Jazz guitarist Jim Hall died

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 10 Dec 2013 11:00 am

An incalculable loss to jazz and the greater art of music. He was a giant.

http://www.npr.org/2010/12/06/120889787 ... tw&cc=twmp

Bill Hatcher · Post by **Bill Hatcher** » 10 Dec 2013 11:07 am

one of my favs for sure!! RIP

Mike Perlowin RIP · Post by **Mike Perlowin RIP** » 10 Dec 2013 12:05 pm

I had the pleasure of meeting Jim Hall a few years ago.

He was a true wizard, with a style all his own.

Here is an example of his brilliance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iD6k2E61ABY

Post by **Brad Bechtel** » 10 Dec 2013 12:20 pm

That's a real shame. RIP.

Post by **Dave Mudgett** » 10 Dec 2013 12:49 pm

Another shocker. To me, the jazz guitar world without Jim Hall must be viewed as a new chapter - his level of musical and emotional depth is unsurpassed. RIP.

Mike Neer · Post by **Mike Neer** » 10 Dec 2013 1:13 pm

When I'm playing at my best, it's because I'm thinking, "What would Jim Hall play?" I could never get there, but it is always something to aspire to.

RIP maestro.

Roger Rettig · Post by **Roger Rettig** » 10 Dec 2013 2:06 pm

In 1958 I was bullied by my older sister into going to see 'Jazz On A Summer's Day' - hearing Jim Hall playing 'The Train And The River' changed my musical landscape for ever.

I don't think I've ever heard a better tone.

RIP, Mr Hall, and thank you.

Rick Schmidt · Post by **Rick Schmidt** » 10 Dec 2013 2:40 pm

Truly a sad moment in time, finding out about his passing, but his music will live on! Such a gentle spirit!

I tried to play like that in a past life, even getting an ES-175 with a Van Epps Damper... but it just didn't come out the same.

RIP Jim Hall... thanks for the beautiful music!

frank rogers · Post by **frank rogers** » 10 Dec 2013 2:46 pm

A truly great artist and musical "technician".

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 10 Dec 2013 3:01 pm

Hall was already at the highest eschalon of artistry 50 years ago ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvwNMhWD3XY

... and only got better with time. Hall proved that chops aren't a-be-all-and-end- all and that one could play great jazz by approaching improv via motifs in a compositional manner. He was a very curious musician whose music didn't calcify the way it did for some of his generation. He explored effects pedals, wrote third stream music and dared to be exposed in duo situations. Metheny, Frisell, - you name 'em - all worship the musical ground he walked on.

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 10 Dec 2013 3:14 pm

Roger Rettig wrote:In 1958 I was bullied by my older sister into going to see 'Jazz On A Summer's Day' - hearing Jim Hall playing 'The Train And The River' changed my musical landscape for ever.

'Jazz On A Summer's Day' is on YouTube, including the famous Anita O'Day tune where she she looks kinda "extra happy".
I didn't see Jim Hall. Where is he?

Roger Rettig · Post by **Roger Rettig** » 10 Dec 2013 4:08 pm

With the Jimmy Guiffre Group, I thought. If I've remembered that incorrectly then I'll have to call into question ALL my childhood memories!!!!!

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 10 Dec 2013 4:26 pm

Roger Rettig wrote:With the Jimmy Guiffre Group, I thought.

Affirmative, you can hear him in the first selection of the movie, and see him at 4:38.

Roger Rettig · Post by **Roger Rettig** » 10 Dec 2013 4:35 pm

Phew!!!!!!

Andrew Roblin · Post by **Andrew Roblin** » 11 Dec 2013 4:27 am

Andy, thank you for the excellent link to the NPR tribute.

