Archive for the ‘Jim Hall’ Category
Greg Osby: The Invisible Hand (Blue Note Records – 2000)
Greg Osby has come a long way from his beginnings in St. Louis playing funk and R&B. His sound crossed our radar screens after moving to Brooklyn and joining forces with Steve Coleman in the mid-‘80s to form M-BASE, an urban-beat driven jazz. Osby had a very calculated, sometimes emotionless sound. It was if he was working equations in his head as he played. Where his older recordings suffered from a staid studio approach, his recent effort, Banned In New York, a live “bootleg” recording, displays Osby as an emotional quick-witted band leader. His last disc, Friendly Fire, a co-led affair with Joe Lovano proved Osby deserves to be considered as one of the top musicians working today.
The Invisible Hand is further proof that Osby treads comfortably between the past and, importantly, the future of jazz. Joining him are Gary Thomas and Teri Lynn Carrington from his early Brooklyn days and two of the professor emeriti of jazz, Jim Hall and Andrew Hill. Hall is a guitarist that favors a subtle touch; a peculiar feature for someone so associated with cutting edge jazz. He has recorded classic albums with Sonny Rollins, Lee Konitz, and Paul Desmond. Lately, his Telarc dates have featured his third stream thinking. Andrew Hill’s Blue Note dates of the sixties were cerebral efforts, not quite post-bop and not really free jazz affairs. Early in Osby’s career he was a sideman for the late-‘80s Blue Note comeback of Hill. Likewise, he has recorded on two recent Hall dates. The Invisible Hand trades mathematics for emotion. The slow to mid-tempos presented are fertile grounds for group interplay and interpretation. For instance, they take on Fats Waller’s “Jitterbug Waltz,” a tune forever associated with Eric Dolphy. Rather than compete with our collective memories, Osby deconstructs the composition choosing bug parts over the whole, reworking it as an intellectual exercise. Osby’s deference to his esteemed colleagues shows. A stately and exquisite affair.
(All About Jazz)
1 Ashes
2 Who Needs Forever?
3 The Watcher Osby
4 Jitterbug Waltz
5 Sanctus Hall
6 (Back Home Again In) Indiana
7 Nature Boy
8 Touch Love
9 With Son Osby
10 The Watcher, No. 2
Personnel:
Greg Osby Clarinet, (Alto Sax )
Gary Thomas (Flute, Alto & Tenor Sax)
Jim Hall (Guitar)
Andrew Hill (Piano)
Scott Colley (Bass)
Terri Lyne Carrington (Drums)
Original Release Date: February 29, 2000 – Label: Blue Note Records
Jim Hall: Live – (1975 – Verve)
Jim Hall is our greatest living jazz guitarist, and probably one of our greatest jazz musicians, regardless of instrument, to boot. So why, despite being widely acclaimed by jazz aficionados, is he not exactly a household name? It probably has to do with his innately self-effacing demeanor, both on and off the bandstand. Beginning in the late 50’s and continuing on through the 60’s, Hall worked as a sideman, albeit one who was often essentially a “co-leader”, with Jimmy Giuffre, Paul Desmond, Art Farmer, and Sonny Rollins, among others. Even when he began making records more frequently under his own name, he tended to make quiet, intricate, and lovely music as an equal half of a duet: with Bill Evans, Ron Carter, and others. There are relatively few vintage records featuring Hall soloing at length as a leader of a group.
This is why another excellent reissue in the Verve Lp reproduction series, Jim Hall Live!, is so welcome. The music is taken from a series of 1975 club dates at Bourbon Street in Toronto, and features Hall in a trio with Canadians Don Thompson and Terry Clarke, with whom Desmond also made some great Bourbon Street recordings. The three obviously hit it off famously, and it is a pleasure to hear Hall let it rip on these five standards. The group is swinging and appealingly loose, going for broke so much that they get a little confused at the end of “Scrapple From the Apple” and humorously grasp for an ending to “The Way You Look Tonight”.
Although bassist Thompson (who also made the clear and lifelike recording—what did he do, push the faders with his toes?) takes some nice solos (check out the quote of “One Note Samba” in “Angel Eyes”), this is Hall’s show, and he doesn’t disappoint. He combines beautiful single-note phrases with his trademark chordal runs to weave a tapestry of continual invention on a long “Angel Eyes”, caresses the many harmonic possibilities of “‘Round Midnight”, and boppishly burns his way through “Scrapple”. “I Hear a Rhapsody”, taken at a sprightly pace, features some excellent counterpoint soloing by Hall and Thompson. Drummer Clarke provides tasteful, but unobtrusive contributions throughout.
