Jimmy Giuffre
Controversial, misunderstood, and underappreciated, Jimmy Giuffre was an unlikely candidate to break as much ground as he did in the art of free improvisation. A swing orchestra veteran, Giuffre made his name as part of the West Coast school of cool jazz, but his restless creative spirit drove him to push the boundaries of texture, dynamic shading, counterpoint, and improvisational freedom in surprisingly avant-garde ways, despite maintaining a cool, cerebral exterior.
Born in Dallas in 1921, Giuffre studied music at North Texas College and subsequently played tenor sax in an Army band; upon his discharge, he took jobs with orchestra leaders like Boyd Raeburn, Jimmy Dorsey, and Buddy Rich. In 1949, he joined up with Woody Herman, for whom he'd penned the classic composition "Four Brothers" two years earlier. He then moved to the West Coast, where he learned clarinet and baritone sax, and played with groups like Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse All-Stars and Shorty Rogers' Giants. Giuffre began leading his own sessions in 1954, with groundbreaking albums like Four Brothers and Tangents in Jazz exploring bluesy folk-jazz and third stream fusions.
In 1956, he formed the first version of the Jimmy Giuffre 3, which featured guitarist Jim Hall and bassist Ralph Pena; in 1958, the bassist was replaced by trombonist Bob Brookmeyer, resulting in the highly unorthodox-sounding albums Trav'lin' Light, Four Brothers Sound, and Western Suite, as well as a classic version of Giuffre's hit "The Train and the River" in the Newport film Jazz on a Summer's Day.
In 1961, Giuffre formed a new trio featuring pianist Paul Bley and bassist Steve Swallow; it was with this group, on the albums Fusion, Thesis, and the 1962 landmark Free Fall, that Giuffre really began to explore the subtler, more spacious side of free improvisation (mostly on clarinet). Unfortunately, the trio's music was too advanced to gain much of a reception, and they disbanded in 1962. Giuffre became an educator, and recorded off and on during the '70s; he experimented with electric instruments in the '80s, reunited his 1961-1962 trio in 1992, and continued to record for several avant-garde-oriented labels, most frequently Soul Note. In his later years Giuffre suffered from Parkinson's disease and no longer performed or recorded; he died of pneumonia in Pittsfield, Massachusetts in 2008 at the age of 86.
© Steve Huey /TiVo
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Lee Konitz Meets Jimmy Giuffre
Jazz - Released by Fresh Sound Records on 1 Jan 1959
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Life Of A Trio-Saturday (Instrumental)
Paul Bley, Jimmy Giuffre, Steve Swallow
Jazz - Released by Universal Music Division Decca Records France on 1 Jan 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tangents in Jazz (Remastered)
Jazz - Released by Avid Entertainment on 3 Nov 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Momentum, Willisau 1988 (Live)
Free Jazz & Avant-Garde - Released by hatOLOGY on 1 Jan 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Modern Jazz Quartet at Music Inn, Guest Artist: Jimmy Giuffre (Remastered)
Modern Jazz Quartet, Jimmy Giuffre
Jazz - Released by Avid Entertainment on 3 Nov 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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The Jimmy Giuffre Clarinet
Jazz - Released by Efor, S.L on 28 Feb 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Trav'lin Light
Jazz - Released by Firefly Entertainment on 11 Dec 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Music Man
Cool Jazz - Released by Rhino Atlantic on 7 Feb 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Jimmy Giuffre (Remastered)
Jazz - Released by Avid Entertainment on 4 Feb 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Herb Ellis Meets Jimmy Giuffre (Remastered)
Jazz - Released by Avid Entertainment on 7 Feb 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Four Classic Albums Plus (Jimmy Giuffre / Tangents In Jazz / The Jimmy Giuffre 3 / Historic Jazz Concert At Music Inn) (Digitally Remastered
Jazz - Released by Avid Entertainment on 28 Jul 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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The Jimmy Giuffre 3 (Remastered)
Jazz - Released by Avid Entertainment on 24 Feb 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Four Brothers Band
Pop - Released by Rhino Atlantic on 12 Feb 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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The Jimmy Giuffre 3 (Bonus Track Version)
Jazz - Released by Icon Jazz Series on 2 Aug 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Leisure Time
Jazz - Released by LST Collector Series on 22 Aug 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -