As Evans arrives at the last 2 bars of his 1st chorus, Hall suddenly shifts into high-gear and begins to comp in a 4/4 big-band style à la Freddie Green. When Evans enters for his solo, Hall shifts to comping in very understated style which sounds as though it was recorded with a microphone placed in front of his Gibson ES-175 and his amp volume turned way down, if not completely shut-off. After the melody is stated, Hall solos for 3 choruses. The performance opens with a one chorus melody statement by Bill Evans supported by Jim Hall in a style that is somewhere between contrapuntal and, at times, functioning a bit like an acoustic bass. Of course, the original version appears on the revered recording with pianist, Bill Evans titled, ' UNDERCURRENT'(Blue Note) which was recorded in the Spring of 1962. It made me immediately feel like I had to go home and re-investigate that recording and that performance. As we sat together talking, John played for me a perfect impression of Jim's melody statement of 'I'm Getting Sentimental Over You.' Then, sometime later during our conversation, John launched into his own fantastic version of Hall's comping on the famous version of the Rodgers & Hart classic standard, ' My Funny Valentine.' He had it completely nailed: the feel, the swing, the sense of a walking bass - well, just everything. One of my earliest memories of exchanges with other guitarists, after having moved to New York at the dawn of the '70s, was sitting together with John Abercrombie and talking about Jim Hall and his style of playing.

My funny valentine harmonic analysis