For fans of Hall familiar only with his more mannered playing, this freewheeling live date will be a welcome revelation.
(All About Jazz)
1.Angel Eyes
2.’Round Midnight
3.Scrapple from the Apple
4.Way You Look Tonight, The
5.I Hear a Rhapsody
Personnel:
Don Thompson (acoustic bass);
Clark Terry (drums).
Recorded live at Bourbon Street, Toronto, Canada in June 1975. Originally released on Horizon Records (705). Includes liner notes by Doug Ramsey.
Original Release Date: 1975 – Label: Verve
Jimmy Raney, Jim Hall & Zoot Sims: Two Jims and Zoot (1964 – Mobile Fidelity)
After the first of two stints with Stan Getz in 1951-52, clean, crisp swing/bop guitarist Jimmy Raney recorded his first handful of albums as a leader in the mid 1950s – including Five (1954) and Indian Summer (1956). By the mid 1960s, Raney’s bout with alcoholism forced him into a decade-long hiatus during which time he relocated back to his childhood home of Louisville, Kentucky. A real shame this was, since this piano-less quintet date featuring Jim Hall, recorded shortly before that hiatus, far exceeds the quality of his earlier leader dates and reveals a career highlight.
A gentle Steve Swallow and a stationary Osie Johnson leave Raney and Hall in the spotlight throughout “Move It,” an up-tempo swinger near the end of the record. Hall is surprisingly active – one might even say aggressive – during sections of Raney’s improvisation here. But because there’s a stable rhythm section and no piano, it’s the open interaction between the complete-line comping from Hall and the western-swing infused bop runs from Raney that makes this track more than a worthwhile listen.
Eric Novod (www.jazz.com Review)
Original Release Date: September 1964 – Label: Mobile Fidelity
Jim Hall – Live! (1975 – Verve)
Jim Hall is our greatest living jazz guitarist, and probably one of our greatest jazz musicians, regardless of instrument, to boot. So why, despite being widely acclaimed by jazz aficionados, is he not exactly a household name? It probably has to do with his innately self-effacing demeanor, both on and off the bandstand. Beginning in the late 50’s and continuing on through the 60’s, Hall worked as a sideman, albeit one who was often essentially a “co-leader”, with Jimmy Giuffre, Paul Desmond, Art Farmer, and Sonny Rollins, among others. Even when he began making records more frequently under his own name, he tended to make quiet, intricate, and lovely music as an equal half of a duet: with Bill Evans, Ron Carter, and others. There are relatively few vintage records featuring Hall soloing at length as a leader of a group.
This is why another excellent reissue in the Verve Lp reproduction series, Jim Hall Live!, is so welcome. The music is taken from a series of 1975 club dates at Bourbon Street in Toronto, and features Hall in a trio with Canadians Don Thompson and Terry Clarke, with whom Desmond also made some great Bourbon Street recordings. The three obviously hit it off famously, and it is a pleasure to hear Hall let it rip on these five standards. The group is swinging and appealingly loose, going for broke so much that they get a little confused at the end of “Scrapple From the Apple” and humorously grasp for an ending to “The Way You Look Tonight”.
Although bassist Thompson (who also made the clear and lifelike recording—what did he do, push the faders with his toes?) takes some nice solos (check out the quote of “One Note Samba” in “Angel Eyes”), this is Hall’s show, and he doesn’t disappoint. He combines beautiful single-note phrases with his trademark chordal runs to weave a tapestry of continual invention on a long “Angel Eyes”, caresses the many harmonic possibilities of “‘Round Midnight”, and boppishly burns his way through “Scrapple”. “I Hear a Rhapsody”, taken at a sprightly pace, features some excellent counterpoint soloing by Hall and Thompson. Drummer Clarke provides tasteful, but unobtrusive contributions throughout.
For fans of Hall familiar only with his more mannered playing, this freewheeling live date will be a welcome revelation.
Joshua Weiner (All About Jazz)
1 Angel Eyes
2 Round Midnight
3 Scrapple from the Apple
4 The Way You Look Tonight
5 I Hear a Rhapsody
Personnel:
Jim Hall (guitar)
Don Thompson (bass)
Terry Clarke (drums)
Original Release Date: 1975 – Label: Verve
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