Joe Pass: Virtuoso Standards, Songbook Collection by Roland Leone

I've been playing guitar for almost 20 years now and jazz has always been a mystery to me. I always wanted to play jazz standards but never had the patience to learn them. After trying many boring and unnecessarily difficult books, I bought Dan Towey's Chord Melodies on Hal Leonard and that got me started. I was hooked. I was then looking for a more challening book, one that I could impress my audience with. When I found these note-for-note transcriptions of Joe Pass' Virtuoso recordings, I thought I'd give it a try but wasn't too serious about it. I figured this would be way out of my league.

Well, I've had this book for a week now and can't let my guitar down. I have learned the beautiful "Have You Met Miss Jones" standard by practicing over four hours a day. Unlike some books on chord melodies, Joe Pass does not use super complicated chords but rather a beautiful melody line along with swinging rhythms. For a non-jazz guitarist like me, it turned out to be a really good fit. This book is definitely for advanced guitarists but it certainly isn't out of reach for those of us who are prepared to practice hard.

The transcriptions are very accurate and the fingerings are top notch. Roland Leone did a fantastic job both in terms of accuracy and practicality. Highly recommended.

Titles are:
1. The Man I Love
2. I Can't Get Started
3. Sweet Lorraine
4. Have You Met Miss Jones
5. 'Round Midnight
6. On Green Dolphin Street
7. In Your Own Sweet Way.