Now, A Jazz Moment...

MUSIC: "Prelude to a Kiss" CD: Alone Together, Milestone OJCCD-467-2 (M-9045) (cut 7)

NEA Jazz Masters Ron Carter And Jim Hall have explored at length the unusual pairing of bass and guitar. Ron Rarter points out some of the obstacles they face...

Ron Carter: The challenge is to make the instruments physically sound different .

Jim has got such a personal sound, such a wide ranging sound, one of my jobs has been to see if I could get the bass to sound independent of Jim so it would not sound like a 7-string guitar. Not the notes or the rhythm, just the sound of the instrument. One of the other things playing with Jim is that he's got such a broad harmonic sense, the trick is to find out how he gets to this point and how he resolves it while you're still playing with him. And it's fun to figure out those kinds of harmonic puzzles.

MUSIC: same - up and fades

This Jazz Moment with bassist Ron Carter was created by the National Endowment for the Arts