Virtuoso (Joe Pass album)
| Virtuoso | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by Joe Pass | ||||
| Released | December 1973 | |||
| Recorded | August 28, 1973 | |||
| Studio | MGM Recording Studios, Los Angeles | |||
| Genre | Jazz, bebop | |||
| Length | 51:51 | |||
| Label | Pablo | |||
| Producer | Norman Granz | |||
| Joe Pass chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| All About Jazz | (favorable) |
| Allmusic |  |
| The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide | |
Virtuoso is an album by jazz guitarist Joe Pass, 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.
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", 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". 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".
Virtuoso outsold nearly every other release in the Pablo catalog and established Pass as the premier mainstream jazz guitarist of the time.
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