Jim Hall’s style is really feeling its strings

Guitars, guitars, everywhere. Once primarily a support instrument in jazz, the guitar has become one of its more prominently heard instruments over the last decade or so. But despite a torrent of new sounds and new players, veteran guitarists such as Jim Hall continue to set high standards for innovation and creativity.

Hall made one of his rare Southland appearances Monday at the Jazz Bakery, leading a trio that also included bassist-pianist Don Thompson and drummer Terry Clarke. His program was a mixture of standards (“Body and Soul,” “Don’t Explain”) and originals. The mood was quiet but intense, chamber jazz at its best.

Hall, Thompson and Clarke have a lengthy performing history, and the interplay among the three -- often triggered by small glances and gestures from Hall -- flowed with intuitive ease. Rhythmic pulse was usually implied rather than stated directly, with Clarke’s subtle drumming ranging from simmering brush sounds and hand-percussion effects to sudden bursts of rhythmic counterpoint.

A moody rendering of “Body and Soul” beautifully displayed Hall’s very much intact mainstream ballad skills, which characterized his early work. But other pieces revealed Hall’s diverse and probing musical imagination, eager -- in his quiet, self-possessed manner -- to explore new vistas, willing to wring a full palette of sounds from his guitar, from rich chordal clusters to dissonant sweeps across the fingerboard.

His piece “End the Beguine,” for example, was a contemporary transformation of the sort of jaunty, riff-styled pieces Hall once played with clarinetist Jimmy Giuffre. “Bent Blue” was a skewed but fascinating derivation of the blues.

“Peace,” a duet with Thompson piano, was a completely spontaneous improvisation filled with air and light. And a closing romp through “St. Thomas” (a jazz classic) offered yet another example of transformation, of finding novel ways to open up, reexamine and reconstruct a familiar piece.

Hall further entranced the capacity crowd with his witty between-song comments and anecdotes -- the perfect counterpoint to a collection of music that affirmed the continuing adventurousness of a guitar-playing original.