Collection: Joe Pass

Joe Pass spent the 1950s losing years to heroin addiction, much of it in and out of prison, before a stint at the Synanon rehabilitation centre in California put him back in front of an audience. The 1962 album "Sounds of Synanon", recorded with fellow residents, caught the ear of Pacific Jazz producer Richard Bock, who signed him and released a run of records through the 1960s including "Catch Me!" (1963) and "For Django" (1964), his tribute to the gypsy jazz guitarist he'd idolised since childhood. Pass spent those years as a prolific Los Angeles session player, working behind singers and film scores as much as in jazz clubs, until Norman Granz heard him in 1970 and signed him to the newly formed Pablo label. What followed redefined what a single guitarist could do alone on a record. "Virtuoso" (1973) presented Pass playing unaccompanied, weaving bass lines, chords and melody simultaneously with no overdubs, a chord melody technique so advanced it became the reference point every solo jazz guitarist since has measured themselves against. Pablo also paired him with Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington across dozens of records through the 1970s and 80s.