LT-1053

Joe Pass - The Complete "Catch Me" Sessions

Released - 1980

Recording and Session Information

Pacific Jazz Studios, Hollywood, CA, January 30, 1963
Clare Fischer, piano, organ; Joe Pass, guitar, acoustic guitar; Ralph Pena, bass; Larry Bunker, drums.

But Beautiful
You Stepped Out Of A Dream
Catch Me (alternate take) (as Forward Pass)
Days Of Wine And Roses

Pacific Jazz Studios, Hollywood, CA, February 4, 1963
Clare Fischer, piano, organ; Joe Pass, guitar, acoustic guitar; Ralph Pena, bass; Larry Bunker, drums.

Mood Indigo

Pacific Jazz Studios, Hollywood, CA, July 18, 1963
Clare Fischer, piano, organ; Joe Pass, guitar; Albert Stinson, bass; Colin Bailey, drums.

Just Friends
Walkin' Up
No Cover, No Minimum

Pacific Jazz Studios, Hollywood, CA, July 19, 1963
Clare Fischer, piano, organ; Joe Pass, guitar; Albert Stinson, bass; Colin Bailey, drums.

Falling In Love With Love
Summertime
Catch Me

Reissue of Pacific Jazz PJ-73 1963

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
Catch Me	Joe Pass	July 19 1963
You Stepped Out Of A Dream	G. Kahn-N.H. Brown	January 30 1963
No Cover, No Minimum	Bill Evans	July 18 1963
Just Friends	J. Klenner-S.Lewis	July 18 1963
Walkin' Up	Bill Evans	July 18 1963
Catch Me (Alternate Take)	Joe Pass	January 30 1963
Side Two
Summertime	G. Gershwin-D. Heyward	July 19 1963
But Beautiful	G. Burke-J. Van Heusen	January 30 1963
Falling In Love With Love	R. Rodgers-L Hart	July 19 1963
Mood Indigo	Ellington-Mills-Bigard	February 4 1963
Days Of Wine And Roses	H. Mancini-J. Mercer	January 30 1963

Liner Notes

JOE PASS
The Complete "CATCH ME!" Sessions

These fiver, assured selections, the first to bear Joe Pass' name as leader, were recorded nearly 18 years ago and, as is inevitably the case with the finest jazz performances, sound as invigoratingly fresh and exciting today as when first recorded. In the intervening years Pass has gone on to earn great acclaim as one of the foremost guitarists in jazz, a superlative, immensely satisfying improviser whose work always has been marked by flawless musicianship, deep harmonic resourcefulness, an almost inexhaustible melodic fertility and, not least, crisp, unerring swing. All qualities, by the way, conspicuously present in these early but by no means simply journeyman efforts. On the contrary, these performances reveal a player of uncommon power and authority, youthful enough, or perhaps simply eager (this was, after all, his maiden effort as leader) to stretch himself to his utmost, to show what he could do — which accounts for the riveting excitement that crackles through his playing here — while at the same time evidencing the mature, sound judgment of the seasoned veteran.

But then, Pass was a seasoned veteran, not only of small-group jazz and big-band playing, among other musical experiences, but of some of the more harrowing aspects of the so-called jazz life for, like a number of other young jazz players of the late 1940s and '50s, the guitarist had fallen victim to narcotics addiction. "From about 1949 to the end of 1960," he observed of this period of his life, "l spent most of my time in the interstices of society. I lived in the cracks." In all, he reckons his addiction claimed a dozen years of his life, including one stretch of almost four years in a Public Health Service hospital, among several other jail and prison terms for narcotics violations.

Pass, however, was fortunate in that he, in the several years immediately prior to his work here, had been able to reclaim himself — so successfully in fact that even before the present recordings were undertaken he had found himself designated "New Star" winner on guitar in DOWN BEAT's 1963 Critics' Poll. This was no token win, either. He had earned it through his vigorous, excitement-filled contributions to a number of earlier Pacific Jazz albums on which he had been featured in support of Bud Shank, Clare Fischer, Les McCann and Groove Holmes, Bumble Bee Slim, with Gerald Wilson's big band and, not least of all, the Sounds of Synanon group with which he initially had been introduced to the jazz public. In these various settings the Pass guitar flourished and took wing, and fired the interest of listeners who responded to the freshness, intelligence and passion of his approach to the instrument. This album, then, merely confirmed what many already knew: that Joe Pass was a singular, vital and absorbingly original musician, a major new voice on his instrument. That 1963 poll win was simply the first of many such awards he has garnered in the years since.

