Previously unheard live recording of guitarists Louis Stewart and Jim Hall to be released

A previously unheard live recording of revered guitarists Louis Stewart and Jim Hall at the Maccabi Hall in Dublin is set for release on September 6, via Livia Records.

The Dublin Concert - which took place in the capital on December 26, 1982 - was made possible after tapes were discovered in 2022. The tapes were digitised and mastered, thus forming the album and the only known recording of the two jazz greats performing with each other.

It’s said that the pair met while Waterford-born Stewart was undergoing his 1981 residency at New York’s Bechet. The two then organised a “hastily arranged” concert in Dublin, after he learned that Hall would be holidaying in Ireland.

 

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Louis Stewart is considered the first true world-class jazz musician to come from Ireland. After being discovered by pianist Jim Doherty in 1960, he progressed from playing in dancehall show bands to the local jazz scene, before gaining international plaudits for his displays at Montreux in 1968 and ’69.

He appeared on over 70 albums, his last being Tunes (recorded alongside Doherty) in 2013. Stewart died in 2016.

Born in Buffalo, Jim Hall is regarded as one of the leading exponents of modern Jazz guitar in the late 20^th and early 21^st centuries. He moved to New York from L.A around 1960, where he performed with the likes of Sonny Rollins, Art Farmer and Lee Konitz, also forming a long-standing studio relationship with jazz composer Bill Evans.

He toured and recorded across the globe between 1970 and 2010, before passing away in 2013.

The Dublin Concert will be available in CD, Vinyl and digital formats, with photos as well as notes written by music biographer Philip Watson. For more information, visit Livia Records’ website here.