Jim Hall (1930) graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Music in 1955, with a Bachelors degree in music. He moved to Los Angeles that same year where he quickly gained the recognition and respect of established jazz musicians. Almost immediately he was recommended as a replacement for Howard Roberts with the Chico Hamilton Trio. He toured and recorded with Hamilton through 1959 and also played and recorded with Jimmy Guiffre during this same time.

Jim Hall's earliest recordings, especially those made with Chico Hamilton, showed the influence of Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt. As with his contemporaries, a lot was made of the similarities in Hall's playing to that of Christian and Reinhardt. And Hall acknowledged that both were heavy influences on his style. The sides cut with The Chico Hamilton Trio (Pacific Jazz 1220) were probably recorded right after Hall arrived in Los Angeles, so they are representative of Hall's early style and technique. Porch Light shows that Hall had learned his Charlie Christian well, but, careful listening to Autumn Landscape and the subsequent recordings he made with Chico Hamilton show that Hall was taking the jazz guitar in a new direction. His deceptively simple eight bar improvisation on Autumn Landscape demonstrated the understated, melodic style that would become the hallmark of his approach to the jazz guitar.

Jim Hall recorded with Jimmy Guiffre during this same period and the Jimmy Guiffre Three recordings have become classics for study by reed players and the jazz guitarists. On these recordings Hall again emphasized simplicity of style that belies the complexity of his interpretations of Guiffre's arrangements.

Jim Hall moved to New York in the 1960's and there recorded with Sonny Rollins, Lee Konitz, Art Farmer and Bill Evans. The wonderful duo recordings he made with Bill Evans appeared in the 1960's. This small format again, with Evans' complex arrangements, gave Hall the opportunity to demonstrate what was now his trademark style.

Throughout the last quarter of the 20th century and into 21st, Jim Hall has continued to perform and record. He has not wandered far from his original style and technique, but it seems like he has always moved forward with his music. In the 1970's and 1980's he made a handful of recordings on the Concord Records label. Most significant among them perhaps, Jim Hall's Three. In the 1990's Jim Hall continued to lead his own recording sessions and he recorded with Pat Metheny, Mike Stern and Itzhak Perlman.

In Just Jazz Guitar, No.8 Aug.1996, Q& A Jim Hall, page 63, when ask how his playing has changed over the years, Hall offered the following; "I hope it has grown. I started to try and sound like Charlie Christian and would still like to sound like Charlie Christian. However, from having gone to the Institute of Music and having gone through what I have since, my playing has changed and I hope it continues to change - not because you want to throw away your values - but because you want to keep growing all the time”.

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