LPCDreissues: Looking forward to the past

The Pablo catalog provides numerous examples of Jimmy Rowles’s skills as a collaborator (his quartet sessions with Zoot Sims) and Joe Pass’s sensitivity in a duo setting (his great encounters with Ella Fitzgerald). So putting Rowles and Pass together was a natural idea, albeit one fraught with the potential for clutter that arises when piano and guitar work together. These masters had no problem staying out of each other’s way, and delivered a set of attentive, eloquent ruminations that lacks the spirit of one- upmanship that the album title might suggest. Pass’s ability to apply his stunning technique judiciously can serve as a model for virtuosi on all instruments; and while the Rowles treasury of little-played tunes was clearly dipped into for “So Rare,” “Marquita,” and “’Tis Autumn,” the pair are equally inspired by the well-worn “Stardust” and “God Bless the Child.”
Track listing:What’s Your Story Morning Glory?, So Rare, As Long As I Live, Marquita, Stardust, We’ll Be Together Again, Can’t We Be Friends, ’Deed I Do, ’Tis Autumn, God Bless the Child