The sound of Jim Hall still reverberates through the Village. Hall, the legendary jazz guitarist who died earlier this month at 83, was given a very personal tribute last Thursday night at a concert by the guitarist Peter Bernstein, above, who was once Hall’s student at The New School. The gig was at Smalls, on W. 10th St. Bernstein was leading a quartet — featuring vibraphonist
Steve Nelson, bassist Dwayne Burno and drummer Billy Drummond — when he decided to play an old jazz standard, “My Ideal.” “It’s a tune that Jim taught me,” Bernstein told the crowd. Hall, he said, was “a towering figure, who stood for all the good things in life and music.” Before he began, Bernstein noted that Smalls is just
a few blocks from the W. 12th St. building where Hall lived for around four decades until his death on Dec. 10. And as he swung through the tune, Bernstein seemed to channel the melodic spirit of his old teacher, providing a comforting sense that the master guitarist’s memory truly will remain embedded, forever, within the storied neighborhood’s fabric.
