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Joe Pass

By Paul Greig

Joe Pass

Joe Pass, (JOSEPH ANTHONY JACOBI PASSALAQUA), U.S. guitarist (born Jan. 13, 1929, New Brunswick, N.J.—died May 23, 1994, Los Angeles, Calif.), was a technically skilled jazz virtuoso who overcame drug addiction to become an internationally renowned sideman, performing with such jazz greats as Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald, and Sarah Vaughn. He was also a spellbinding soloist whose fluid fingering and impassioned improvisations defined his incomparable artistry. Pass, a self-taught guitarist, was given his first instrument at the age of nine and was performing with big-name bands by the time he was a teenager.

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Though his career was stalled by heroin addiction and a five-year jail sentence, he kicked his habit after enrolling in the Synanon drug-rehabilitation program and emerged from obscurity with the 1973 release of a solo album, Virtuoso. That same year he became a member of a celebrated trio that included pianist Oscar Peterson and the bassist Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen. Pass then found recording opportunities with Norman Granz, producer and head of Pablo Records, and worked as a regular member of a studio band. In later years, however, it was his work as a concert soloist that made him a standout.

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