Practice, Practice, Practice? This Guitar Legend Will Pass

With a guitar slung over his shoulder, Gene Autry rode across the screen on a big white horse, and 8-year-old Joe Pass found his weapon for life.

“I remember learning a couple of tunes he sang, like ‘Ride, Tenderfoot, Ride.’ I never played country and Western, though,” said Pass, the legendary jazz guitarist who plays his second week at Elario’s Wednesday through Sunday nights.

Indeed, Pass’ playing has nothing in common with Autry’s. Many now believe him to be the finest jazz guitarist in the world. Since kicking drugs for good in the early 1960s, Pass has honed a complex and polished approach to the guitar. His playing can sound soft and romantic, but there’s nothing mushy about the way he reworks standards such as “Stella by Starlight,” “How High the Moon,” “ ‘Round Midnight” and “Cherokee.”

On solo guitar, Pass is a one-man band, juggling walking bass lines, complex chordings and melodies. Because of the mellow tones he gets from his big jazz guitar, the uninitiated might not take the full measure of his power. Pass produces staccato, improvised lines with the same inventiveness and fluidity as the great bop sax and piano players.

“I never really listened to guitar players a lot,” Pass said. Instead, his idols were Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins, Nat King Cole, George Shearing, Dizzy Gillespie.

For all of his finesse, Pass claims he doesn’t practice.

“I’m serious. I may learn a new tune or something, but I don’t pick up a guitar and practice scales or anything. Sometimes, I don’t play for two or three weeks.”

Pass’s newest album, “Summer Nights,” came out two months ago and re-united the guitarist with longtime musical associates John Pisano (guitar), Jim Hughart (bass) and Colin Bailey (drums).

From his many albums, Pass has no favorite song, but rather several.

“I like some things I did on the ‘Whitestone’ album, some from ‘Virtuoso One’ and some from this new one, too.”

Besides his straight-ahead jazz work, Pass has often recorded with classical artists. Next year, he hopes to record with classical guitarist John Williams.

At Elario’s, Pass is appearing with pianist Frank Strazzeri from Los Angeles, plus San Diegans Chris Conner on bass and Jim Plank on drums. Shows are at 8:30 and 10:30 Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday nights, and 9, 10:30 and midnight Friday and Saturday nights.

Drummer Jay Hearn is one of San Diego’s best-kept secrets. Hearn has traveled the world and played with a variety of jazz greats. In the 1960s, he manned the drums for rehearsals of drummer Buddy Rich’s big band--no small achievement because Rich is extremely choosy. Living in Stockholm from 1969 to 1973, Hearn worked regularly with bassist Red Mitchell, another expatriate American, as well as saxophonist Ben Webster and pianist Kenny Drew, who both lived in Copenhagen.

In San Diego, Hearn plays clubs sporadically, but this Friday and Saturday nights he appears at All That Jazz (next to the Wall St. Cafe in Rancho Bernardo) in a band that includes clarinetist Bobby Gordon, trumpeter John Best, pianists Bill Hunter and Jerry Abernathy (they’ll each take a night) and bassist Stan Bloom.

Hearn’s role models were Art Blakey, Philly Jo Jones, Max Roach and Shelly Manne. “Only one of those guys (Roach) is left,” he lamented.

Gordon, a San Diego clarinetist, has been busy. In June, he played the JVC Jazz Festival (formerly the Newport Jazz Festival) with the Eddie Condon Reunion Band. Also in June, he made two new albums to be released next year--one with longtime friends Hal Smith on drums and Keith Ingham on piano, the other with Marty Grosz and the Orphan Newsboys, which featured a number of Bix Beiderbecke songs.

“I’ve been busy playing the festivals with the Chicago Six too,” Gordon said. “We were in Ft. Lauderdale last week.”

“This weekend, John (Best) and I will be going through his repertoire and mine--mainstream jazz and swing stuff from about 1935 to 1945. We play a few from the 1920s too, but no bop.”

Trumpeter Best is an authentic big band veteran, having worked with Artie Shaw, Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman and others.

Palomar College’s version of jazz pianist Dave Brubeck’s Christmas choral piece, “La Fiesta de la Posada,” airs as part of a documentary of the Mexican holiday ritual of the same name on KPBS-TV at 10:30 p.m. Sunday and at 2 p.m. Monday. The program repeats on Dimension Cable’s Channel 29 and Daniels Cablevision’s Channel 11 at 9 p.m. Dec. 25 and 26.

Brubeck’s composition is performed by the Palomar College Chorale and the Palomar Youth Chorale. The show includes an interview with Brubeck and a performance by the Ballet Folklorico Maxtli. Brubeck’s brother Howard, a retired Palomar dean of humanities, is a member of the Palomar College Foundation, which underwrote the program.

RIFFS: Fattburger plays the “Lites Out Jazz” night at the Catamaran tonight. Music starts at 8 . . . . Flutist Holly Hofmann, who held a release party for her new album “Further Adventures” at the Horton Grand on Dec. 9, plays the hotel’s Palace Bar on Friday and Saturday nights this weekend at 8:30 with guitarist Peter Sprague and bassist Bob Magnusson. . . .

Guitarist Kenny Burrell is featured on KPBS-TV’s “Club Date” jazz program Saturday at 8:30 p.m., repeating Monday at 1:30 p.m. . . .

Singer Cath Eckert plays Wednesday evenings from 5:30 to 9:30 in the U.S. Grant Hotel Lounge downtown. . . . Guitarist Art Johnson plays “nouveau flamenco” Thursday nights from 7 to 10 and Sunday nights from 5:30 to 9 at the restaurant 515 Fifth. Johnson promises a mix of American jazz, Brazilian jazz and flamenco. . . .

Costazul with Yari More is featured at the annual Christmas Salsa Dance, presented by La Casa de Puerto Rico on Saturday from 8:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. at the Marriott Hotel downtown. Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 at the door. Information: 279-8668 or 461-6148.