Andrew Roblin
International Sho-Bud Brother & Sisterhood
Member #79, janitor

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 11 Dec 2013 6:47 am

You're very welcome. I hemmed and hawed about buying the 4-disc set of previously unreleased material made available this year from Hall's classic 70s session in Canada. It was a hefty 75 bucks but I resolved to finally buy it today and saw that the 2nd run is sold out. Sigh.

http://www.artistshare.com/v4/Projects/ ... 1/2082/1/6

robert kramer · Post by **robert kramer** » 11 Dec 2013 10:46 am

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/11/arts/ ... ?ref=music

This is a tough one. Just echoing Roger Rettig statement : "hearing Jim Hall playing 'The Train And The River' changed my musical landscape for ever."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-4ZqhHOFsM

I played it over and over again. I still have the Atlantic LP - thick vinyl like it's supposed to be:

Roger Rettig · Post by **Roger Rettig** » 11 Dec 2013 10:57 am

Wow! Thanks, Robert - I hadn't heard that in years! It brought a tear to my eye because I had forgotten how important it was to me.

When I was a boy my musical hero was Lonnie Donegan and from '57-'58 Lonnie's guitarist was Jimmy Currie. I didn't realise it back then but now it's so clear to me that Jimmy must have idolised Jim Hall - his tone and style were clearly modelled on Hall's work and Jimmy even had an ES-175!

Now I really want an arch-top again!

robert kramer · Post by **robert kramer** » 11 Dec 2013 11:30 am

Quote from New York Times obit:

“Tenor saxophonists really influenced the way I play,” he told The Times in 1990. When he was developing his style, he explained, “I’d try and get that lush sound of a tenor saxophone.”

Jim Hall did just that.

Pete Finney · Post by **Pete Finney** » 11 Dec 2013 11:38 am

One of my favorite musicians ever, any instrument, any genre.

I was lucky enough to see him play many times over the years, starting in the early 70s. Once he told me that he'd started out on "Hawaiian guitar" as a kid because that's what a door-to-door saleman was pushing (Oahu?) but soon switched to Spanish because Charlie Christian was his hero.

Pete Finney · Post by **Pete Finney** » 11 Dec 2013 11:47 am

Speaking of the film, and "The Train and the River", the guitar "feel" that Jim played in that song seems to have been influential in amazing ways that one would never guess:

Dave Davies of "The Kinks" (he got a few details wrong, but still):

"We were trying out 'You Really Got Me' in the act and a lot of people were surprised by it. It wasn't really pop or rock'n'roll like they knew it, it was something different. And I suppose it just came about by accident anyway, sittin' in me front room, bored...That riff came about – me and Ray went to see a film of the Montreux Jazz Festival, and this group with Jimmy Giuffre and Gerry Mulligan or somebody were doing this song called 'Train on the River', which had this very undercurrent sort of riff going through it..."

Roger Rettig · Post by **Roger Rettig** » 11 Dec 2013 11:56 am

Nice, Pete! It's amazing now to think how it touched me - so I guess there had to be others.

It was my first experience of music painting a picture, as it were. I've just ordered the Jimmy Guiffre 3 CD from Amazon - how could I have been without that music for so long???

It's a great week for music (even if it took Jim Hall's sad passing to wake me up), what with Tommy White's old Carter D-10 arriving here next Tuesday! I hope I can do it some justice, at least.

Michael Johnstone · Post by **Michael Johnstone** » 11 Dec 2013 9:57 pm

The word sublime comes to mind.

Mike Neer · Post by **Mike Neer** » 12 Dec 2013 6:25 am

I used to take guitar lessons with Peter Leitch, who was a student and disciple of Jim. He turned me on to a beautiful record, which was hard to get at the time, Art Farmer's "To Sweden With Love". It's a really special record, with Steve Swallow and Steve LaSpina. All Swedish folk tunes.

Here is a link to one minor key tune with a beautiful solo by Jim : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP1dqSI7XIk

Joe Diorio, another of my favorite guitarists, said seeing Jim Hall one night in the 60s completely changed the way he played.

Joe dedicated this Blues to Jim, and you can hear it. Also with Steve LaSpina on drums: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_2_HM-GJPo

Laurence Pangaro · Post by **Laurence Pangaro** » 13 Dec 2013 6:17 am

A few years back I happened upon a concert in the piazza of the Italian seaside town of Santa Margarita... and it was Jim Hall! Such an idyllic occurrence. His music that day was so beautiful and interesting. It was somehow intellectual and rarified while remaining so musical and accessible. I remember a standard, something like All the Things You Are. It was played as a duet with the pianist; it sounded like a sort of quasi-free exchange of imitative counterpoint in multiple tonalities - very cool!

LP