Joe Pass - Virtuoso

As Norman Granz had done with Art Tatum 20 years previously, the impresario allowed Joe Pass to sit down and play his songbook. The result was Virtuoso and Virtuoso #4. Collectively, the two represent 33 standards and original compositions recorded with acoustic and electric guitars. Virtuoso was the recording to announce that Joe Pass had arrived. Pass had accomplished, using standard guitar performance techniques, to play lead melody lines, chords, and bass rhythm simultaneously and at tempo, giving the listener the impression that multiple guitars were being played. With the exception of the closing tunes, Pass restricts himself to the standard vernacular of Tin Pan Alley.



These songs are performed without flaw regardless of tempo, infused with that element of joy Joe Pass brought to jazz a photographic familiarity with the American Popular Canon and a palpable love of expressing that on six strings. If you must have one Joe Pass recording, let it be this one.