It's nice to be with you - Jim Hall in Berlin

Description

A reissue of a 1969 trio recording by American guitarist Jim Hall, who stands at the summit of the jazz guitar pantheon. At the time of his death in 2013 at the age of 83, he had long been regarded as one of jazz’s greats, a major influence on generations of jazz guitarists. It seems that practically every great musician wanted to play with Hall. His work as a sideman ranged from swing-era giant Ben Webster to new music pioneer Ornette Coleman. His recording credits include a series of classic albums with groups led by Jimmy Guiffre, Sonny Rollins, and Bill Evans; Hall often spoke of Rollins and Evans as two of his major influences. This intimate musical reunion in June 1969 was due in large part to the close friendship between Hall and the legendary German writer/critic and producer Joachim-Ernst Berendt. As Hall, his wife, and his daughter were visiting him in Berlin, Berendt noticed that, although he had recorded extensively with a number of major jazz figures in recent years, including several collaborative reunions, Hall had not recorded an album solely under his own name for more than a decade. Berendt immediately put together a recording trio for Hall that included two internationally renowned musicians with whom Hall had already worked, American expatriate bassist Jimmy Woode and Swiss-French drummer Daniel Humair. In such a transparent setting, Hall deploys his finest qualities. Humair summed it up perceptively: Hall played with “more clarity, more purity, more sensitivity” than any other guitarist of the time. The result is an album of intensely introspective music.