Virtuoso (Joe Pass album)

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Virtuoso
JoePassVirtuoso.jpg
Studio album by Joe Pass
Released December 1973
Recorded August 28, 1973
Studio MGM Recording Studios, Los Angeles
Genre Jazz
Length 51:51
Label Pablo
Producer Norman Granz
Joe Pass chronology
Intercontinental
(1970) Virtuoso
(1973) Live at Donte's
(1974)
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
All About Jazz (favorable)[1]
Allmusic 5/5 stars[2]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide 5/5 stars[3]
Virtuoso is an album by jazz guitarist Joe Pass that was released in 1973. Despite
having only one original composition ("Blues for Alican"), it is widely considered
to be his best album, as well as one of the best jazz guitar albums. The remastered
version used 20-bit K2 Super Coding System technology and included liner notes by
Benny Green.

Contents
1 Reception
2 Track listing
3 Personnel
4 Sales and chart positions
5 References
Reception
Contemporaneous reviews were positive. For example, The Guardian commented on Pass'
"staggering dexterity, [...] matched by his fluency of ideas and the originality of
his voicing",[4] and The Irish Times stated that, "Apart from a certain fallibility
with regard to time, Pass is without significant fault, a fact borne out by the
quite incredible performances here".[5] Looking back from 2005, All About Jazz
described the album as "the recording to announce that Joe Pass had arrived", and
said that he had "accomplished, using standard guitar performance techniques, to
play lead melody lines, chords, and bass rhythm simultaneously and at tempo, giving
the listener the impression that multiple guitars were being played".[6]

Track listing
"Night and Day" (Cole Porter) � 3:32
"Stella by Starlight" (Ned Washington, Victor Young) � 5:10
"Here's That Rainy Day" (Johnny Burke, Jimmy Van Heusen) � 3:36
"My Old Flame" (Sam Coslow, Arthur Johnston) � 5:17
"How High the Moon" (Nancy Hamilton, Morgan Lewis) � 4:59
"Cherokee" (Ray Noble) � 3:37
"Sweet Lorraine" (Cliff Burwell, Mitchell Parish) � 4:09
"Have You Met Miss Jones?" (Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart) � 4:42
"'Round Midnight" (Bernie Hanighen, Thelonious Monk, Cootie Williams) � 3:38
"All the Things You Are" (Oscar Hammerstein II, Jerome Kern) � 4:01
"Blues for Alican" (Joe Pass) � 5:29
"The Song Is You" (Hammerstein, Kern) � 4:34
Personnel
Joe Pass � guitar
Sales and chart positions
Virtuoso outsold nearly every other release in the Pablo catalog and established
Pass as the premier mainstream jazz guitarist of the time.[7]

Year Chart Position

1974 Billboard Jazz Albums 16
References
All About Jazz review
Allmusic review
Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. US: Random
House/Rolling Stone. p. 159. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.
Peters, Sam (September 5, 1974) "Jazz records" The Guardian, p. 10.
Comiskey, Ray (January 31, 1975) "Jazz Guitar and Joe Pass" The Irish Times, p.
10.
Bailey, C. Michael (2005-02-09). "Joe Pass: Virtuoso". All About Jazz. Retrieved
2007-09-14.
"Joe Pass Unedited," Part III article by Jim Ferguson, accessed April 29, 2009.
Archived April 9, 2009, at the Wayback Machine.