Press

Free Association wins Choc de L'ane'e Award

Free Association wins Choc de L'ane'e Award

Free Association, the latest recording from Jim and master pianist Geoffrey Keezer has captured the Choc de L'ane'e Award from Jazzman/France.   This is the second Choc de L'ane'e Award in a row for Jim.

Free Association features the virtuosic piano styling of Geoffrey Keezer.   It was an ArtistShare fan-funded release produced by Brian Camelio.  

Press quotes

Mr. Hall has a technique equivalent to that of any classical guitar soloist and an electronics kit that could out-tech any rock 'n' roller, but his music is strictly jazz.

- Will Friedwald, The New York Sun

...Hall and his colleagues - bassist Scott Colley and drummer Lewis Nash - have developed a level of rapport second to none...The superb interplay made it hard to believe this music was being created on the spot, without the benefit of a written score... the three openly exchanged ideas in one poetic dialogue after another...

- Chuck Obuchowski, The Hartford Courant

"His intensely intimate music gets under your skin rather than grabbing you by the lapels....Mr. Hall has a sound as recognizable as the voice of a friend. His floating, fine-grained tone is smooth and edgeless, his wide-spaced harmonies subtly oblique."

- Terry Teachout, Wall Street Journal

"Jim Hall is the reigning master of the jazz guitar. This poetic player says more with fewer notes than any living improviser."

- The New Yorker

"A master of understatement, Hall is one of jazz's most respected improvisers, an artist who wields his guitar like a paintbrush, shaping and shading each note to achieve just the right hue and texture. Modest and soft-spoken, he has inspired two generations of jazz musicians with his vast harmonic knowledge and restless musical curiosity."

- Andrew Gilbert, San Jose Mercury News

"His work speaks as much to the human condiction as any artist past or present, and if one looks and listens attentively, there are great rewards to be found there."

- Victor Magnani, All About Jazz

"Mr. Hall's dry-toned guitar playing with its discrete, deliberate notes and sliding chords works like a bluesy telegraph signal."

- Ben Ratliff, The New York Times

"Since 1955, Hall, jazz' most lyrical and harmonically fertile guitarist, has jousted with top jazz stars like Ella Fitzgerald and Sonny Rollins. And his approach has shaped a younger generation of guitar heroes, from Metheny to Bill Frisell."

- Gene Santoro, New York Daily News