This jewel of a little album features the improvisations of two of the finest instrumentalists in America: Guitarist Jim Hall, considered by his peers to be one of the most important jazz guitarists playing, has spent a career honing the precision of his craft down to a cutting edge. And while making precious few albums of his own—this is only the fourth in a 20-year span—he has served admirably as sideman and collaborator, and also as a translator of music from one idiom into another. Returning to New York from Brazil in 1960 for a Sonny Rollins session, he explained some Brazilian rhythms to Rollins' drummer and the result was the first bossa record recorded by North American musicians. In the Sixties he and pianist Bill Evans made several important sides together, the best known is the contemplative, ethereal Undercurrents (which recently was reissued by United Artists). But all that exists of Hall on his own ground is a bizarre 1957 World Pacific side made with Carl Perkins, a 1969 Berlin concert date on MPS, and a Milestone release from last year, Where Would I Be, on which Hall shines in front of a group including Airto Moreira, Benny Aronov and Malcolm Cecil.

And now we have the Hall/Carter duo, recorded live at a New York lounge earlier this year. The meeting of Hall and Ron Carter, for several years bassist with the Miles Davis Quintet of the Sixties and these days about the hardestworking session bassist in the Apple, is an exercise in comparative musical temperament. Hall is the theatrical, dramatic and fleet interpreter, while Carter is the epitome of a relaxed and profound attack. Between the two of them they can take a hokey and weather-beaten tune like "I'll Remember April" and transform it into a hushed and elegant little suite for guitar and bass. A Sonny Rollins' classic, "St. Thomas," is gently amplified with the softest imaginable chording by Hall while Carter counterpoints with hallucinatory deftness. Hall's "Alone Together" gives Carter a chance to develop themes on the line of the song with almost the same ease and dexterity of his collaborator on guitar. And try "Whose Blues," a famous Hall tune on which the pair explode with emotion and almost pristine accuracy. And Ron Carter is sooo cool.

Every once in a while a guitar record comes out that every guitar player must eventually hear. The second, acoustic side of My Goal's Beyond made John McLaughlin for me long before I heard his electric screams. And recently a 12-stringer named Peter Lang started burning up the grooves on a new Takoma album called The Thing at the Nursery Room Window. And check out Alone Together and see if Hall and Carter don't turn you around, settle you down and give you a little snort for your ears. Might be surprised. (RS 139)

STEPHEN DAVIS