Jim's guitar carries on conversations with parts of your soul you never knew existed. And once Jim gets going on a recording, it's pretty tough to take it off. It was as if Jim knew innately what he was up against—short attention spans and a desire for sonic action and modulation traditioanlly handled by horns or a piano. But Jim knew that if engaged properly, a listener would linger and be soothed—lulled into listening carefully to what he was trying to say on his instrument and be wiser for it. Like Bill Evans, Jim operated like a painter and knew all about seduction, color and space. In jazz, beauty never ages, and Jim left behind in his recordings a landscape of daring grace.
More on Jim: Here's my three-part interview with Jim from 2010: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.
JazzWax clips: The Chico Hamilton Quintet's Sleepy Slept Here...
The Jimmy Giuffre 3's Careful...
With Sonny Rollins on The Bridge...
With Paul Desmond on Samba Cantina...
The entire Intermodulation album with Bill Evans...
And with Ron Carter on Alone Together...
This story appears courtesy of JazzWax by Marc Myers.
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