Jim Hall Music

This is good stuff here...every one says you have to see the MCB live and unless you live around North Carolina this is your best chance. Come on down to Florida fella's!

This one is good, but not better than "Three" "Alone Together" and "Circles" or the perfect "Live!"--hence my rating.
This compilation CD has all five tracks from the "Live in Tokyo" Lp. Two of them, Billie's Bounce and Chelsea Bridge, would fit stylistically with the cuts on "Live!" On these two, the trio plays much as it seems to in the club setting. Two others, St. Thomas (not listed on the Amazon track listing) and Twister, are more like concert show pieces, both designed to feature the talented Terry Clarke on drums.
Twister, a guitar-drums duet, seems to be improvised, and is played by Hall on an acoustic archtop (or at least an archtop with the pickup turned way, way down).
St. Thomas has a couple of minutes of vigorous rhythm guitar, then an extended drum solo. This version will not replace the one on the "Alone Together" alubm (for me, anyway).
Finally, the Concierto De Aranjuez starts with solo acoustic guitar, and the band comes in after about two minutes. It is well done, but it doesn't sound like something you'd hear in a jazz club. It's got the same funk-lite backbeat found on the studio arrangement on CTI records, but the trio gives it a more intimate feel than that version has.
The remaining four tracks constitute about half of an album (reviewed on allmusic.com, for the curious) called "Jazz Impressions of Japan." Without Words is a very nice, two-minute original ballad played by the trio. Careful is similar to versions on other recordings. Light and Tokyo Bells are more impressionistic and modal in feel. I suppose the inflence of ECM and Keith Jarrett was beginning to be felt throughout the jazz community by this point, because these sound like pieces that wouldn't have appeared on a sixties Jim Hall album (not that he recorded under his own name much in the sixties).

This is an excellent cd. A little bit pricey and it took awhile to arrive (Japanese import) but it was worth the wait. It really serves as a companion to the recently reissued Jim Hall - Live. It was recorded shortly after that (1976 I think) and features the same trio, Terry Clarke on drums and Don Thompson on bass. This format allows Hall to shine - he is front and center for much of the record and takes extended solos. He is much less restrained than on many of his records and his brilliance as a guitarist and musician is all the more apparent. A couple of notes - all of the liner notes are in Japanese. Also the cd includes St Thomas, which was not on the web page track listing. The recording is approximately half studio and half live.