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Reviews: Joe Pass: Virtuoso

Reviews: 4

Review by Goodwood March 24, 2008 (4 of 5 found this review helpful)
Performance:   
I remember fondly buying every CD remotely of interest in the early days. I still don't know how HMV in Oxford Street came to have a Japanese version of Virtuoso but I bought it on the spot - even though there was only a token track listing in English.

The music has always impressed but I never liked the sound - at all. It just sounded sterile and steely and as much as I always wanted to play it I always wanted to quickly take it off again. At best it would be background music (I know).

Which leads me onto what strikes me about the SACD.

Wood! That's what you get with the SACD - in spades. When he plays it gently you can hear the resonance and harmonics. When he plays hard you get that mechanical distortion and compression that a guitar gives you. The CD just didn't convey it. To be fair some of this is as likely to be due to the mastering at the time.

Note that his guitar (probably the Gibson ES175) is mic'd throughout except for Track 3 (Heres that Rainy Day) which is the only time you get to hear the neck pickup (with possible a very small amount of mic mixed in).

This leaves you to enjoy the music and, yes vituosity! Any one who likes Martin Taylor and hasn't heard this will quickly realise where the roots of "Artistry" are - right here. The format and the acoustically rich tone have great similarities. Virtuoso is produced somewhat drier leaving both albums to sound great in their own way.

If you like Jazz guitar, and don't mind dispensing with the rest of the band, then do yourself a favour, get this and have one of the greatest jazz guitarists entertain you right in your living room.

This is fidelity, complete with some eiry sounds of fumbling and body contact!

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Review by jojopuppyfish May 18, 2008 (0 of 1 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:  
It was tough finding this SACD (I found it though a distributor on Ebay)
This is the best sounding disc of this album. I have the original record, the original cd, the remastered cd....and like the other reviewer stated.....the acoustics sounded sterile. Joe Pass is stunning throughout this album, but it never sounded great.
This SACD cures that problem and provides what has been missing from other releases.

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Review by analogue March 9, 2009 (1 of 1 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:  
This is one of Joe Pass's most admired and respected albums. I believe that this has been newly remastered from the original tapes. Tape hiss is evident on some tracks but for the most part the sound is very good.

This is also an imported japanese sacd so be prepared to pay a little extra for this title. Is it worth it??? Do you like this album and do you want it in your collection???

The performance is quite fantastic and he can play terrifically fast....almost frentically during some of the tracks. Sometimes it's hard to relax because of this....but anyone who loves jazz guitar will appreciate the great skill that goes into this type of interpretation and playing. Again..there is some tape hiss and perhaps a drop out of two but overall this is a solid sacd for sound quality.
You can hear the faint hum of the amplifyer, him moving in his chair, the rustle of his cloths, his breathing and hear his fingers over the strings. You can hear the difference in the different notes he plays. When I listened to the remastered cd, which was quite good in it's own right I could never quite finish the entire cd. There was a certain sameness to the sound. But now with this new dsd transfer............a sort of refiness and believability has occurred. You can feel Joe Pass in the studio...it's very palpable. This was never heard on the cd.

Strongly recommended if you love this album or if you love jazz guitar and Joe Pass.

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Review by thelonious27 March 16, 2010 (3 of 3 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:  
The only thing I have to add to the helpful and for the most part accurate reviews above is that, though the SACD version of 'Virtuoso' is a vast improvement over the redbook version, it is NOT a beautifully recorded album, and Pass was using a very scratchy sounding guitar/technique on it. The SACD version makes the harsh scratchiness more palatable, but it is still a harsh, scratchy-sounding album. SACD cannot work miracles !

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