The Genius of Jim Hall

[rabbit]

David B,

Thanks!

That's a beautiful piece of amplificatory swellness.

Congratulations, I envy you.

[rpjazzguitar]

By way of comparison here’s a clip from 1964:

Thank you so much for posting this!

I listened to Jim Hall (on a Paul Desmond album called Glad To Be Unhappy) every day back in the 60s when I was first learning guitar.

I still love the album and others he did in that era. With this exact sound, referring both to his equipment and his playing style.

It was great to be able to see, as well as hear, what he was doing.

I saw him live years later, and I remember thinking that he didn't use a huge number of chord grips, instead getting vast mileage out of a handful of them.

It's interesting how he uses thirds. In some situations he is careful to omit them, instead playing a fourth. But, he uses minor third intervals in unexpected ways which I haven't heard anybody else do quite the same way. Beautiful player. My personal all time favorite.

[David B]

The Art Farmer/Jim Hall Quartet at Lennie's on the Turnpike, 1963.

[grahambop]

That 1964 clip is brilliant for seeing his chord voicings etc., one of these days I’m going to rip off everything he does there!

[grahambop]

The Art Farmer/Jim Hall Quartet at Lennie's on the Turnpike, 1963.

Wonder if Dexter Gordon ever played there, his head would have touched the ceiling!

[neatomic]

tough to beat jim halls discography from when he started in mid 50's till the merv/stay at home nyc era in early 60's..went from one great band to another

chico hamilton quintet, jimmy giuffre trio, jim hall-paul desmond quartet, jim hall-bill evans duos, art farmer, sonny rollins, etc...and all (95%- he used an lp on the earliest chico) with the p90 es 175 thru gibby amp

if he never recorded again. that output alone would make him a legend..and could be studied for years!!..stuff he did with giuffre was out of this world

cheers

[rpjazzguitar]

that 1964 clip is brilliant for seeing his chord voicings etc., one of these days I’m going to rip off everything he does there!

He didn't even use that many grips! But, even when he played the same grips everybody else uses, somehow, he managed to make them sound like his own. Tone, touch, placement and juxtaposing a common grip in an uncommon application.

[wintermoon]

Hadn't seen those Turnpike pucs, thanks for posting

[coolvinny]

Jim Hall's tone on Rollins' album "The Bridge" is to die for and one of my personal fav's for tone and playing. I always wondered whether his set-up on that album was different from his normal set up...

[El Fundo]

Jim Hall's tone on Rollins' album "The Bridge" is to die for and one of my personal fav's for tone and playing. I always wondered whether his set-up on that album was different from his normal set up...

Probably not. It may have had more to do with the studio—the mic, along with the placement of it; console and even the room itself. I’ve had the Mosaic vinyl set of the complete recordings of the quartet with Paul Desmond since the 80s and his tone varies from session to session. I do know that he used the 175 and the Gibson GA-50 exclusively for many years. Jim Hall was not a gear nerd like most of us on this forum.

[takauya]

The coolest looking amp ever... Bill Frisell owns one too.

[Cunamara]

I’ve just ordered the ‘Vol 2-4’ of the famous ‘Jim Hall Live’ session, been meaning to get it for ages. Surprisingly the iTunes download is about the same price as getting the CDs from the U.S. including postage etc., so I went for the CDs.

Fantastic stuff, which Jim described as "not taking it all that seriously." Holy Schmidt, if this is just goofing around... I spent probably a month listening to nothing else when I first got these CDs. There's a couple photos from the gigs which show Jim playing the ES-175, despite the original album cover showing his D'Aquisto. IMHO most of the tunes sound like he played tham on the Gibson, but there are a couple of songs that sound to me as though he used the D'Aquisto. That guitar had a ping and a harder attack than the ES-175 usually did (and the Sadowsky even brighter and a bit harder that that, IMHO- but maybe Jim was just turning the amps up brighter to compensate for aging ears).

Enjoy!

[David B]

Jim Hall's tone on Rollins' album "The Bridge" is to die for and one of my personal fav's for tone and playing. I always wondered whether his set-up on that album was different from his normal set up...

Here's how the band were set up in The Bridge recording session. Jim's got the GA50 on a chair facing him at 10 o'clock.