Jim Hall and Red Mitchell....

[Paul Warburton]

Finally, a cut from "The Record". No longer in print, but considered by many to be the greatest guitar/bass duo in history. Live from Sweet Basil in NYC.
Gorgeous.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9Jvst3madw

[salcott]

Originally Posted by Paul Warburton

Finally, a cut from "The Record". No longer in print, but considered by many to be the greatest guitar/bass duo in history. Live from Sweet Basil in NYC.
Gorgeous.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9Jvst3madw

I'm one of the many.

[Paul Warburton]

+1.

[Ed Fuqua]

I wish that more of this stuff would show up, like the new tracks from the Bourbon Street trio gig....

[ChuckCorbisiero]

+1

[Anonymatt]

Oh man. I feel a Red Mitchell binge coming on.

I get waaay too much pleasure from hearing the glasses clink and stuff. I'm a creepy voyeur like that, I guess.

Pretty song I'm not familiar with. Ooh, Jim's chunking things up.

Everybody see this great interview w/ Jim Hall?

[Paul Warburton]

According to the liner notes, "Blue Dove" is a traditional Mexican folk song.

About Jim "chunking things up"......to quote Red Mitchell: "Jim Hall is a great little band".

For a look into the history of Red and Jim, here's a clip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODkaz...eature=related of them from L.A. in 1957 with the wonderful pianist, Carl Perkins. Red mentored Jim from the day Jim moved into the area and Jim always talked about how Red was a huge influence on his playing. I remember one remark from Jim about his use of the left hand in his playing. He said....."I learned a lot about this from watching Red Mitchell play the bass". Red's using four Artone gut strings tuned in 4ths in this clip.....
And.......http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZhnF...feature=relmfu

Here's one from "The modest jazz trio" with Red on piano and the very funny Red Kelly (of Woody Herman fame) on bass. The tune's by Red.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vid-...eature=related

[one4dabass]

Thanks for sharing that and giving all these fascinating explanations!

[kellyrojo]

Dont have much to add but if you haven't taken a listen to "the Bridge" by Sonny Rollins w/Jim Hall.......woof, he is cookin on that album!

[Chris Fitzgerald]

Fantastic. Jim Hall represents everything I love about melodic jazz improvisation - not even a trace of ego or wankery of any kind. As for Red, I'm really sorry I never got to hear him play live. It's not any one thing that he does that blows me away, it's just the spirit of what he does. You can hear that he's totally immersed in the music to the point where you can hear the music laughing, smiling, and crying all at the same time.

It's this kind of playing (from both of these gents) that picks me up when I start to wonder (not often, but on bad days or after particularly bad gigs) if playing jazz is worth the trouble. After hearing this, I know that it is. When the music is really, really honest like this, there's just no question.

[ChuckCorbisiero]

Originally Posted by Paul Warburton

I remember one remark from Jim about his use of the left hand in his playing. He said....."I learned a lot about this from watching Red Mitchell play the bass".

Jim's left knocks me out. I have seen him live. He uses pretty light gauge strings and his G is really light. I think he use to change it out for an unwound G, which in jazz is unusual. He uses his G as a transition string. He's able to play multiple notes going up and down while only picking the string once.

[Paul Warburton]

Red wrote a tune alluding to this concept of using less pluck and more left hand and making it sound very even on all the strings.........it's called "One long string".

[Phil Rowan]

Man, listening to that Jim Hall/Red Mitchell/Carl Perkins clip.. such beautiful music.

[Paul Warburton]

Here's a two track clip from the same side. "Stella" is first but @ about 3:13 is one of my favorite tunes, "Deep in a dream".


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoRyf...eature=related

[kellyrojo]

cool thanks for these clips---diggin it

[Phil Rowan]

Don't mean to veer away from the Jim Hall vibe but the trading here is something else: Joe Pass and Red Mitchell: Softly as in a Morning Sunrise.

[Paul Warburton]

Originally Posted by Phil Rowan

Don't mean to veer away from the Jim Hall vibe but the trading here is something else: Joe Pass and Red Mitchell: Softly as in a Morning Sunrise.

After Red passed, I did some gigs with Roger Kellaway, who hooked up with Red in the final years for duo performances and recordings. It was fun for me because we played some of Red's tunes. I asked Roger what was the single most impressive musical value he got from Red and he said his "focus". This clip's a good demonstration of that, for sure. Red was fond of trading phrases, rather than 4's or 8's but can be very tricky in terms of not stepping on one another.
I have a side with Jim and Red where they both stop at the same time in an exchange and both come in with the very same idea in unison in the same register.

[Phil Rowan]

Right! The same kind of thing just about happens in the Joe Pass/Red Mitchell clip I posted. On listening to it I found myself just drawn closer and closer to the speaker as the trading went on and more and more surprised/amazed at their exchange of ideas/phrases. Roger's totally right about the focus Red had (and I'd say another impressive musical value of Red's is just how free he was with everything he played).

[RedMoses]

Ive seen Jim Hall play, he could barely walk but when he picks up the Guitar he comes accross with incredible energy, he is amazing!

Thanks for sharing.

[Anonymatt]

I finally got a chance to check this stuff out on my nice headphones. Holy crap, what a pretty sound. I'm gonna check out the rest of these links as the night goes on (I'm at work). I really like this song. It's so pretty-pretty.

Checking some of this out, gotta say, that album cover from the Stella recording is AWESOME.