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. Jim is the legend's legend! 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. 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! Playing Style and GearGear 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
More Transcriptionscoming soon...
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