Jim Hall (musician)
James Stanley Hall ( born December 4, 1930 in Buffalo, New York, † December 10, 2013 in New York City ) was an American guitarist and composer of modern jazz. With his " focused, lyrical game " beyond the block chords and " the clear, warm, yet probably the most natural " sound on the electric guitar is " its importance for the development of the guitar in jazz with none other guitarists of his generation, comparable ".
Life and work
Hall met privately guitar; the age of 13 he played in the bars of the neighborhood in his hometown of Cleveland and eventually studied music at the Cleveland Institute of Music. After jobs in local bands, he left school and moved in 1955 to Los Angeles, where he studied classical guitar with Vincente Gómez and initially played with Bob Hardaway and Ken Hanna, before he was known in the quintet of Chico Hamilton, where he replaced Howard Roberts. He also belonged from 1956 to 1959 to a trio of Jimmy Giuffre, where the guitar was released from the rhythm function and focused on block chords play and substantial melodic freedoms enjoyed. With Giuffre he played in 1958 at the Newport Jazz Festival. Hall taught from 1957 to 1959 to the summer courses at the Lenox School of Jazz. In 1959, he worked in the band of Ben Webster and played two highly regarded plates with a Bill Evans. The collaboration with Evans, he described in an interview as "intellectual feast" and praised its ability to structure, especially in the omission of redundant chords.
Between 1960 and 1961 he was part of the backing band of Ella Fitzgerald and also worked in New York in small formations with Lee Konitz. In 1962, he took with Bill Evans on the albums Undercurrent and Interplay; 1961/1962 he was a member of the group of Sonny Rollins and worked on the albums What 's New and The Bridge, before he founded a trio with Tommy Flanagan and Percy Heath and a quartet with Art Farmer ( Live at the Half Note 1963). From this period there are also recordings with Paul Desmond, Gerry Mulligan, Coleman Hawkins, Gunther Schuller and John Lewis.
In 1965 he led his own trio ( with Red Mitchell and Colin Bailey ), but had next to pursue an activity as a studio musician. In addition, he increasingly devoted himself to teaching at Berklee College of Music. In 1972 he played with Ornette Coleman. Then he stepped to increasingly in a duo with Ron Carter and Oscar Peterson. Hall denied since the early 1980s, numerous solo performances. Furthermore, also made recordings with Itzhak Perlman, George Shearing ( First Edition, 1981) and Ron Carter (1982). In European festivals he performed in a duo with Michel Petrucciani, which extended to Wayne Shorter Album Power Of Three presented. He also worked in a trio with Steve LaSpina and changing drummers like Akira Tana.
Since 1999 he has regularly played in a duo with Pat Metheny. To his regular trio ( with Scott Colley and Lewis Nash ) he took occasional guests such as Joe Lovano, Greg Osby, Kenny Barron and Slide Hampton. In the project Jim Hall & Basses he played with Scott Colley, Charlie Haden, Dave Holland, George Mraz, and Christian McBride. In 2008 he came through a joint album with Bill Frisell ( Hemispheres ) for attention. In 2012, he worked in a quartet with Greg Osby, Steve LaSpina and Joey Baron.
Hall, who has contributed to the Third Stream since 1960, Textures (1996 ) and By was only after the publication of the albums Arrangement ( 1998) earned recognition as a composer and arranger, underlined in 1997 by the New York Jazz Critics Circle Award. He has recently written increasingly large-scale compositions, including Peace Movement, a concerto for guitar and symphony orchestra, which was premiered on the occasion of the First World Guitar Congress in June 2004 with the Baltimore Symphony.
Hall had a subtle handling of harmony and technique as well as a very gentle and thoughtful handling of the sound of his instrument. This was based primarily on stylistic winds as Zoot Sims and singers, so that he on the electric guitar in particular cultivated a singing tone. Significant colleagues referred to him during his lifetime as the greatest living guitarists in jazz; Guitarists John McLaughlin, Larry Coryell, John Scofield and Pat Metheny refer to him as their model.
Hall continued to be the author of many didactic works; Berklee College, Boston, has named a scholarship fund for him.
In 1998 he was awarded the highly doped Jazzpar Prize. He lived with his wife, the psychoanalyst Jane Hall, in Greenwich Village. In December 2013 Hall died at the age of 83 of heart failure.
Disco printing specifications
- Undercurrent ( Blue Note, 1962) with Bill Evans
- Alone Together, 1972, a duo with Ron Carter
- Concierto (CTI, 1975) with Chet Baker, Paul Desmond, Sir Roland Hanna, Ron Carter, Steve Gadd
- Dedications & Inspirations ( Telarc, 1993) solo
- Textures ( Telarc, 1996)
- Jazzpar Quartet 4 ( Storyville, 1998) with Chris Potter, Thomas Ovesen, Terry Clarke and the Zapolski String Quartet
- Jim Hall & Pat Metheny (1999)
- Jim Hall & Basses ( Telarc, 2001) with Charlie Haden, George Mraz, Dave Holland