Born Joseph Passalaqua Jan, 13, 1929, in New Brunswick, N.J., the guitarist was reared there and in Johnstown, Pa., where his father was a mill worker. Even though none of his family played an instrument, music was enjoyed and esteemed in the Passalaqua household and the youngster gravitated to it early. For his ninth birthday he was given an inexpensive guitar by his parents who wisely insisted he take lessons on the instrument. A quick study, he made such rapid progress that he was playing professionally by his 14th year. Over the next few years he performed with several groups in the Johnstown area, including the Gentlemen of Rhythm, in instrumentation and approach patterned on the Quintet of the Hot Club of France whose guitarist, Django Reinhardt, was one of Pass' earliest influences, and an all-black combo, Mason and His Madcaps. The latter he described as "a hard-swinging group, different from the one I'd been with. I got a new angle on jazz from them." A bit later on he toured briefly with the Tony Pastor dance band, his first job with a "name" musician. but when the new school year commenced it was back to Johnstown for him.

It was there in the late 1940s that Pass had his introduction to bebop, through the recordings of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Coleman Hawkins and others he heard in a local music shop. "I'd go to the store," he recalled, "they'd put the records on the machine, and I'd stand there and listen to it. After that, you went home, because there was only one record. I remember one time I went home and copied VISA, part of Bird's solo" For a while it was the only way he had of hearing the new music that increasingly compelled his attention. He determined to go to New York City to hear it first-hand, and in 1949 made the move.

He summarized what followed: "I left school and got a Local 802 card. I gigged around Long Island, Brooklyn, and started goofin' — pot, pills, junk. Traveled around the country with different tours. Then I was drafted into the Marine Corps. I was in a year. Meantime, I'd been in and out of hospitals and seeing doctors and so on. In the corps, I played cymbals in the band, worked with a small group at the NCO and Officers' clubs. Then I got busted. I moved to Las Vegas and worked the hotels there. Busted again. Then I spent three years and eight months at the U.S. Public Health Service Hospital at Fort Worth, Texas. Then I went back to Vegas. I recorded with (accordionist) Dick Contino on Capitol and with several other commercial groups. Meanwhile, I was in and out of jail for narcotics violations. I came to Synanon from San Diego after a final 'marks beef.' "

Pass entered the controversial drug and alcohol rehabilitation center early in 1961 — "with no guitar and 13 cents" — and over the next two and a half years arduously, painfully put his life back together. Shortly after taking up residence at Synanon House (the organization's headquarters, then located in Santa Monica, Cm) the guitarist, performing there with several other musician-residents, was heard by Pacific Jazz's owner-operator Richard Bock who, as DOWN BEAT's John Tynan reported at the time, "was convinced not only that the group should make a record but also that Pass was probably the most important jazz discovery in years." (For additional examples of Bock's acumen in spotting jazz talent, it might be recalled that it was he who had been responsible for the earliest recordings by Hampton Hawes, Chet Baker, Art Pepper, Chico Hamilton, Russ Freeman, Wes Montgomery, Les McCann, the Jazz Crusaders and a host of others.)

The resultant album, SOUNDS OF SYNANON (Pacific Jazz 48), the first to present Pass in a strict jazz context, was one of the successes of 1962. On its release, Leonard Feather enthusiastically observed, "The album does more than merely present a group of good jazz musicians. It unveils a star. In Pass Synanon and Pacific Jazz have discovered a major jazz talent, I believe. His style is as fluent and as technically impressive as any guitarists now playing jazz. his sound is the soft, easy tone of the Jimmy Raney school; his statements are confident, with superb melodic imagination and structure. Pass is also a composer to watch out for."

Following the guitarist's debut with the Synanon group, Bock used Pass as featured accompanist on a number of Pacific Jazz releases, teaming him with better known performers as a means of demonstrating his versatility and further establishing his reputation. In the 15 months prior to this recording, Pass was heard on albums led by organjst Richard "Groove" Holmes (SOMETHIN' SPECIAL. PJ 51, and AFTER HOURS, PJ 59), pianist Les McCann (ON TIME, PJ 56), orchestra leader Gerald Wilson (MOMENT OF TRUTH, PJ 61, and PORTRAITS, PJ 64), alto saxophonist-flutist Bud Shank (BRASAMBA, PJ 64), tenor saxist Clifford Scott (OUT FRONT, PJ 66) and even veteran blues singer Bumble Bee Slim (BACK IN TOWN, PJ 54), invariably drawing critical acclaim for the singularity and aptness of his playing on these varied dates. His reputation was growing by leaps and bounds.

In addition to his recorded appearances Pass, having so completely rehabilitated himself that he was living outside the Synanon headquarters (although still involved in the organization's activities), was performing regularly in mid-1963 With alto saxophonist Bud Shank, bassist Ralph Pena and drummer Donald Dean, most often at Shelly's Manne Hole. the Hollywood club operated by the drummer. He was performing at peak abilities and his interest in the music was running high when he was invited by Bock to undertake his first sessions as a leader, the results of which, originally issued as PJ 73, CATCH ME!, you hold in your hands.

