joe pass, why is he the greatest guitarist

Subject: RE: joe pass, why is he the greatest guitarist
From: Stringsinger
Date: 16 Apr 14 - 11:26 AM

There is no one greatest guitarist. Is there one greatest folk singer or player?

Everyone has something unique to contribute and although you can suggest your preferences, to state that one is superior to another without accompanying criteria
is silly.

Anyone who plays guitar exceptionally well regardless of style or field, as most real musicians will tell you "is the greatest!"

Here's a funny criteria for you. For accompanying simple but pretty folk songs, you can't beat Burl Ives. His um plunk supported every song that he ever did and could elicit encores a-plenty for his playing and tasteful guitar backup.

Barney Kessel's accompaniment for Julie London's recordings is masterful, notably
"Cry Me A River".

Eric Weissberg's accompaniment for Judy Collins' "Suzanne" is also unique.

Peggy Seeger did a lovely guitar accompaniment for "I Wish I Was a Single Girl Again" on Folksongs of Courting and Complaint.

I think that Bruce Langhorne's accompaniments for Odetta on Tradition Records were excellent.

Hey, it's all apples and oranges here. Greatest? Depends on what we're talking about.

Subject: RE: joe pass, why is he the greatest guitarist
From: GUEST,gillymor
Date: 16 Apr 14 - 12:02 PM

Joe Pass doing All the Things You Are on Youtube. Click here

I tend to like fingerstyle players like Pass, the earlier Lenny Breau stuff, Ted Greene etc.

Subject: RE: joe pass, why is he the greatest guitarist
From: pdq
Date: 16 Apr 14 - 12:27 PM

"I tend to like fingerstyle players like Pass..."


Just for fun, go back to YouTube and check out his work on a tune he called C.E.D., the initials of the founder of Synanon.

He is doing "up'n'down" flatpicking on a Fender solid body guitar. Seems to have two pickups. I don't think it's a Telecaster.

Single-string work in a "machine gun" style with some BeBop flavor.

Subject: RE: joe pass, why is he the greatest guitarist
From: GUEST,gillymor
Date: 16 Apr 14 - 12:33 PM

I've seen that ,PDQ, and always wondered how the heck he got that tone out of a Fender solid body.

Subject: RE: joe pass, why is he the greatest guitarist
From: PHJim
Date: 16 Apr 14 - 12:45 PM

Joe played either a Fender Jazzmaster or Jaguar when he made the Sounds Of Synanon and Gerald Wilson Big Band albums. Joe didn't own his own guitar at the time, so he used one belonging to the Synanon rehab facility.

Subject: RE: joe pass, why is he the greatest guitarist
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 16 Apr 14 - 03:37 PM

He's Joe on the Fender Jaguar.
Poor sound quality.

Early Joe

Subject: RE: joe pass, why is he the greatest guitarist
From: pdq
Date: 16 Apr 14 - 05:37 PM

Hope this works.

Here is a picture of a 1965 vintage Fender Jaguar...


                                                   
http://cdn1.gbase.com/usercontent/gear/3144265/p1_uefvfo1h4_so.jpg

Subject: RE: joe pass, why is he the greatest guitarist
From: Stringsinger
Date: 17 Apr 14 - 12:44 PM

Tal Farlow was a guitar phenomenon, a devotee of the hard bop style inculcated by Bird.
He was a sign painter as well as guitarist. He learned to read music very quickly for studio work.

Joe Pass was a different kind of player, mainly mainstream jazz from the swing era.
His chord sophistication was legendary.

They are both incomparable to each other and also as jazz guitarists.

Chuck Dietrich was probably responsible for getting Joe off of the pit bands in the burlesque houses on Main Street in Los Angeles by saying something to the effect, "Get out here to Synanon by yourself. Nobody is going to come to get you."

Joe took responsibility for his life, kicked the habit and showed the world what he could do.

Subject: RE: joe pass, why is he the greatest guitarist
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 17 Apr 14 - 01:25 PM

Of course, Charlie Christian was the daddy of all swing/bop guitarists.
I think the recording below is terrific. It swings, it drives, it takes you by surprise. How I would have loved to have been in New York in the 1940s.

Charlie Swings!

Subject: RE: joe pass, why is he the greatest guitarist
From: GUEST,Tony Rath aka Tonyteach
Date: 17 Apr 14 - 08:24 PM

I am also an admirer of Joe Pass but would not say he is the greatest guitarist. It is a question of taste. I also like Johnny Smith and Charlie Byrd as well Jimmy Bruno and Frank VIgnola all great players. A Mr C Atkins late of this parish could also lay claim to the title as well as his appointed on earth Mr T Emmanuel.

The greatest fingerstyle guitarist of any genre combining musicianship taste and technique has just left us Mr Paco Di Lucia