Jim Hall (1930-)

Jim Hall is hard to box-in and describe. Yes, he's one of the guys that were active starting in the 1950... (in New York in the 60's)

... and yes, he played mainstream jazz (and/or bebop and/or cool)... and of course, he played with most legendary jazzmen of the last 50 years (and continues to do so)...

(and, oh yes... by the way, he influenced everyone that ever sold a jazz album since the 80's... ok, maybe that's too much!)

...but...the point is : he's no ordinary bebop/mainstream/legendary man.
There's something unlikely about his sound and approach. And from what I understand, Jim IS that legendary guy because he didn't sound like everybody else.




The way he decided to play the guitar in such a traditional idiom without any frills or flashy stuff probably comes from his classical training : sophisticated harmony implied by the use of intervals, very broad improvisational ideas, "less is more" approach and of course, lots of listening in general.

Everything is purified before it comes out. I believe that's why he's so magnetic for other guitarists. That kind of sound influenced most jazzers that came up in the 70's and later... (*such as Metheny and Scofield*) and even non-guitarists!

Great Jim Hall Quote :

"Players should force themselves to hear something and then play it, rather than just do whatever comes under their fingers. I try to make my playing as fresh as possible by not relying on set patterns.

When I practice, I tie off some of the strings with rubber bands to force myself to look at the fingerboard differently. Force instance, I might play on the D and G strings only, or even just on the G and A strings."

Playing Style and Gear

Gear wise, he's been using a custom made Sadowsky guitar and polytone amps (but it always depends).

As to his playing style, Jim Hall places the music first, the technicalities come after.

I like to see it poetically :

He choose minimalism over chops. He choose each note wisely instead of noodling around. He choose rhythmic sophistication instead of funky vamps. He punctuated with three-notes chords instead of strumming... etc.

He leaves space when the music calls for it!

Check him out live!

The following transcriptions comes for the live Michel Petrucciani "Power of Three" album (with Petrucciani, Hall and Wayne Shorter)

Video, Licks and Transcriptions

Get transcription excerpt from this video HERE