Jimmy Giuffre / Paul Bley / Steve Swallow - Fly Away Little Bird

[Tanager]

Giuffre, Jimmy; Bley, Paul; Swallow, Steve. Fly Away Little Bird

Personnel:

Jimmy Giuffre - Clarinet
Steve Swallow - 5-string Electric Bass
Paul Bley - Piano

Fly Away Little Bird, originally issued on Owl in 1992 and reissued last year (2003) on Sunnyside, is a wonderful little album. I say little not to deprecate it, but rather to emphasize that the music does not announce itself - it comes and sits down next to you in unassuming fashion, bringing you company, warmth, and good cheer, much like an old friend you hadn't seen in a while.

This 1992 reunion if Giuffre's trio with Swallow and Bley produced some really remarkable music, and I apologize if it was reviewed before - I searched and didn't find a prior thread on it. All the participants are in fine and lyrical form. Swallow wears the hats of both accompanist and soloist with aplomb, and his clear-toned sound is almost guitar-like, especially when he wanders into the upper registers during his solos. I never fail to enjoy Swallow's work, and his efforts here are no exception. Bley's voice is probably the most assertive among the three, but he doesn't overplay, and Giuffre's melodicism hasn't diminished one wit.

Some tracks are solo efforts in their entirety - Bley's "Qualude" lurches along on an almost stride-like right hand figure, with Bley tossing in both extended runs and some surprising and almost bluesy chord work with his left. An ensemble highlight is the following tune, "Possibilities," which features Giuffre inserting short phrases over a pulsing rhythm laid down by Swallow and Bley - the mood of the track is insistent but never strident. I especially like the trio's cover of Vernon Duke's "I Can't Get Started," which finds the lead voice moving between the instruments without any loss of continuity or sense of disjointedness, which is, in my opinion, not as easy as it sounds in a group where every member is an equal partner. I really didn't find any glaring weak moments on the album - well, I wasn't the biggest fan of Giuffre's vocalizations on "Tumbleweed," even though I suppose he felt they helped to enhance what sounds like an effort at a Southwestern flavor, but that's a minor gripe when seen against the whole. Fans of any of the participants would likely enjoy this one, and those who haven't checked out their work before would find it a highly enjoyable place to start.

[Nate Dorward]

Might as well take this pretext to post this review--it was written for Squid's Ear but Kurt insisted on mangling a few sentences. Here's the correct version.

Paul Bley and Gary Peacock
Partners (Owl/Sunnyside)

Jimmy Giuffre, Paul Bley and Steve Swallow
Fly Away Little Bird (Owl/Sunnyside)

I never thought I’d live to say it, but Paul Bley hasn’t been releasing enough discs lately – the pianist’s usual torrent has slowed down in the last few years to a modest trickle. If he doesn’t watch out he’ll find himself slipping in the Most Documented Artist rankings, while the Steve Lacy discography marches serenely on and younger guys like Evan Parker, David Murray and Anthony Braxton surge past mercilessly. Well, meanwhile here’s a chance to dig back in the archives, courtesy Sunnyside’s reissues of the output of the French label Owl. Partners is a studio date from 18 December 1989, featuring Bley with bassist Gary Peacock. It is carefully divided between piano solos, bass solos and duos (respectively: four, six and five apiece); most pieces are freely improvised, but there is also one cover, Ornette’s “Latin Genetics.” (As is his wont, Bley immediately rerecorded the tune a few months later on Memoirs, a trio date on Soul Note with Haden and Motian.) However spontaneous, there’s no toe-in-the-water hesitancy to the improvisations as they get underway. Bley and Peacock’s opening motifs arrive fully-formed, and are launched as briskly as skiffs thrust into water. Even on tracks other than “Latin Genetics” Ornette seems a guiding spirit – his influence is audible, certainly, in the cheerful, drastic overhaul of bebop line-spinning on pieces like “Workinoot” (Peacock solo) and “Octavon” (Bley solo). Peacock plays mightily throughout; Bley is as always pensive, though even on ballads one wouldn’t exactly call him tender – how could you, when those amazingly extended righthand lines go shooting across the keyboard like tentacles? They may not be loud, but they can grip – and can squeeze hard too. When the two musicians play together it’s a treat and sometimes – the freebop of “Latin Genetics” and “Who’s Who Is It?,” the glimmerous depths of “Again Anew” – positively hairraising. Great stuff, and an A-list disc for fans of either artist.

