Jim Hall discusses studio versus live music

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Jim Hall talks musical inspiration

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Jim Hall discusses his performance style

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Q: “One of the things that’s always delightful to hear when you play is that you bring all of your experience into it. Sometimes you’re just playing like Freddie Green – a nice rhythm guitar. It’s just that you bring all of it in, but you’re willing to do anything to make it work…”

A: “Thank you. I actually enjoy playing rhythm guitar. It's a good feeling physically. It's sort of like jogging or something and Freddie Green is my absolute idol that way. As a matter of fact, I wrote him a fan letter. He was coming to Japan about three years ago for the same promoter that I have and I was just about to leave Japan, so I wrote him a letter, which said in essence, "I've always told everybody how much I love you playing and it occurred to me I've never told you, so I did." Then after that, we ran into each other at the North Sea Festival, I think, but anyway, I'd said to Freddie, kind of half-jokingly at breakfast, we had breakfast together because we hadn't really seen each other more than five or six times over twenty years. So I said, "Do you have any fatherly advice for me?" And he said, "Yeah, always pack your suitcase the night before and always leave your uniform on top." So I've taken that to heart.”