Joe Pass
Jazz guitar great Joe Pass must have gone through some sort of acid-induced nervous breakdown (or the usual baby-boomer-style mid-life crisis) when recording this record in 1969. It starts off innocently enough, with the first few similarly named tracks on the a-side consisting of the usual nimble, solo guitar work that made him a jazz guitar icon. Somewhere between the last bars of “Interlude #5″ the acid kicks in and Joe’s all of a sudden backed by a full band and vocal choir that lands itself somewhere between Up With People and The Free Design; a poppy, trippy, near cult-like 60s experience that seems incredibly out of character and yet a perfect fit. Joe Pass purists dog this release pretty hard (jazz trads are always threatened by experimentation and innovation, even if helped keep jazz alive for decades), pick it up if you can find it (or send me your copy since I’ve found every Joe Pass record except this one readily available in my local bargain bins).
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