CD1
Tracks 1-10: ‘Jimmy Giuffre’
1. Four Brothers
2. Someone To Watch Over Me
3. Sultana
4. A Ring-Tail Monkey
5. Nutty Pine
6. Wrought Of Iron
7. Do It!
8. All For You
9. Iranic
10. I Only Have Eyes For You
Tracks 12-20: ‘Tangents In Jazz’
11. Scintilla I
12. Finger Snapper
13. Lazy Tones
14. Scintilla II
15. Chirpin’ Time
16. This Is My Beloved
17. The Leprechaun
18. Scintilla III
19. Rhetoric
20. Scintilla IV
Tracks 21-22: Bonus Tracks from‘The Sound
Of Jazz’
21. The Train And The River
22. Blues
CD2
Tracks 1-9: ‘The Jimmy Giuffre 3’
1. Gotta Dance
2. Two Kinds Of Blues
3. The Song Is You
4. Crazy She Calls Me
5. Voodoo
6. My All
7. That’s The Way It Is
8. Crawdad Suite
9. The Train And The River
Tracks 10-13: ‘Historic Jazz Concert At Music
Inn’
10. Blues In E-Flat
11. In A Mellotone
12. The Quiet Time
13. Body And Soul
In pop music there are plenty
of "one-hit wonders" - and the same phenomenon
occurs occasionally in jazz (as with Humphrey
Lyttelton''s Bad Penny Blues). Jimmy
Giuffre never got a recording into the pop
charts but, if you mention his name to the
average jazz fan, they would almost certainly
recognise him as the man behind The Train
and the River. The tune played by Giuffre's
trio was one of the outstanding features of
the famous 1959 film jazz on a Summer's
Day - perhaps because it captured the
relaxed, cool atmosphere of the Newport Jazz
Festival and also because it is one of the
catchiest themes in jazz music.
The tune crops up twice on
this compilation: once from the 1957 TV programme
"The Sound of Jazz" and again from the preceding
year's album The Jimmy Giuffre Three
(although sadly not the film soundtrack version).
It deserves two hearings, as it is one of
the classic "railway" compositions, a genre
which also includes such tunes as Duke Ellington's
Midnight Express and Happy-Go-Lucky
Local.
Of course, there is much
more to Jimmy Giuffre than this one composition,
although its tranquil approach is typical
of much of Giuffre's work. Admittedly he worked
for the extrovert Woody Herman Band but his
best-known composition for that ensemble -
Four Brothers - demonstrates the subtlety
that imbued much of his music. In fact he
seemed absolutely at home with the cool West
Coast scene. Despite some occasional jazzy
outbursts, he almost made understatement a
way of life.
As the title of this double
CD implies, it comprises four whole LPs from
the mid-fifties, with a couple of bonus tracks
(21 and 22 on the first CD) from the aforementioned
TV programme. Whether playing clarinet, tenor
sax or baritone sax, Giuffre seldom overdid
things, preferring a calmly economical approach
which did good by stealth instead of shouting
its qualities from the rooftops.
The first three LPs were
all by small groups playing what might best
be described as chamber jazz. The first CD
displays a persistent interest in subtle counterpoint
- mostly between Jimmy and trumpeters Jack
Sheldon or Shorty Rogers. And several tracks
- like A Ring-Tail Monkey - have the
same folky quality that distinguished The
Train and the River. The trio tracks sound
particularly slimmed-down, as guitarist Jim
Hall often stops playing during Jimmy Giuffre's
solos, leaving him accompanied only by bassist
Ralph Pena.
The final LP - Historic
Jazz Concert at Music Inn - is the odd-one-out,
capturing a 1956 concert which brought together
a deliberately diverse range of jazz musicians
playing four long tracks. Blues in E flat
puts Giuffre alongside fellow-clarinettist
Pee Wee Russell; In a Mellotone has
him on tenor sax with cornettist Rex Stewart
(a great contrast between styles!); and The
Quiet Time puts him with vibraphonist
Teddy Charles. Giuffre is not even on the
closing Body and Soul, which features
flautist Herbie Mann.
Once again, the Avid label
has put together an intriguing package at
bargain price, which is worth anyone's money.
But more than that, this collection reminds
us of Jimmy Giuffre's importance as a jazz
musician - an importance which might be overlooked
because of the reticence and subtlety of much
of his playing.
Tony Augarde
CD Reviews
Avid AMSC 948
