I've been falling down on the job with my The Jazz Guitar Chronicles and The 78 Experience - Feeling the Music posts. Sorry about that.

The album I want to recommend to you today is Herb Ellis and Joe Pass' Two For The Road.

I have at least a dozen different albums I want to tell you about, but I've been a bit burned out on writing, and I just seem to keep running out of time to write up the albums like I've wanted to.

As I mentioned in my first post about the "Joe Pass In Hamburg" album (HERE), The Jazz Guitar Chronicles came about as a tribute of sorts to my friend and superb jazz guitarist David Gitlen. 

David is the silver lining that 2020 brought into my life. Prior to coronavirus I was meeting David each week for a jazz guitar lesson at a local music store. Then the coronavirus hit and the world came to a stop, including my jazz guitar lessons with David. I was heartbroken.

Then after it became more clear what we were dealing with regarding the coronavirus, and we found out that masks and social distancing were effective in mitigating virus transmission, David restarted jazz guitar lessons with me here at Jeff's Place instead of the music store.

I set my guitar room up so we could maintain a safe social distance, and we both wore masks, so we were as safe as could be. Now we both have our Pfizer vaccinations, so we're even safer. 

David has an encyclopedic knowledge of jazz guitar and jazz guitarists, and has played and/or studied with many of the greats, guys like Joe Pass and Jim Hall, to drop just two names. 

David has so much "insider jazz guitarist" knowledge to share, and I just love to hear David's stories about everything jazz guitar and jazz guitarist. 

David is teaching me how to play along with jazz albums to broaden my musical horizons. One lesson David brought over the I'm Beginning To See The Light Album by Martin Taylor and David Grisman to teach me how to play along with "Autumn Leaves", which I'd been working on in the lessons.

David taught me how to pick out the key by ear that Martin Taylor and David Grisman were playing in on "Autumn Leaves", with the goal being that I would learn to play rhythm along with them.

Well that started a tradition, and since then when David comes by to teach me a lesson, after the lesson I fix us a couple of espressos and we listen to a jazz guitar CD or LP that David has brought along to share with me.

These are all exceptional albums from a musical performance perspective, and as a lucky coincidence, they are all recorded exceptionally well too.

Every one of these albums I mention in these posts you should consider adding to your music library, they're really exceptional.

David uses these albums to teach me about some of the techniques being used by jazz guitarists, and we just have some fun listening to and talking about jazz. It's a great way to spend some time and is literally the highlight of my week. Thanks David!

Its pretty normal for David to pick up a guitar and play along with the albums to demonstrate what the guitarists are doing. Seeing how its done helps a lot, and is definitely inspiring. It impresses the heck out me that David can do that, actually.

Ok, back to Herb Ellis and Joe Pass' Two For The Road album. One of the cool things about this album - aside from the great music and great recording quality - is that the liner notes were written by Herb Ellis.

I won't be a spoiler and tell you what Herb wrote, but when you get the album you should read the liner notes.

That's Herb Ellis' 1953 Gibson ES-175 in the photo above, about which Thatrhythmman says, "Herb Ellis's 1953 Gibson ES-175. He had the pickup modified from original P90 to a "patent number" Gibson humbucker. This was his primary guitar for most of his life from its original purchase ca. 1953 until his death, except for a period of endorsement in the late 1970s through the early 1980s when he publicly played his signature Aria Pro II PE-175. This ES-175 appears with Herb Ellis in hundreds, if not thousands of recordings and can be seen in film footage in appearances with such greats as Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, and Oscar Peterson."

Thanks to Thatrhythmman for sharing that, and allowing me to share it with you.

Joe Pass also frequently played a Gibson ES-175, and if that isn't a big enough hint, well I should say outright that the Gibson ES-175 is one of "the" important jazz guitars in the history of jazz.

This album was recorded January 30th, and February 13th and 20th, in 1974, when Herb Ellis was still playing his Gibson ES-175, so you get to hear the guitar in the photo on this album.

Another important jazz guitar in history is the D'Aquisto. Notice the headstock on the guitar Joe Pass is playing on this album. In 1970 Joe Pass started playing a guitar built by Jimmy D'Aquisto.

My friend David Gitlen knew Jimmy, and was thinking about buying one of his guitars. Jimmy sent David over to Joe Pass' house so he could check out the guitar Jimmy built for Joe. David got to play a bit with Joe and ended up buying a D'Aquisto too. Small world, eh?

Well, you get to hear both of these historic jazz guitars played by two of the great jazz guitarists on this album, and I must say it is quite a treat to listen to this album and know the history.

For a digital source I used the superb Audio Note (UK) CD 2.1x/II Level Two Red Book CD player (HERE), and it sounds like Herb and Joe are in my living room.

I found my copy of Herb Ellis and Joe Pass' Two For The Road out on Discogs. I recommend you buy one before word gets out on how good this album is and they're all gone.

I hope you are all doing well, and thanks for stopping by. May the tone be with you!