Louis Stewart & Jim Hall: The Dublin Concert

When Jim Hall decided to spend the 1982 Christmas holidays in Ireland, did he really think that one of the most influential jazz guitarists in history could pass through incognito? The master of modern jazz guitar who had played with Chico Hamilton, Jimmy Giuffre, Ben Webster, Ella Fitzgerald, Sonny Rollins and Art Farmer, who was celebrated for a quartet of famous albums with Bill Evans, and who had crafted a masterly interpretation of Joaquin Rodrigo's "Concierto de Aranjuez" on Concierto (CTI, 1975)—did he think nobody would notice? No chance.

Gerald Davis, founder of Ireland's first jazz record label, Livia Records (set up ostensibly to record Dublin guitarist Louis Stewart), was certainly aware. He duly contacted Hall and quickly arranged a duo date with Stewart in Dublin for the day after Christmas. With practically every venue shut for the festive period, Davis scrambled to find a suitable spot. He secured the Dublin Maccabi—the clubhouse of a Jewish sports and community association. Fully aware of the historical significance of the gig, Davis was smart enough to gain both musicians' permission to record the gig for posterity.

The tapes would outlive Davis, whose Livia Records label expired along with him in 2005. Why Davis had never released the tapes is unclear; perhaps the quality was simply not good enough. Happily, Livia Records was revived by producer/radio DJ Dermot Rodgers, who came upon the tapes in 2022. He passed them to Seán Mac Erlaine (of This Is How We Fly fame) whose careful editing and mastering has brought sixty minutes of of the two-hour concert back to scintillating life. Sound interference rendered the other hour unpresentable, at least until digital editing moves to the next level of sophistication. Then we can look forward to The Complete Dublin Concert.

Until such times we must be content with this truncated—though still hefty—musical time capsule. And what a beauty it is. Stewart, whose own CV included stints with Tubby Hayes, Benny Goodman, George Shearing and Ronnie Scott was clearly a Hall disciple, and it is interesting to hear just how much the Dubliner had borrowed from the older man's language. But for Mac Erlaine's separation of the two guitarists to left and right channels it might not always be a simple matter to tell them apart as they navigate these eight jazz standards with brio.

Rhythmically, they sound very similar indeed. Both, in fact, give a masterclass in dynamic comping as the other solos. Stewart, like Hall, was renowned for the fluidity and quick-witted invention of his soloing, though as Irish guitarist Chris Guilfoyle noted in a reappraisal of Stewart's Out On His Own (Livia Records, 1977, rereleased 2023) that was only half the story: "There is much talk about Louis' soloing, and deservedly so," Guilfoyle remarked, "but I think his chordal skills should be talked about in the same vein." Arguably no other record in Stewart's discography better highlights his fleet chordal progressions—imbued with harmonic richness—than The Dublin Concert. The same could even be said for Hall.

Hall plays unaccompanied on three tracks—a beautifully weighted, chordal-framed version of Jerome Kern's "All The Things You Are," a wholly original take on Richard Rodgers' and Lorenz Hart's "My Funny Valentine" that toggles between rhythmic flurry and melodic finesse, and a darkly lyrical recalibration of Duke Ellington's "In a Sentimental Mood." There is a different kind of magic in the duo tracks as Stewart and Hall swap lead and comping roles with conversational ease. But for all the exhilarating soloing and high-wire interplay on "Stella by Starlight" and a joyous "St. Thomas" (which Hall knew intimately from his years with Rollins), it is their ever so tender playing on Jimmy van Heusen's "But Beautiful" that underlines just how special this one-off musical encounter was.

The fourteen-page accompanying booklet features an essay by Philip Watson (author of Bill Frisell, Beautiful Dreamer, Faber & Faber, 2022) who places the musicians and this concert in historical context, with further valuable insights coming from former Stewart collaborators Ronan Guilfoyle and Jim Doherty. All told, this is another terrific offering from Livia Records.

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