For his maiden solo effort, Bock surrounded the guitarist with a number of the brightest, most forward looking young players then active on the Los Angeles jazz scene. Chief of these was Clare Fischer, a vigorous, two-fisted pianist whose unflagging creativity, originality of expression and thoroughgoing musicianship are plentifully evident throughout this exceptional program. His abilities as an orchestrator of uncommon sensibility and subtlety had been praised by his peers for some time, but in the early 1960s Clare's equally formidable gifts as a pianist of unerring taste, imagination and crisply swinging authority were just beginning to be recognized by the jazz laity, primarily as a result of the splendid recordings he had been making for Pacific Jazz, both on his own and in company with others of the label's talent roster.

The choice of Fischer for the group's all-important second voice could not have been more felicitous. Not only had he and Pass performed and recorded earlier, and had as a result developed a mutual respect for, and understanding of one another's abilities, but the pianist was able to bring his arranging skills to bear on the project as well, He collaborated closely with the guitarist in the planning and execution of the music. As Bill Hardy noted in the initial release of this album, it was Fischer who was responsible for the "unobtrusive but beautifully solidifying sketches from which the quartets work on many of the selections. These schematics are in the form of loose voicings for the ensemble statement of the opening and closing of the selections and occasionally for transitions between solos, The jazz success of these settings is emphasized by the fact that you probably wouldn't have noticed them as 'arrangements' at all, so easily do they blend with the spontaneous facets of the music to produce a more stable wholeness" One clearly senses Clare's influence behind the inclusion of Bill Evan's introspective slow blues NO COVER, NO MINIMUM and his equally compelling WALKING UP, on both of which Clare had Joe work out the basic melodic conception he wished to use in their statement and then built the supporting framework around the guitarist's approach, making for a pair of beautifully cohesive, perfectly focused performances of almost gemlike clarity. They are, incidentally, the most "arranged" of all the selections, the remainder of the recital hewing to a much more spontaneous tack, as is perhaps best exemplified in the charging, freewheeling character of Pass' original CATCH ME! (The usual qualifier, "If You Can," clearly is meant to be academic.)

Two pairs of bassists and drummers are heard in support of the principals. On three of the selections — MOOD INDIGO, BUT BEAUTIFUL (it is too, as well as being the sole track to feature Pass' lovely, stunningly controlled handling of acoustic guitar) and YOU STEPPED OUT OF A DREAM— Fischer's regular recording mates of the time, Ralph Pena and Larry Bunker, provide firm, sensitive and always perfectly appropriate backing Pena, in addition, had been performing regularly with Joe at Shelly's Manne Hole and was intimately familiar with his music.

Bass and drum chores for the bulk of the program were handled with utter aplomb by two then-newcomers to the national jazz scene, Albert Stinson and Colin Bailey respectively. Though only 20 when these recordings were undertaken, Stinson was one of the acknowledged prodigies of the bass at a time when the instrument was undergoing a process of revitalization that has since seen its role in the jazz ensemble completely rewritten and its technical and expressive potentials expanded greatly. Along with Scott LaFaro and Gary Peacock, among others, Stinson played a pivotal role in these early developments, as can be heard time and again in his marvelous work herein. His unerring time and strikingly melodic conception contribute no little to the success of the performances. One of the most adroit and thoroughly musical drummers to have developed wholly outside the U.S., Bailey is a native of England who, following earlier work with the Australian Jazz Quartet, had settled in the U.S. in 1961, when he joined the Vince Guaraldi Trio. At the time of the recording he was a regular member of multi-instrumentalist Vic Feldman's group.

As befits a debut recording, the program comprises familiar musical fare — well-known ballad standards of proven melodic-harmonic potential for sustained variations-playing, the sempiternal blues, and jazz originals — tried-and-true vehicles for the debutant to demonstrate his proficiency, originality and individuality. Pass, as you'll hear, was found wanting in none of these areas. On the contrary, his playing on these selections, his first solo efforts, was so gripping, so fluent and assured in execution, so electric in the sweeping play and fertility of its invention, so forceful and mature in all of its respects that it finally and unequivocally established his pre-eminence both on his instrument and in the first ranks of modern jazz performance.

As an added bonus, two further selections recorded at the time but issued only as a single, are included. These two, FORWARD PASS and DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES, are among the rarest items in the Pass discography. The former will be identified as an alternate version of the album's title tune, with Fischer heard on piano rather than the organ with which he accompanied CATCH ME! If anything, the single version burns even more brightly, with much greater fire and intensity, than the album cut, Pass roaring through the piece in a manner to leave one gasping. Fischer is no slouch either.

Shortly before these sessions took place Pass told John Tynan, "I'm just a guitar player. man, and I got myself screwed up, and now I'm halfway straightened out and I've got to get out and learn something...I want to get my feet wet with some really good jazz musicians. This I've never really done. I've never been a jazz musician." With CATCH ME! he showed that he was, and then some.

Pete Welding