When Bley recorded Partners it was his third consecutive day at New York’s Sound & Sound Studio; on the first two he’d been part of the reunited Jimmy Giuffre Trio, sessions released by Owl as Life of a Trio: Saturday and Sunday (both also available in Sunnyside reissues). The Giuffre/Bley/Swallow trio of 1961-62 made only three studio recordings, each more deeply estranged than the last – you could call it “outsider jazz,” especially the truly alien Free Fall of 1962. By 1989 much of what was unprecedented on those discs had been absorbed into European jazz and free improvisation; Life of a Trio lacked the original discs’ exploratory, into-the-void feel but was nonetheless a strongly played set of (mostly free) improvisations, evenly split like Free Fall and many an ECM disc between solo, duo and trio tracks. The trio later reconvened again for Fly Away Little Bird (Owl, 1992; now reissued on Sunnyside) and Conversations with a Goose (Soul Note, 1996). Fly Away Little Bird is unusual for emphasizing composed material: five standards (including “Goodbye,” which they recorded for the 1961 LP Thesis) and originals by Giuffre and his wife Juanita. Giuffre’s one solo feature, “Tumbleweed,” is downright odd: a mix of squiggly Free Fall clarinet, cracked vocals of on-the-brink unintelligibility, and boppish changes-running. Eventually he shouts that he’s “between horns!,” then grabs his soprano sax for a lovely coda. Nearly as odd is the trio reading of “All the Things You Are”: Bley, who often reins himself in elsewhere on the disc, is here so forceful he virtually sidelines Giuffre, even brusquely ignoring Giuffre’s cue for the head near the start. The album’s standout tracks are “Fly Away Little Bird,” which wrings an extraordinary tremulous climax from the simplest and purest of materials; Juanita Giuffre’s “Possibilities,” which opens so polymorphously it could lead anywhere but turns out to be a sneaky, undulating blues; the beautifully sustained and various collective improvisation “Bats in the Belfry” (its last episode as fingerpopping as this trio has ever got); and Bley’s two solo pieces. At 76 minutes the disc could have stood some pruning, but there’s a wonderful 45-minute LP buried in here somewhere.

As it happens I'm listening at the moment to Emphasis & Flight, 1961, the Hatology reissue: it's a truly remarkable pair of sessions, with Bley in intriguingly jittery form on the first date. I don't really like the later reconvened version of the trio in the 1980s/1990s nearly as much but it's still well worth hearing.

[Capt. W./TX.]

I got this one not long ago from the Sunnyside website.

I liked it, although Giuffre sounded better overall on the "Life Of a Trio/Saturday & Sunday" sessions. I heard this trio live at the old Sweet Basil in NYC in the Fall of '93-they were better that night than here. Giuffre's playing on clarinet sound a little rough in spots to me-not nearly as strong and assertive as the 60's Verve sessions (which I love!) or the Owl sessions.

But, with this trio, I would be a completist in acquiring all their recorded output-they were that good!

[Tom Storer]

Great review, Nate. You could teach a trick or two to the esteemed jazz correspondents of the New York Times.

Loved this sentence: "Bley and Peacock’s opening motifs arrive fully-formed, and are launched as briskly as skiffs thrust into water."

[mke]

Originally posted by Tom Storer
Great review, Nate. You could teach a trick or two to the esteemed jazz correspondents of the New York Times.

Why does everyone hate Ratliff so much?

[stonemonkts]

Originally posted by mke
Why does everyone hate Ratliff so much?

I concur with the others. Great reviews, Nate.

Regarding Ratliff, I think he is a bit too enamored of young lion-ish jazz, and a tad short on appreciating more out/free styles. I don't hate him, but on the other hand I find his reviews to be narrow-minded and pedestrian. I could say the same for many other culture critics of the NYT too.

I love the newspaper but have always viewed this area as a weakness. Just my opinion, WTHDIK.

[Nate Dorward]

Thanks for the kind words on the piece (& you can see why I was annoyed that this particular piece got mangled in the original web appearance...). Though actually I think Ben Ratliff's pretty good. He has that slightly over-judicious, noncontroversial tone that I've learned to recognize in many jazz reviewers who are in a prominent publication, are generalists, know a hell of a lot & may have strong opinions, but have to not look like they're strongly taking sides (others I have in mind would be Yanow, Broomer or The Globe & Mail's Mark Miller). I don't mind that. He's certainly shown sympathy to the avantgarde fairly regularly in his column, & I wouldn't want him to be ignoring the young lions either (& he usually picks the most interesting ones: Mark Turner, Ethan Iverson, & Jason Moran for instance) or for that matter other areas of the music.

Incidentally one thing I'd noticed recently: the importance of flight & birds to Giuffre, as a kind of gentle metaphor for this trio's music. This starts on the early piece "Flight", which gets a notable reading on the live date of that title from Germany (introduced, if memory serves, as "an impressionistic kind of tone poem"--indeed it's got some Messiaenish echoes of birdsong). But note: (1) the seagulls on the Life of a Trio discs; (2) the owl on Fly Away Little Bird; (3) then the title: Conversations with a Goose.

[Paul B]

Just got this, and have only given it one listen. As with everything this trio put out, it is marvelous testament to interplay (both between musicians and between the written and improvised line). Still, it's evident that Giuffre was loosing steam, and a nice as this record is--I think Tanager's notion of "unassuming" is on the mark--it doesn't have the ember-like heat of "Life of a Trio," much less the more full-blown flames of the 60s trio recordings. Giuffre's soprano playing sounds a little hollow, or maybe wooden, though he still plays with a warmth that few players of the straight horn achieve; his clarinet playing seems a little stronger. As for his vocals, well, they would have been better left off, but they certainly don't mar the overall effort.

