What are we listening to now?

[Elspode]

Originally Posted by alphageek31337

...there's a man by the name of Joe Pass who is abso-fucking-lutely amazing.

I was listening to Joe Pass just yesterday, an album called "Unforgettable", which is just Joe and a guitar, playing his arrangements of many well-known standards from several genres. It is just like sitting in a room with him and listening to him play, so present is the recording. You can even hear him *breathe*. Needless to say, the music is amazingly intimate.

http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~ux5t-oois/records.html

I saw Joe Pass about 20 years ago. He was, as you say, abso-fucking-lutely amazing. His death in 1994 left a large void in the world of jazz guitar.

[Griff]

Originally Posted by Elspode

I was listening to Joe Pass just yesterday, an album called "Unforgettable", which is just Joe and a guitar, playing his arrangements of many well-known standards from several genres. It is just like sitting in a room with him and listening to him play, so present is the recording. You can even hear him *breathe*. Needless to say, the music is amazingly intimate.

Hmmm.. emusic has that album. Do you think that'd be a good intro to him?

[Elspode]

That's exactly where I got it.

I would describe this recording as being primarily for a serious lover of guitar music. It is entirely unaccompanied, not 100% free of flaws (one-take, live digital recordings all by a master of his instrument), and therefore not for casual listening.

If you love hearing an artist at the peak of their craft, with all the embellishment stripped away, so that you can enjoy the pure, real thing...yes, this is a great album as an introduction. The songs will be familiar, yet arranged in original ways, with a lot of improvisation thrown in.

When I saw Joe Pass all those years ago, he held a crowd of about 1000 in awe doing exactly the same thing...just playing his guitar.