Pablo to Release New Joe Pass Tracks and Best Of CDs

A disc of previously unreleased recordings by the late Joe Pass (pictured) will be out August 31 on the Pablo label. Titled Virtuoso in New York, the CD collects nine tracks that the guitarist recorded two years after his famous 1973 solo LP Virtuoso. The forthcoming album also features an unaccompanied Pass, who plays a set of standards like “The Way You Look Tonight” and “A Ghost of a Chance.” The session that yielded these unearthed cuts took place at New York City’s RCA Recording Studios on June 5 or June 6, 1975. Sounds clips of select album tracks can be heard by clicking here.

Track list for Virtuoso in New York:

I Never Knew (That Roses Grew)

(I Don’t Stand) A Ghost of a Chance (with You)

We’ll Be Together Again

Blues for Alagarn

The Way You Look Tonight

How Long Has This Been Going On?

Moritat

When Your Lover Has Gone

Blues for Alagarn (take 1)

Pass’ original Virtuoso album is just one in a series of four and was reissued in a 20-bit remastered form in 2001. The folks at Pablo are giving the same loving restoration treatment to the guitarist’s 1988 album Blues for Fred, a collection of 1930s tunes recorded in tribute to Fred Astaire, for release on September 28.

Pablo is one of the many labels under the Fantasy Jazz umbrella. In addition to the Joe Pass discs, Fantasy also has plans for the August 31 release of seven titles in a new Best Of series, each containing 70 minutes of music on average, featuring Miles Davis, Red Garland (quintets), Sonny Rollins, Coleman Hawkins, Wes Montgomery, Thelonious Monk, and Milt Jackson. More info on these discs, including track and personnel lists, is available by clicking here. A second group of Best Of discs, featuring Eric Dolphy, Jackie McLean, Kenny Burrell, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Bill Evans and Chet Baker, will be out September 28.

Originally Published August 11, 2004