[Dixielandjazz] Jimmy Giuffre - RIP

[Stan Brager]

The Los Angeles Times today printed the obituary of eclectic reedman and
composer Jimmy Giuffre. I remember hearing that Giuffre decided that his low
register (chalumeau) tone needed some work. For the next year, he played
only in that register. In addition to his composition "Four Brothers" for
four reeds, Jimmy also wrote a "sequel" for Woody Herman's trumpet section
called "Four Others". One of my favorite Giuffre recordings is "Trav'lin'
Light" with Bob Brookmeyer and Jim Hall. I also admired his collaboration
with Pee Wee Russell on the "The Sound of Jazz".

Stan
Stan Brager
...............
Jimmy Giuffre, 86; Musician played in big bands, minimalist trios
Giuffre's 1947 composition 'Four Brothers' established his visibility as one
of the important figures on the then-emerging West Coast jazz scene.
By Don Heckman
Special to The Times

April 28, 2008

Jimmy Giuffre, the saxophonist, clarinetist, arranger and composer whose
work encompassed a range including big band scoring, cool West Coast jazz,
minimalist trios and free improvisation, died Thursday in Pittsfield, Mass.
He was 86.

The cause of death, according to his wife, Juanita, was pneumonia, a
complication of his lengthy battle with Parkinson's disease.

Giuffre's 1947 composition, "Four Brothers," which featured a saxophone
section consisting of the then-unusual combination of three tenor saxophones
and a baritone saxophone, created the signature sound of the Woody Herman
band and established his visibility as one of the important figures on the
then-emerging West Coast jazz scene.

Although he was initially known in the early '50s as a tenor saxophonist who
occasionally doubled on baritone saxophone with the Lighthouse All-Stars and
Shorty Rogers' Giants, it was Giuffre's mid-decade clarinet playing that
attracted the greatest attention. Concentrating on its warm-toned chalumeau
register, some critics complained that he declined to explore the full span
of the instrument. But the style, with its intimate timbre and Lester
Young-inspired phrasing, was well-suited for the folk-jazz qualities of the
Giuffre trio, which was featured in the 1957 television special "The Sound
of Jazz," playing "The Train and the River."

Looking back, Giuffre told the Boston Herald in 1992, "I got tired of
loudness. I never got to hear my sound. Or anyone else's sound."

That trio, and others that followed, served as important vehicles for
Giuffre's ever-probing musical imagination. In search of a rhythmic and
metric flexibility that was difficult to obtain in the pulse-driven rhythm
teams of the '50s, his first trio omitted the drums, combining his clarinet
with the guitar of Jim Hall and the bass of Ralph Pena. In the best-known
expression of that particular trio concept, Pena's bass was replaced by the
valve trombone playing of Bob Brookmeyer, further enhancing the contrapuntal
qualities that were essential elements in Giuffre's musical perspective.

In 1961, stimulated by the dynamic approaches to improvisation advanced by
Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor and others, Giuffre organized a new trio with
pianist Paul Bley and bassist Steve Swallow. Making liberal use of floating
rhythms, free improvisation and unusual timbral effects, fully responsive to
the presence of aleatoric and chance improvisational techniques in the
concert music of the time, the Giuffre trio's early '60s recordings --
"1961" and "Free Fall" -- explored a jazz territory unlimited by any of the
traditional boundaries.

"My goals -- complete freedom and expressiveness -- put great stress on each
player," Giuffre told Down Beat magazine. "We have to listen very closely to
each other, much more so than in other types of units."

Although groups led by Coleman, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus
and others received greater recognition at the time, the
Giuffre-Bley-Swallow combination can be seen, in retrospect, as one of the
vital transitional units of the '60s.

Giuffre, Bley and Swallow got back together in 1990 to record the highly
praised double album "Life of a Trio," nearly three decades after they had
last played together.

Other versions of the trio followed, including a mid-'60s incarnation that
included pianist Don Friedman and bassist Barre Phillips that appears to
have produced no recordings. Giuffre was also busy as a composer, writing
works for classical ensembles, and teaming up with dancer Jean Erdman to
compose and perform in a work titled "The Castle."

He took a decade-long hiatus from recording after the release of "Free Fall"
in 1962, but led several ensembles in the '70s and '80s, sometimes reaching
back to his bebop roots, sometimes revisiting the trio format (in one case
adding world music elements to the mix). And he provided music for "Sighet,
Sighet," an Elie Wiesel documentary and "Smiles," a short film by John
Avildsen.

Giuffre had a parallel teaching career from the late '50s, when he joined
musicians such as John Lewis, George Russell, Dizzy Gillespie, Gunther
Schuller and others on the staff of the annual summer sessions of the School
of Jazz in Lenox, Mass. He then taught at Rutgers University in New Jersey,
New York University and began a lengthy stint at the New England
Conservatory in 1978.

Giuffre's last appearance in Los Angeles in 1994 -- a duet set with Bley --
was a courageous effort, but he was clearly impacted by the effects of
Parkinson's disease. He made few public playing appearances after that time.

Born April 26, 1921, in Dallas, he attended North Texas State Teacher's
College, graduating in 1942 with a bachelor of music degree. He also studied
composition with Wesley LaViolette. After serving four years in the army, he
played with the Herman band, as well as the Boyd Raeburn, Jimmy Dorsey and
Buddy Rich ensembles. Giuffre lived in Los Angeles and New York in the '50s
and '60s before settling down in the late '70s in a converted New England
stone-polishing mill.

His wife, whom he married in 1961, is his sole survivor.