Customer Reviews

For Django

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am a professional jazz guitarist in NYC, who enjoys some, but not all of Joe Pass' records. Wes Montgomery is probably my favorite. However, this recording of Joe Pass is one of the most inspired, complete and impressive jazz guitar records there is! I wish every guitarist could make technically sophisticated, tasteful bebop playing sound this effortless. In fact, I'm sorry that most of Pass's weren't as good as this one. Enjoy.

Alongside Tal Farlow and Wes Montgomery - Joe Pass is the most important jazz guitarist of the second half of the 20th century! Known primarily for his solo guitar work - this album should be a revelation to those not familiar with his bebop chops - and his efortless single-line playing - which bears some similarity to Mr. Farlow. Pass plays the music of the Django cannon - without imitating Django (a mistake quite a few guitarists have made!) but embracing a new style within the same framework. 'For Django' is also a song that deserves more attention - a possible jazz classic - I'm surprised more artists don't play it - it has almost as many possibilities as John Lewis's 'Django'! Anyway, I believe this album to be a landmark in jazz guitar - listen for yourself.

Here Joe Pass played a tribute to one of his heroes, Django Reinhardt without copying him. Why copy another musician? This would be really wrong! As a total master and an absolute artist himself, Joe knew what does it mean to have a personality in music (and WHY not to clone other musicians). So he tributed Django, maintaining his own personality and ideas. It needs an amateur to think that a giant like Joe Pass should pay a tribute to Django trying to sound like him, mimicking him. It is so ridicolous that it almost makes me laugh. A lot of guys who wrote bad reviews here probably are amateur Jazz musicians or casual listeners that judged superficially this album from Joe maybe expecting something near Django's gypsy Jazz. Nothing more wrong. Joe played himself here, think about it ... why copying Django from Joe's perspective? If one want to listen to Django's music, he should buy Django's records. Of course. You buy a Joe Pass record because you want to hear Joe Pass playing, maybe Django's compositions, but in Joe's own manner. This is absolutly obvious!! This is just the same spirit of jazz. Jazz is THIS thing. You don't buy a record from Oscar Peterson because you want to hear the songs written by Cole Porter for instance, but because you want to hear Oscar's interpretations of those songs. It is the spirit of Jazz. The musician is the most important thing in Jazz (not the material), his ideas, his personality. So even if I love Django I wouldn't want to hear Joe mimick Django. Tha one would be a really UN-artistic record, an horrible experience. I know that Joe is a MASTER musician, a musicians' musician himself and that he wouldn't do this for the world. He recorded a Charlie Parker tribute too, but he didn't sound exactly like Bird there just to make some uneducated listener happy. He expressed his love to Bird (like here he expressed his love to Django), Bird was one of his greatest influences, but he didn't copy him there, just like he did not copy Django in this album. So this is proudly a Joe Pass album. And one of his best I have to say. I love his solo efforts (the fourth is his best,... he played only the acoustic guitar, terrific ..) but I prefer his bebop sides. This is one of his best (another very good one is the live date Joyspring). His ideas are splendid here as they are always been by the way, his groove absolutly in shape, his harmonic conceptions wonderful. Moreover this disc has a wonderful balanced sound because there's another guitar in the rhytmic team, Joe Pisano. Another extremely talented player by the way ... but here the star is not Joe Pisano and is neither Django. The star is Joe Pass. Django is the one who, if he was alive, would like a lot this tribute and would understand completly why Joe sounded so different from him. Because Joe is a star as big as Django himself with a style strong as Django's. A wonderful album, finally remastered and with its original cover. I did buy the japanese edition and I am absolutly happy I did. An album that I will listen for the rest of my life (uh, I'm a pro Jazz guitarist, didn't I tell you?).

Besides his solo albumns, this is my favorite Joe Pass Record! If you are a student trying to assimilate the bebop language this would probably be one of the best guitar recordings you could listen to and transcribe.
Hear are my reasons...
1. the playing sounds so inspired, natural, and alive
2. it's just so much fun to listen to
3. Joe's concept seems to work better for some tunes like "All the things you are." Wes breaks my heart and you should definitely hear him and learn from him but his concept is totally different.
4. it is better to transcribe entire solos... and the solos on this record aren't 10 minutes long.
5. this is the definition of playing "in the pocket"

If you like this one, try out Joyspring - its a live recording

p.s. I am Jazz guitarist/teacher with a degree in classical guitar

Transcribing the solos of this album, did more for my jazz education than any amount of schooling. Joe's solos are so well structured that they sound pre-composed, but were created on the spot. This is an incredible CD. There is some deep listening between the members of the quartet. This is required listening for anyone aspiring to play jazz. I make sure my students get this one.

In my opinion, this is Joe's best album. I have them all now. I keep playing this one. I studied with Joe when I lived in Santa Monica. I think this album captures his style at his peak.

All I can say is that this certainly is one of the best bebop guitar records I have ever heard. Pass's melodic ideas, flow, and technique on this disc are just fantastic. Along with the album he did with Clare Fischer "Catch Me", it is a must for any serious fan of jazz guitar.

You must add this CD to your collection of Joe Pas material! Why? Joe plays with the fire of his "Catch Me" album. His sound is superb! His chops on a single melodic line can't be touched by anyone! Pisano backs him up on rythme guitar nicely and is not overbearing! Nice selecting of tunes! I have listened to this many times over! Well worth the musical investment!

this album is from joe pass's early carrier, released in his early thirties. this ablum features joe as the only solo player backed by three piece rythm - guitar/bass/drums. demonstrates that he's also a great single line bebop player on a few tunes. joe plays the standards from django's repetoire with his own bop interpretation. it has a great mix of ballards and swing. the harmony and lines that you hear on this album is unmistakably joe. a great hard bop album. a must buy.

This is a somewhat disappointing release. Less than 33 minutes and it's not remastered--the sound is acceptable but not great. Three of the songs, Nuages, Night and Day & Limehouse Blues are available on other Cds in better-recorded versions, are longer in length and are done solo. In fact, none of the songs are done solo. If you're a completeist then you'll get this, but it's not Joe's best. Also, none of the songs try to emulate Django's style as one might expect. The songs were either written by Django Reinhardt, Django's favorites, or written as a tribute to Django--but they do not attempt to sound like Django Reinhardt at all. If you're new to Joe Pass, then start with his Virtuoso CD, then move on to his other solo recordings on Pablo.