April 2024 Guitar Newsletter : The Jazz Guitar Vocal Duo

Apr 7

Jazz standards are not only wonderful to play but also provide a template for constant musical growth. The American Songbook is a very large repertoire of compositions with lyrics that have withstood the test of time and yet remain open to new interpretation. These soulful tunes, known as jazz standards, have found their way into every jazz musician’s repertoire, and the spirit of jazz is such that it asks the artist to evolve these timeless classics. We can pay tribute and play them in a traditional manner or try something new, pushing the envelope so to speak. Jazz always has improvisation embedded in it, which means that anything can happen at any time, opening the possibility to take a song into an unexpected path.

I am reminded of this because I am starting a jazz vocal and guitar duo with Meghan McDonough, a singer that I met and performed with during our studies at the University of Iowa Jazz Department. We find ourselves making music together again and are challenging ourselves by revisiting these tunes. This also makes me reflect on Joe Pass, a jazz guitarist of cosmic grandeur, and Ella Fitzgerald, a jazz vocal icon. They had a jazz guitar/vocal duo together. The way Joe played guitar, dancing around Ella’s rich melodic vocals and giving her all the support akin a big band was stunning. Ella and Joe are artists of the highest caliber, and not only have they internalized countless jazz classics, but more significantly, they found their own voices and interpreted them in a unique and sincere manner. Their recordings and performances influenced all vocalists and guitarists to come in that genre. They possessed the gift of spontaneity and playfulness and you can sense that magic in the air.

Having Joe Pass as an accompanist must have been a treat of the highest order for any musician. His style consists of playing walking baselines on the lower 3 strings, inserting chords and playing highly melodic solos within the same breath. Listen closely to his playing and hear how he doesn’t repeat his patterns and constantly creates new variations on the fly. It’s like a juggler swallowing swords while spitting fire and riding a unicycle. Joe should have gotten paid at least 3 wages at his recording sessions! He was the perfect match for a duo with Ella, since he also was a pioneer of solo jazz guitar and able to hold it together all by himself without dropping a beat. There’s a reason some of Joe’s solo albums are titled “Virtuoso”.