Jim Mullen's recent album - For Heaven's Sake

[Groyniad]

this is some record. as well as JM, Ben Paterson is a real treat.

November last year it came out - I was shocked I didn't know sooner. Other people picked up on this release?

Nice wee video he made about making the record too

for my money he's the only guy i've heard to get a lot of what Pete Bernstein gets.

great phrasing - real sense of shape to everything - lovely sound. an inspiration.

[grahambop]

Thanks, I didn’t know about this. As it happens, I saw Jim Mullen in November and I don’t recall him saying anything about it!

The gig was at the beginning of the month though, so I guess it wasn’t out then.

[Irishmuso]

Wielding his trusty Aria!

[Cunamara]

Just goes to show you don't need an expensive guitar. A good touch and creative imagination are more important. Although it's fun to have a really nice guitar...

Jim Mullen is someone I have heard of more than heard. There's a half dozen or thereabouts albums on Bandcamp with Jim and quite a few more on iTunes- the ones with him as a leader seemed to be more likely to be on iTunes.

[grahambop]

Found another interesting album by Jim which I didn’t know about, ‘Volunteers’ which came out a few years ago. Features a nine-piece band, all top UK players. Apparently it’s called ‘Volunteers’ because they all played for free to help Jim out, he had returned to playing after a life-threatening illness (I didn’t know about that either!).

This track is a contrafact of ‘Meditation’, the title is presumably a reference to his illness.

[lawson-stone]

I just love the way he plays with his thumb. He evokes Wes without trying to imitate Wes.

[Groyniad]

it gets better and better with repeated listening - as I said the organ player - Ben Paterson - is seriously serious. Check out him playing 'I've never been in love before' on youtube with Pete Bernstein in some very fortunate New York night club/restaurant.

But Jim just plays guitar at the very highest level - his phrasing is fabulously natural and musical (dig stairway to the stars). i think it's a bit depressing that on a (or the) jazz guitar forum no-one says a word about this release. Especially when there's so much enthusiasm for rock guitarists gone bonkers (who play lots and lots of notes - all say, semi-quavers - in quite a short period of time)


on guitar sound - this latest record strikes me as pete bernstein-wonderful. but when i listen to his 2003 'Somewhere in the hills' - i find that i love his phrasing, but i'm not so keen on the guitar sound. (it seems pinched or nasal to me) No wonder we stress so much about 'tone'.

and interesting too - on more obviously musical matters - that his whole bag has changed since the 2003 record. His rendition - e.g. - of 'lucky to be me' in 2003, is full of hometown blues - even country - flavours, but there's almost none of this in 2024. The 2003 record has the same signature sincerity and clarity of conception (everything makes perfect, effortless, swinging sense. and it's incredibly precise too.) - but it isn't as hip/urbane as his 2024 record (or not to our 2025 ears anyway).

and however much i dig his playing in 2003 i can't get into that sound.

[nyc chaz]

I had read an interview with him where he said he didn't use the Aria to record albums but that doesn't seem to be the case here.That Aria sounds more than fine to me.In the second video he says he is 80 years old and no plans to retire because as a musician he can't afford to which is pretty much the case with a lot of jazz players.

[grahambop]

The previous time I saw Jim (in 2021) he was playing a Gibson Super 400. I asked him about it and he said he’d inherited it from a friend and felt he should play it, as it was such a great guitar. However he said he found it a bit of a ‘beast’, so maybe he’s gone back to using the Aria. (He was using the Aria when I saw him in November).

Anyway here’s a photo I took of him playing the Super 400.

[sgcim]

Just heard a funny story about Mullen from Dick Morrissey's son, Mullen was in the studio playing on the Bob Dylan album, "Slow Train Coming". They'd been playing the same 3 chords all day and Dylan kept flubbing it and they were getting sick of it. Dylan's personal manager finally said, "Ok, Bob's voice is shot so we'll continue tomorrow." Jim muttered, "What voice?" and the manager came over and whispered, "You wont be needed tomorrow".

[sgcim]

Here's a great interview and performance with Jim where he lets Dylan and others have it!