The great jazz guitarist Jim Hall passed away last week. It was a sad day for all jazz guitarists, musicians and listeners in general. And I have a small story to share: years ago I lived in Manhattan and went to jazz performances whenever I can, which means 3-4 times a week. I made a friend during a show at Smoke (in uptown) on a week night, probably a Monday as I remember not much people were in the audience. If you know me, it should be very surprising that I would become friend with a complete stranger at a public place. Well, that's one of those rare occasion. Turned out we have the same name. I worked at a bank while he was a lawyer. Both of us loved jazz guitar. Both of us played too. He had way more experiences than I did but he stopped at that time because of carpal tunnel while I just started from scratch, knowing nothing about guitar playing, let alone jazz. We went to shows together from time to time before I moved. He told me his biggest influence was Jim Hall. What's so great about Jim Hall's playing? It's best explained by another guitarist Rez Abbasi on this NPR show. His playing is not dazzling like Pat Metheny or Stanley Jordan. Instead, his brilliance is quite subtle: you gotta listen to how he interplayed with others, like Bill Evans, Ron Carter, Sonny Rollins. In fact, Hall's playing got so highly praised that I bought Sonny Rollin's "The Bridge" LP, which was literally in heavy rotation on my turntable.
RIP.
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