I was crossing 5th avenue at 12th street the other day when I noticed an old man walking his dog very slowly, hunched over quite a bit. As I got closer, I noticed that that man was jazz guitar great Jim Hall.
He was stopped for a moment, so I walked over and said hey. We ended up talking for quite a while and were having a nice conversation (he introduced my to his dog, Django), joking around a bit. He asked me if I'd like to see something funny.
We were standing very near to the New School University's Jazz Building and we saw a student with a bass coming towards us.
Jim looked at me and said, "I've had spine troubles recently - people don't really recognize me anymore."
He laughed, went up to the bass player and asked, "Excuse me - Is that a walking bass?"
The kid gave him a dirty look and continued on his way. Jim looked at me and we both started laughing. Through his laughter, he said, "I always do that. I think it's pretty funny. They just think I'm the dirty old man now, haha."
He was such a pleasant guy and it was such a joy to spend a few moments with him, one of my heroes.
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