A Nightingale on steroids would be hard pressed to keep up with these two
I’d always thought that the jazz guitarist Joe Pass was a purveyor of languid, ballady style, laid back jazz-riffs with an extensive use of walking bass lines. Nice, in an afternoon tea sort of way, but not exactly taxing for the performer or the listener. How wrong can you be? This little gem surfaced and my jaw hit the keyboard before the end of the opening bars. Here he is, in 1979, at the very height of his powers, accompanied by that towering virtuoso of the Double Bass, Niels Henning-Orsted Pedersen, playing the fantastic Miles Davis composition Donna Lee. What a stroke of genius to transpose a trumpet composition and play it on two stringed instruments.
Tags: Donna Lee, Jazz, Joe Pass, Miles Davis, Neils Henning Orsted Pedersen