By Arrangement by Jim Hall

By Arrangement

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By Arrangement

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Audio CD (September 29, 1998)

Original Release Date: September 29, 1998

Number of Discs: 1

Label: Telarc

Catalog Number: 83436

Reader Reviews
DO NOT ACQUIRE THIS CD!! May I elucidate? What a disappointment. As viewed through the jewel box this CD is a sure-fire winner, with a cast of NY's finest, and, of course, Jim Hall, a landmark artist of jazz guitar. At first it's a little hard to identify what's wrong here, but something surely is. Having listened to this (once) and carefully filed it, I pulled it up a few months later, thinking maybe I was having a bad day the first time it played. But nope, a second time through reassured me that I wasn't the one having a bad day. All the arrangements are by Jim, and I guess that's where the problem lies. Gil Evans he ain't. Which is fine, he's supposed to be Jim Hall, but I can only conclude that Jim's just not much of a writer. I brought up Gil Evans not simply to pull rank. A lot of the sonic territory explored in this release is space that Gil has covered superbly, but Jim just can't seem to get anything going in that neighborhood. I find problems of both form and orchestration in the work. I seriously doubt that Hall's intent was to go minimalist, but much of the material strikes me that way, and the apparent lack of development in the pieces is nagging at best. Somebody send him a score of "Bolero," pleeze. Another unfortunate aspect is the performance of Tom Harrell, who is featured somewhat. Tom is iconic to today's trumpeters, and for a good reason: he's a monster. On the day of this recording he's almost unrecognizable. The sound and ideas I associate with his usual approach are not there. Sound is hissy beyond any reasonable point, pitch is bad (really strange for Tom) and the idea stream is closed off. Not that the setting helps him much. In all kindness to a great improvisor, it sounds as though Tom's disease was not under control that day. This appraisal sounds very harsh as I write it, but unfortunately the real Tom Harrell didn't or couldn't stand up that day. The lack of appeal certainly can't be laid upon the performance itself. The ensemble is as good as you'd expect after reading the roster. But this only helps focus the difficulties back on the raw material. This is my most disappointing jazz buy in years. Spare yourself the comparable agony, even if you’re a Jim Hall freak.

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