I was fortunate enough to hang out with Joe Pass for close to a dozen years. When he was in New York, I was one of a few people that Joe would meet up with, have lunch with, and would look to get a ride from to his gig. Whether or not I drove Joe or someone else did, he put all our names on the guest list; Joe was extremely generous that way! So, we often were regular guests at Fat Tuesdays or a few years later at the Blue Note.
One night when Joe was playing a solo gig, my former guitar teacher, Leni Stern came to hear Joe. Leni has been called “Little Pat Metheny”, because of her tone as well as her picking style. Leni stayed till the end of the second show and till Joe was packing up his guitar. I was giving Joe his ride uptown that night and so I asked Leni , since she was on the way, if she wanted a ride as well.
Leni Stern was not only an excellent guitarist and writer, but she was also married to the gifted, silky smooth and blindingly speedy jazz guitarist, Mike Stern. As we drove uptown, Leni said to Joe that he should come over for breakfast the next morning and then have some fun playing with her husband, Mike. Leni felt that she convinced Joe and said, “see you tomorrow” as she got out of the car.
As I started to drive off, Joe looked at me and said, “You know I’m not going tomorrow, don’t you?” Actually, I didn’t know that at all; I asked him why he didn’t want to go. Joe had gotten so used to hot shot players wanting to jam with him and for the most part, he didn’t have fun at all. Fortunately, I knew Mike just enough to have heard him play a number of times at the 55 Bar in Greenwich Village, I had seen Mike when he was a member of Miles Davis’ band and also, I had been told by Leni, that Mike had transcribed many of Joe’s solo’s by hand and learned how to play them. So, Mike not only had his own style, but he was totally familiar with Joe’s and I told Joe what I had known and that he should go, because in my opinion, he was going to have a great time.
The next night I heard that Joe indeed had gone to visit the Sterns and brought the Bagels and Cream Cheese and played for quite a while with Mike. He told me that he had a great time!
It is disappointing that I wasn’t there to hear Joe and Mike that day, but it was satisfying to know that I said something that made for a memorable musical time to two people that I admired. I did help another excellent guitarist, Emily Remler get to the Blue Note one day and jam with Joe, but that of course is another story.
To get familiar with both of their styles, here are links to each of them:
Joe Pass
Joe Pass Plays "Satin Doll" Solo
Mike Stern