I plan to spin this many more times in the coming days. I never tire of this group, one of the truly creative and (dare I say) innovative groups in jazz.

Bye-ya.

[Jon Abbey]

I haven't heard this one, but I sold my copies of the two Life of a Trio discs, they didn't do much for me.

the early sixties incarnation of this band, though (Thesis/Fusion/Freefall/Emphasis/Flight), is one of a handful of my very favorite jazz music, pretty much as essential as this genre gets to my ears. I'd still like to hear the vinyl versions of Thesis and Fusion sometime to see what ECM did to them on reissue, but I haven't really made it a priority to seek them out for some reason.

[Paul B]

I agree that those five early records beat anything they did later on, though I still think there's plenty of interest in the "Life of a Trio" discs. I have "Free Fall" on vinyl, but sadly not "Fusion" or "Thesis."

Bye-ya

[Jon Abbey]

shrugs has them, and he wrote here a few years ago that ECM decidedly ECM-ized them for reissue.

[clarke68]

Good call, Tanager, this is a great album.

I'm a bit of a bass nut, so my favorite tracks are Fits and Starts (the two Steve Swallow solo pieces) and Bats in the Belfry, especially when Bley starts plumbing the depths of his Bosendorfer in that staccato part around 2/3 of the way through.

Swallow's tone is always unique and beautiful. The recording quality of this one is excellent, I love being able to hear ever nuance and detail in his playing.

[Xavier]

This is a bit of a detour but how do you pronounce Giuffre? Is it Guff-ree? He's likely in that category of musicians/writers etc. that I butcher their names with my guessing. Thanks.

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

Jew-Free

[Xavier]

Now, maybe, his ghost has one less reason to be restless. I haven't heard this particular recording but I'm gonna track it down.

[Nate Dorward]

His ghost?

[BFrank]

I haven't heard this particular recording but I'm gonna track it down.

eMusic has it available for download if you're interested in MP3s.

[frankiepop]

Jew-Free

i guess we won't be finding any of jimmy's reissues on zorn's tzadik label anytime soon.


i hope some might discuss and explore his pre-free jazz material as well as his transformations in the 70s and 80s. few artists have made creative changes as well as giuffre has within his career. giuffre is a lot more than a mere 3 or 4 recordings with a trio as those know who heard harvard's retrospective on him a couple yrs ago.

[Paul B]

I don't think anybody would argue with that; Giuffre's other music has been discussed on this board and is, I think, widely admired. But you are right to point out that he had an amazing career long before he changed courses with those trio dates. As we speak I'm playing the "Konitz and Evans Play Giuffre," some fabulous large-ensemble dates with Warne Marsh on many cuts in addition to, of course, Giuffre. (I believe it's a reissue of some old Verve sides). Fabulous stuff. Mr. Giuffre will always be one of my favorite musicians.

Bye-ya

[stonemonkts]

Some great early Giuffre was his work with Bob Brookmeyer (Traditionalism Revisited, e.g.) and of course his trio with Jim Hall (Easy Way is a good example).

[Xavier]

His ghost?

Yeah, his ghost showed up in a dream: "If you're gonna talk about me, damnit, at least get my name right."

[Jon Abbey]

Nate's point was that he's still alive.

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

Are you sure he's dead?

[mke]

Is "The Easy Way" significantly better than "Western Suite" and "Travellin' Light"?

[Xavier]

Are you sure he's dead?

No. I guess I stupidly assumed that with my silly statement - or it wasn't a ghost and he's really pissed. After this fiasco he ought to be. I just wandered around some websites and there's only birth years. All the Giuffree CDs I have are from before 1992 - that's going on 15 years. I do hope he's alright but it makes me wonder in all my ignorance. I do have a lot of his recordings, including the Mosaic box, and have enjoyed and admired his music for years.

[Paul B]

Giuffre is still alive and, I believe, lives with his wife in Western Massachusetts. He hasn't made a record in well over a decade; the last would, I think, be either the one that is the subject of this thread or his duo album with Jaume on Hatology. From what I understand, he suffers from Alzheimer's, and I assume his days as an active musician are long over.

Bye-ya

[Jon Abbey]

Parkinson's, not Alzheimer's.

I told Ben Ratliff last night that he should try to include him in his series in the Times where he plays records for legendary musicians and writes about their reactions. he said he'd love to, but it unfortunately needs to be tied to current events, shows or a new record or even an exciting reissue, so it's not looking good for Giuffre in that series, sadly.

[Gary Sisco]

Parkinson's is probably a worse hell for a musician than Alzheimer's. I had a favorite professor who had it and died from it. It didn't look like a good thing for anyone who needs to use his hands. My prof used to habitually hold one of his arms against his chest all the time, because if he didn't, his arm would of its own accord start shakily reaching out and moving around in front of him. Must be hell on a player. I'm sorry to hear about that.

[Jon Abbey]

Loren Connors has actually had it for at least ten years and managed to deal pretty well, but it obviously affects different people differently.

[Gary Sisco]

Listened to this one last night, downloaded off of emusic. Very nice.