Jimmy Giuffre 3

There was in the 1950's a race for "new sounds" in jazz music. It probably started in 1952, with Gerry Mulligan's quartet on the West Coast, without a chordal instrument, i.e. the piano. Many others followed track, in this case Jimmy Giuffre, who recorded first with a trio without piano or drums, then with reed instruments, Bob Brookmeyer on valve trombone and Jim Hall on guitar. In the other end of the spectre, there was "hard bop", represented by Art Blakey and his Messengers, and many similar groups.These were the Easts and Wests of jazz music, and in retrospect, there are many pros and cons to both approaches to playing jazz music. There was much of "the cry of jazz" in the Blakey type of music, while Giuffre et al. had a more sophisticated, cerebral way of expressing themselves. Blakey's boys paved the way for free jazz to come (Ornette, Coltrane, etc), while the Giuffre approach somehow faded away.Listening to the Giuffre recordings today, I find them smooth, tasteful, but somehow pale. While I still get a kick from the brilliant Clifford Brown (trumpet), or the magnificent tenor playing of Hank Mobley. You can't compare whisky to sherry, but had the Giuffre way of approaching jazz been the way forwards, I would probably not have been a jazz fan today.

...with this DownBeat Magazine Jazz poll winner! Jimmy Giuffre shows himself here as a masterful composer and he is backed by other fine studio musicians (the very famous Jim Hall on electric f-hole guitar, superlative bassist Ralph Pena and, on the bonus CD set, Bob Brookmeyer on valve trombone. This is readily accessible traditional jazz that is 'deep' enough on theory to interest jazz intellectuals as well. Middle age and older persons (like myself) remember DownBeat Magazine as just about the best recorder of fine jazz journalism in America. I've come to this jazz later in life as part of revisiting what was happening that I missed. Don't miss this album. The sounds are fresh and are a wonderful mixture of 'traditional' roots and experimental influences. Jimmy Giuffre here makes jazz without a piano or drum platform and the music stands on its own. 'Show Me The Way to Go Home' begins with the tenor sax sounding as lost as any late-night imbiber. 'The Train and the River' sounds like both mediums of transport...and they were so important in our grandparents' day. 'Travelin' Light' shows that Aaron Copeland could have learned something from Jimmy Giuffre in introducing 'Western' folk rhythms to jazz treatments. This is 'Life Changing' jazz music by some of the best musicians.

old-school west coast cool... very mellow

Absolutely superb yet accessible jazz. Despite being recorded in the 1950s, the sound quality is excellent. In fact, there is an 'honesty' about recordings from those days, when no interfering computer got between the musical instruments and the listener's ear!! It is hard to believe that only 3 musicians could produce such a 'big' sound.

Item was as advertised

the beautiful sound of the classic

Nice music, just getting into jazz and I like this. Cool, California jazz kind of like Chet Baker.

Très bon cd un enregistrement a avoir dans sa collection