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Guitarist Jim Hall was born in 1930 in Cleveland, Ohio, where he began to play professionally while still a teenager. |
He graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Music in 1955 and moved to Los Angeles, where he studied with classical guitarist Vincente Gomez.
Hall began playing with Chico Hamilton's quintet shortly after arriving on the west coast, but it was his three-year stint with the Jimmy Giuffre Three, beginning in 1956, that shaped his life-long preference for working in duos and trios which emphasized improvisational musical dialog among the members. From the 1950s through the mid-1960s he worked with Ben Webster, Ella Fitzgerald, Lee Konitz, Sonny Rollins, Art Farmer, Paul Desmond, and Bill Evans.
In 1965 Hall retired from music to fight a personal battle against alcoholism. He returned to professional work shortly thereafter, working in the band on The Merv Griffin Show. By 1966 he had quit the show and was working again as a full-time jazz musician.
Jim Hall's creative output over the intervening years has continued to emphasize improvisation in duos and trios, as well as challenging arrangements for larger forces. He has gone on to play with Ron Carter, Terry Clarke, George Shearing, Pat Metheny, and Itzhak Perlman.
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Set List for Jim Hall on Piano Jazz:One Morning In May (Carmichael, Mitchell)
Silent Pool (McPartland)
Across the City (J. Hall)
Free Piece (J. Hall, McPartland)
All the Things You Are (Hammerstein, Kern)
Blue Monk (T. Monk)
Just the Way You Look Tonight (Fields, Kern)
Hall began playing with Chico Hamilton's quintet shortly after arriving on the west coast, but it was his three-year stint with the Jimmy Giuffre Three, beginning in 1956, that shaped his life-long preference for working in duos and trios which emphasized improvisational musical dialog among the members. From the 1950s through the mid-1960s he worked with Ben Webster, Ella Fitzgerald, Lee Konitz, Sonny Rollins, Art Farmer, Paul Desmond, and Bill Evans.
In 1965 Hall retired from music to fight a personal battle against alcoholism. He returned to professional work shortly thereafter, working in the band on The Merv Griffin Show. By 1966 he had quit the show and was working again as a full-time jazz musician.
Jim Hall's creative output over the intervening years has continued to emphasize improvisation in duos and trios, as well as challenging arrangements for larger forces. He has gone on to play with Ron Carter, Terry Clarke, George Shearing, Pat Metheny, and Itzhak Perlman.
Check out this week's Piano Jazz Shorts: the Piano Jazz podcast.
Subscribe!
Set List for Jim Hall on Piano Jazz: