Born in Buffalo, New York, Jim Hall (1930-2013) was one of the most influential and sought-after jazz guitarists since the late '50s.

Thanks to his stylistic versatility, on any given day in New York he was able to record with Blues veterans in one studio, then at a Bossa Nova session in another one, and explore new sound concepts with uncompromising avant-gardists in the clubs at night.

Growing up in a very musical family, he received his first guitar at the age of ten. Three years later he heard Charlie Christian, the “inventor” of the electrical jazz guitar, on a Benny Goodman recording – an epiphany that sparked his love for jazz. Remarkably, his most important role models were the great tenor saxophonists: Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Paul Gonsalves, and Lucky Thompson.

He studied composition, music theory, guitar and double bass, (and took lessons in classical guitar) at the Cleveland Institute of Music. In 1955 he ventured into the jazz scene of Los Angeles, where he quickly made his mark in the quintet of drummer Chico Hamilton. He released a number of chamber music- oriented albums with the trio of multi- instrumentalist Jimmy Giuffre, that are among the milestones of their time. Hall also worked in a similar vein with John Lewis, the pianist of the Modern Jazz Quartet. His truly wonderful albums "The Wonderful World of Jazz" and "Jazz Abstractions" are part of every respectable jazz collection and probably showcase the full scope and talent of Jim Hall best.

In the early 1960s, Hall was omnipresent in New York: as a companion to Ella Fitzgerald and Ben Webster, with saxophonists Sonny Rollins, Zoot Sims, and Paul Desmond, with pianist Bill Evans and trumpeter Art Farmer, and as sideman on numerous other studio recordings.

From the late 1960s, Hall worked mainly with his own bands. For recordings, he met regularly with his early companions and also recorded with almost all of his most important successors, like Pat Metheny, John Scofield and Bill Frisell.