a custom-made James D'Aquisto archtop acoustic with a thinner body and a floating pick­
up, and an Ibanez JP20 signature model. He later lent his name to a line of Epiphone Joe
Pass signature guitars in the 1990s. In 1992, Joe took delivery of a custom-made Gibson
ES-175. According to jazz guitarist John Pisano, Pass's longtime friend and frequent
musical collaborator, this instrument has a thinner body (2 3/4 inches in depth), a single
humbucking pickup, a sunburst finish, gold-plated hardware, and an ebony fingerboard.
Pisano also mentioned that this is the guitar heard on Joe's final recordings, including his
last: A Meeting of the Masters: Roy Clark & Joe Pass Play Hank Williams.
Like most jazz gUitarists, Pass used the neck pickup on his 175 almost exclu­
sively, and adjusted the tone control to produce a warm, bassy sound. He strung his gui­
tars with a custom medium/heavy-gauge set: .013, .017, .024, .032, .042, .052. He origi­
nally used various brands in the mixed set: Thomastik-Infeld flatwound strings for the low
E and A, GHS roundwound Boomers for the D and G, and Thomastik-Infeld or D'Aquisto
for the B and high E. In later years, Pass was supplied with a full custom-gauged set from
GHS. Joe had an unusual habit of breaking or biting his picks in half to a smaller size that
he felt was more comfortable. These were originally smaller teardrop-shaped picks; after
breaking them he played with the pointed end.
In the 1960s, Pass usually performed and recorded with various Fender tube
amplifiers. He played several combo and piggyback models, including a Twin Reverb 2x12
and a white tolex Bandmaster. The latter was seen and heard, mated to a Fender Jaguar,
in a telling 1962 TV performance included on the Genius of Joe Pass video. Session pho­
tos reveal that an Ampeg combo amp was used during the landmark For Ojango record­
ing. By the early 1970s, Pass switched to Polytone solid-state amps and became one of
the company's leading endorsees. He generally favored the 102 model with two 8-inch
speakers and one 12-inch speaker. Pass began using the Polytone Mini-Brute II with
a single 12-inch speaker in the 1980s. He plugged directly into the amp and did not
use effects.
6
C.E.D.
(The Sounds of Synanon, 1961)
By Joe Pass and Arnold Ross
"CEO." was a leading track from The Sounds of Synanon, the record that marked
the official debut of Joe Pass. The record was a life-changing event for Pass. His advanced
bop style, prodigious technique, and newfound sobriety marked him for success from the
start of these sessions. By 1960, the jazz vernacular embodied a wide array of dialects,
and "CEO." is a prime example. A Joe Pass/Arnold Ross original composition, the tune
reflects myriad influences of the day and appropriately puts Pass's guitar at the forefront.
Notable is the blending of straight-ahead bop, West Coast "cool," and modal jazz styles
with Latin rhythms.
Figure 1 - Intro, Head, and Interlude
"CEO." opens with Pass's energetic and ear-catching guitar riff. Eschewing a con­
m
ventional tonal center, he juxtaposes C major, major, and Eb major sounds over a C
pedal in this figure. The head of the up-tempo AABA tune alternates rhythm feels; the A
sections are played with a Latin feel, while the B sections are swung. Behind the C-E-O
theme melody stated by the horns, Pass plays an active chord-based counterline in
eighth notes.
Modal jazz is emphasized in the B section. Slower-moving changes with minor
chords distinguish measures 25-30 and 33-38, complemented nicely by tonal resolutions
(via ii-V-I changes) to Eb major in measures 31-32 and 39. The B section features Pass
blowing fleet improvised licks around the simple horn riff. The first two licks over Fm7 and
Abm7 are typical diatonic lines. The arpeggiated interval-jumping pattern in measure 26,
a signature lick heard often in his playing, is used freely over both minor and dominant
seventh chords. Also noteworthy is his use of the eight-tone symmetrical diminished scale
in the descent of measures 37-38. Measure 40 presents a definitive dominant-seventh
figure exploiting chromatic passing tones, a fragment from the Ab melodic minor scale
implying an altered G7 (a fundamental bop substitution), and a final encircling target-note
pattern (A~-F#-G)-all favorite elements in his style.
Fig. 1
Intro

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