I’m a geezer who studied with him from 1973-75. I had just moved to Van Nuys from Vegas and even though I was short on funds would scrape together the money for the lessons. I moved down to Huntington Beach in ‘75 for work….I was playing clubs in a cover band and couldn’t make the commute to Northridge anymore but he was still teaching classes at Dick Grove School of Music on Ventura Blvd and that was a commute I could make on Saturday mornings. When I first moved to the Valley Joe was doing a jazz gig with Herb Ellis at a place called Diamonte’s (it is Diamonte’s and NOT a misspelling of Donte’s) on Ventura Blvd and I would nurse the two drink minimum in order to hear them play all night. I don’t play like him though….I don’t know why, but nothing rubbed off. I’ve been a working pro since 1964, doing nothing but music in order to support myself and keep from eating my kids and there was a period when I was playing nothing but piano at a 950 seat dinner theater (also kicking left hand bass…cheap bastards couldn’t afford a bassist?) and only played guitar on my breaks in one of the dressing rooms. I was going crazy at that place for 13 years not being able to play guitar. I also taught piano during the day….in California, you have to wear many hats in music in order to eat. But, yes….he was an incredible human being….very easy to be around and learn from.

Wow! He was a treasure.

What an amazing story!

What a great way to learn how to improvise and train your ear at the same time!

I heard his ES-175 went MIA before he passed Great story to cherish May he RIP and Happy Birthday!

That must have been great! :) I stumbled upon Joe recently. It was a video with Ela Fitzgerald, loved it.

Jazz guitarists play circles around rock players who rely mostly on volume, distortion and various effects...not to mention theatrics.

@@Jplent1 hendrix,beck were pretty good

@@mjsmcd Jeff Beck is incredibly expressive musically. Check out the DVD "Live at Ronnie Scott's" kzfaq.info/get/bejne/d9WBe9GrrdjVl3k.html especially: 04. Cause We've Ended As Lovers 07. Nadia 13. Goodbye Pork Pie Hat / Brush With The Blues 17. A Day In The Life

Pure jazz players, that never teally got rock usually cannot play it. They can do some of the tricks but lack the over the top element tock requires. Classical cats play better than anyone...as long as they have sheet music. They have a hard time improvising. Today many jazzers started with rock so they can do both.

​@@Jplent1 ⁶×awyr+!!aaaaa!!aaaaaaaaaaar6wryw6r6w6wr6wywa

What, you mean, he's not that great?

@@robinwatson4282 no, I mean has has no peer. He is number 1

Is that on youtube? It would be awesome to see.

Wow! Sounds amazing. That was before my time but I would have loved to have been there to listen. Thanks for sharing.

If you do enough improvising over time, you'll learn that what Joe said is quite the norm. It's about learning theory and you learn, even anticipate, what changes are likely coming up in any given tune. Yet many folks never develop improvising skills. My mom, an accomplished sight-reader for piano and organ, couldn't improvise worth a damn. Take her music away from her and she hadn't a clue what to do!

I know right! Lmao

He bends a string once lol

By "blues" they meant that he was playing lines over a minor blues progression. He's a classical player, so the point was less that he'd stylistically play "bluesy" and more that he could improvise in his aquired musical language over a progression that is considered to be from another dialect.

@@PANDORAZTOYBOKZ blues is as blues does

@@PANDORAZTOYBOKZ i'm like 99% sure they just labeled him wrong

ricardo moyano Im glad he did

Lucky us!

No, Michael Jordan is Joe Pass.

That is wierd. I never heard Bill Evan's influence in Martin TTaylor. Maybe he just liked Evans

freddym223 You should have asked him. How do you learn if you don’t ask questions? Of course I would probably have done the same thing.

"I Yell At Traffic" is the piece...I imagine the people putting this together weren't really sure how to categorize him. I've been a fan for 25 years and I'm still not sure myself, but it's gold nonetheless. At one of the shows I went to, Leo mentioned being part of this event and a discussion around blues came up. Joe Pass asked him about playing a 12-bar blues and Leo wanted to make sure he understood what Pass was asking. And he said, addressing Joe Pass, "So, if you start with an inverted one chord, and move on to a 6/9 five, and before you resolve to the tonic you move to a doubly diminished minor (apologies if I'm getting some of the jargon wrong, it's from memory of 17 years ago)..." And Pass interrupted playfully, saying, "Leo, if you don't get it now, you never will!"

yea please upload more if you have them

+Magatte Diagne Very different players. Both incredible but both very different. Ultimately Joe Pass had the better knowledge of the fretboard but then he lived a good bit longer so that would come as no surprise. Wes had a style that was so unique it would be hard to say he was anything other than unique.

“known”?? Any statement about musicians beginning with “known as the best” is bound to be, well, wrong. How about saying, “I think so and so is the best and some people agree with me”... but many others don’t

Maybe - but when you get into the depths of the Chaconne - diatonic it certainly is not ! However, yes, this opening theme is just Dminor - Gminor6 -A7th - Dminor - repeated - and that is not at all difficult to improvise over. Hit the Road Joe ! John on the other hand has allowed himself to be trained to believe that he cannot improvise - I know - because he told me so.

+Larry Johnson idk what albums u listened to but he was singing in them very early on, first one i know of is mudlark

+Larry Johnson Yes I think he sang one or two as early as his 2nd LP. HE wasn't fond of his own deep rich voice which he said sounded, "like a goose fart on a muggy day" or something close to that.

You mean a guy pushing 70 wasn't as technically proficient as he used to be? Well, I never.

@@willae1 i had leo's Happy Feet record i believe it was called. he sang "Louise" with that distinctive voice. great.

A few more years and the title will be right :-)

@@tmjcbs yep :P

Not to my knowledge it was recorded on VHS the day it was aired on Australian television..

jfdiaz28 Don't know but I have Segovia playing it.

It's called "I Yell At Traffic", and to Gia Murray, I doubt Segovia would have played it since the piece was released one year after he died. Unless you mean you'd like to have heard him play it...?