JIMMY GIUFFRE

Candid Recording(s):

Biography:

Jimmy Giuffre was born in Dallas on the 26th April, 1921 and grew up in Texas graduating from Texas State College in 1942. Accomplished in both tenor saxophone and clarinet, Jimmy spent time in the Army Air Force Orchestra in 1944 prior to associatiosn with the Dallas Symphony and Boyd Raeburn two years later.

Further experience with the Jimmy Dorsey band and then Buddy Rich enabmeld Jimmy to develop both his instrumental and writing skills. He went on to create the classic ‘ Four Brothers’ piece for the saxophone section (Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, Al Cohn and Serge Chaloff) of the Woody Herman Orchestra – an assingment which led to an invitation to join Woody in 1949.

The early fifties saw the flowering of the so called ‘West Coast Jazz’ movement in which Giuffre was to play an integral part after moving to Los Angeles. He was a member of the Lighthouse All Stars and then Shorty Rogers Giants, playkng and recording with many of the top players on the Coast during those halcyon days.

By 1956, Giuffre was concentrating on the clarinet and he eventually created the Jimmy Giuffre 3 with guitarist Jim Hall and bassist Ralph Pena. This was the period in which Giuffre wrote another tune for which he is best renowned – ‘The Train And The River’ – a version of which can be heard on his other CHOICE album (CHCD 71011).

From then on the clarinet dominated Giuffre’s activities although he did carry on playing both tenor and baritone saxes from time to time. His cool, improvisational ‘chamber music’ style of jazz became his trademark and became known around the world through a J.A.T.P tour and various other tours of Europe.

During his rather abstract period in the 1960s, Giuffre contributed several major new works to the jazz vocabulary. Among then were ‘Compositions for Trio and String Orchestra’ performed by the New York Chamber Orchestra and also that year, ‘Piece For Clarinet and String Orchestra.’ In 1965, his work ‘Hex’ was premiered at Carnegie Hall in New York City by Orchestra USA. Also in that year, the Giuffre Three made up with Richard Davis and Joe Chambers played an avant garde Festival at Judson Hall.

Jimmy continued to develop his talents through the ‘70s adding soprano sax and flute to all his around reedmanship. With the then current version of the Three Kiyoshi Tokunaga (bass) and Randy Kaye (percussion) Gerry MacDonald made the 1971 session ‘Night Dance’ and it’s companion CHOICE album ‘ The Train and The River’ in 1975.