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The ES 175 & Joe Pass


cody78

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I recently got a good HD camera and have been recording a little bit for my YouTube page which I recently set up. I finally got around to playing Joe Pass' version of Night & Day in full and thought some of you might enjoy it. 

Part 1 is on my page too along with a discussion about my ES 5 Switchmaster and '57 Reissue Les Paul Custom. Will be doing more over the coming months.

 

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Cheers merciful-evans. Yes, it's one of the more difficult pieces I've learnt and it took a lot of dedication. I've started on Joe's version of  'Have You Met Miss Jones' now which isn't easy either! 

I would have loved to see him play, but sadly never did as I was only a kid when he died. I bet it was an amazing gig at Ronnie Scotts. 

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Good stuff....well done. 

The Virtuoso 1 album was recorded on his 175 but mostly acoustically; you can see there are straps across the pickups in the cover picture, which was taken by producer Norman Granz at the session and is cropped from the original.   I have no doubt the straps were a fix to stop vibration and resonance.  

The idea that he used some old acoustic that was lying around the studio is untrue; the acoustic sound is very definitely his 175 unplugged, and this is further borne out if you listen to Virtuoso 4, a double LP released much later,  which comprises the rest of the material he played on the sessions.

I also saw him at Ronnie's with NHOP on bass, but the best time was a solo concert he played at (strangely enough) Aldershot Prince's Hall.   Just amazing.

[thumbup]

Edited by jdgm
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Yes jdgm, I believe it was an unplugged ES 175 on the first Virtuoso record. I too have heard stories about him using an old acoustic from the studio, but you can tell that the acoustic sound on the record is not a 'western' acoustic, but definitely an archtop and I can't imagine why Joe wouldn't have used his ES 175 at that point as he used it extensively during the 1970's. I wish he had continued using it more during the 80's as his Ibanez just never sounded that good (though his playing was exceptional). I guess he finally returned to a slimmer 175 in the 90's in the last few years before his death, but the 175 he used in the 70's was a beauty. I'm not sure what year he got it. 

Glad you enjoyed my video. I'm hoping to learn around 10 tunes from all the Virtuoso albums (will take a while!) and maybe play in some hotels/ venues with a few other tunes from Tal Farlow, Barney Kessel and others on the setlist too.

Edited by cody78
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