Guitarist Joe Pass has been on the scene since the 1940s, achieving widespread recognition in the '70s due to shrewd management by Norman Granz.

A veteran of countless sessions with a wide selection of musicians-Chet Baker, Bud Shank, Gerald Wilson, Les McCann, Earl Bostic and Duke Ellington - Pass is a complete professional. Since singing to Pablo, he made triumphant appearances at the Montreux Festival (Joe Pass at Montreux) and JATP tours with Oscar Peterson, Zoot Sims etc. A sensitive lyrical soloist with war and sonorous tone, Pass can also sound like a full rhythm section in accompaniment.

An album with another veteran guitarist, Herb Ellis, finds the two men plaiting melody and counter-melody, and showing great empathy in interplay on numbers like Cherokee (Two For The Road). A duet with Ella Fitzgerald (Ella Fitzgerald & Joe Pass) is relaxed and melodic, while the collaboration with Oscar Peterson reaches a more demanding artistic peak (Oscar Peterson Et Joe Pass A Salle Pleyel) with both players at full stretch. A pretty album with Peterson on clavichord (Porgy & Bess) has pass dispatching rhythm duties until his solo outing on They Pass By Singing. In later years, the guitarist expressed a preference for solo performance, with two of his finest albums, Joe Pass, Virtuoso 1 & 2.