Virtuoso (180g) [LP]

Joe Pass was already a virtuoso before he recorded a record whose title labeled him as such, but the 1974 release of Solo Guitar elevated him to international stardom. In his new liner notes for this reissue, jazz biographer Doug Ramsey recalls bassist Jim Hughart's assessment of Pass: "If there was ever a guy who was a born jazz guitarist, it was Joe Pass. Joe is like an artesian well of music, an inexhaustible source of inspired jazz. He could play endlessly and rarely repeat himself."

Phillips calls Virtuoso "the definitive Joe Pass recording. If you had only one jazz guitar album in your collection, you might say this should be it. It contains some phenomenal playing, just as the title suggests... And it's one of those recordings that doesn't require the listener to be a jazz aficionado. I think anyone interested in the guitar owes it to themselves to listen to this recording.'

This edition of the album is released as part of the Original Jazz Classics Series and is pressed on 180-gram vinyl on RTI, with all-analog mastering from the original tapes at Cohearent Audio and presented in Stoughton Tip-On Jacket.