Since the recent passing of Jim Hall, Ive thought a lot about his influence on so many of the great players of the last few decades, most notably Pat Metheny. I would expect (and hope) to see a written appreciation from Pat at some point in the near future. His essay on Wes Montgomery contained in the Wes Live in 65 DVD is one of the greatest jazz appreciation pieces Ive ever read. Heres a quote from Pat dating back a few years: Pat Metheny: Theres a couple specific revolutionary aspects of the way that Jim plays and one of them is that he sort of created a way of playing dynamics on the instrument that I think has influenced and affected kind of all of us that have followed him historically which is that he has a way of playing soft, but letting the amp sort of get loud, but keeping his touch very gentle. And what he did in one fell stroke was increase the apparent dynamic range of the electric guitar by about four or five times. Because he could dig in on certain notes and bring out this whole other sort of level that you didnt know was there. And that also resonates with his harmonic wisdom. Which is by just finding a few notes that really suggest a lot, he can imply a lot more. So I think that the whole way that Jim keeps a lot of stuff under the surface that its always just kind of ready to bubble out and occasionally does, creates this 3-D effect.
Posted on: Mon, 16 Dec 2013 03:29:49 +0000
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