Good Friday Blues Poll Winners****

Octogenerian Jim Hall was 30 when he made this all-but- forgotten beauty with Red Mitchell (on piano, not bass) and Red Kelly (bass), leading the delightfully titled Modest Jazz Trio. They were friends who played together professionally as well as for the fun of it whenever possible, and they brought that same warmth to this off-the-cuff session. Hall is bluesier than usual on the title track and Willow Weep for Me, but he is recognisably the same great musician of the classics Grand Encounter(with John Lewis), Intermodulation(with Bill Evans), and his own Jazz Guitartrio of that era. In fact, six tracks from the latter album are in as a bonus, along with three from a session with Chico Hamilton and George Duvivier. Mitchell's laconic, melodic piano is a lovely surprise, while Kelly is a solid timekeeper on this reminder of what got so many of us into jazz in the first place.