Joe Pass, (JOSEPH ANTHONY JACOBI PASSALAQUA), U.S. guitarist (born Jan. 13, 1929, New Brunswick, N.J.—died May 23, 1994, Los Angeles, Calif.), was a technically skilled jazz virtuoso who overcame drug addiction to become an internationally renowned sideman, performing with such jazz greats as Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald, and Sarah Vaughn. He was also a spellbinding soloist whose fluid fingering and impassioned improvisations defined his incomparable artistry. Pass, a self-taught guitarist, was given his first instrument at the age of nine and was performing with big-name bands by the time he was a teenager.