Jimmy Giuffre - R.I.P.

[stevebop]

This was on the Jazz Programmers Mailing List this morning:

I'm sorry to report that I just heard from Juanita Giuffre that Jimmy
died of pneumonia and Parkinson's today (April 24) two days before what
would have been his 87th birthday. I met them (via email) because they
listened regularly to my show and we discovered that Jimmy and I shared
our birthday, April 26. We usually exchanged cards this time of year.

He was most famous for "Four Brothers" with Woody, or with Shorty
Rogers "Martians Go Home" or the Lighthouse All Stars, but fewer are
aware of the beautiful very personal music he made in the 70's, 80's
and 90s, much of it very free but in a thoughtful, non-aggressive kind
of way. He was very important as a teacher as well, notably at the New
England Conservatory. I'm spending the evening listening to some of
Jimmy's great trio music... right now the trio with Paul Bley and Steve
Swallow "Fly Away Little Bird". I just read a beautiful article on
Jimmy written about 5 years ago by Rex Butters on allaboutjazz.com .

Jim Wilke

I was going to play a few things by Jimmy on my show tonight to celebrate his birthday.
Now I will also play, "Jimmy Giuffree, A Jazz Portrait" a half hour radio documentary I Produced about 10 years ago. It's Jimmy telling his own story, in his own voice, complemented by the music he heard and made throughout his long career.
He was still teaching at NE Conservatory at the time, coming in to Boston from West Stockbridge, MA a few days a week. I also vistied Jimmy and Juanita at their beautiful stone mill house to complete the interview when Jimmy got too ill to travel into Boston. I'll air this program tonight at 9pm, Easten Time.

Rest in Peace, Jimmy

[Paul B]

RIP Mr. Giuffre.

He was in the small pantheon of true originals.

[Brian Olewnick]

A very special musician. Thanks, Mr. Giuffre.

[Uli]

RIP, Sir!

[jaka]

A very special man, dear to my clarinet lover heart.

RIP Mr. Giuffre.

[lazarus]

He was a great musician.
Thank you for the music.

R.I.P.

[Vince Kargatis]

Wow, one of my very favorites. Still, I try to keep such announcements in perspective. 87 years is a perfectly reasonable stay.

[Monte Smith]

The man had a great sound.

[Joe Carter]

I'm very saddened to hear about this. Over the past year or so there have been several musicians who have passed away that were important to my development. Jimmy was one of them and one of those guys who I kept missing through the years. In the early 80s I had decided to get my Masters' degree at NYU, basically because Jimmy was teaching there. I was all set to pick his brain on those great trios of his with Jim Hall, Bob Brookmeyer and others. I had worn out the Lps and now I would be going to he source and get the info first hand. Well, I applied, got accepted and showed up in September, only to find that he had just left to accept the position at the New England Conservatory, Grrrr. I then decided to go up to Boston after I finished NYU but things got in the way and I never made it.

R.I.P Jimmy.

[likewise]

So sorry to hear this. One of the greats is gone.

RIP.

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

Sad news. He is one of my favorite of all jazz musicians. I love Four Brothers, his early folk/ jazz material like The Train and The River, his great pioneering trio with Bley and Swallow, and his later groups, too. He'll be greatly missed, but he leaves a lasting legacy for which I'm very appreciative.

[Gary Sisco]

A real giant and original. Very sorry to hear this but he had a great run and his music lives.

RIP, Mr Giuffre.

[Pete C]

One of my top concert experiences was the trio with Swallow & Bley, Montreal 1991. I was thrilled to find it seeded on dimeadozen recently.

[walto]

Tremendous talent. I love so much of his stuff.

[Robert de St. Loup]

Great musician. RIP

[Chris D]

He was so versatile that he never failed to surprise, and that trio was always an adventure. The Hat discs of them live are a treasure. RIP!

[willfb]

R.I.P. to a great musician and a true original. Condolences to his family and friends.

I'll be listening to "Western Suite" forever (and we are blessed that Bob Brookmeyer and Jim Hall are still with us).

[Al in NYC]

A truly wonderful, inventive and original, musician. Certainly one of my all-time favorites and someone whose work really turned my head around on the merits and pleasures of what what could be called, for want of a better term, chamber jazz. Despite the CD era reissuing of a lot of his best work, including the stuff on the Mosaic set and the great early '60s recordings with Bley & Peacock like Emphasis, Flight & Free Fall, I still think he's greatly underrated, or, if you prefer a less argued-over term, undervalued.

Here is a nice clip, I believe from the "Sound of Jazz," showing Jimmy playing several of his horns:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5B9f5GEZYA

[Jesse]

A great, inspired musician. I am in a distinct listening space when I listen to the Giuffre/Bley/Swallow trio and am grateful for that.

[Jason Bivins]

RIP, Mr. Giuffre.

[Sergio Zamora]

Rest in peace. One of the true Greats.

[bostontricky]

Giuffre was the main figure in my transformation from trumpet geek to a more musical being with interesting spanning the entire jazz spectrum and beyond. His group with Jim Hall and Ralph Pena, then Brookmeyer were groundbreaking (although slighty pre-dated by Lucky Thompson's Tricotism), but his work with Bley and Swallow went to the edge of the earth and poked around the boundaries there.

What purgatory and wastelands he must have wandered through after Free Fall until the mid-70s: I've heard or read very, very little about this time in his life.

May he find peace and tranquility as such that his music has brought to my life. RIP, Jimmy.

[Bluebrew]

Thank you for 87 years of wonderfully exciting music, originality and inspiration to others. RIP Jimmy Giuffre.

[Surfer]

Wow, what a loss. I'll have to play Jesus Maria today.

[twisted]

Very sorry to hear this, though I like Vince's perspective - "87 years is a perfectly reasonable stay."

I'll be playing something from this: on the air Sunday afternoon.

[Rob Damen]

The guy was one of my all-time favorites.

"Jesus Maria" was simply one of the greatest recordings ever.

I know I've had many disagreements with the fellas here over the years, but our love of Jimmy was one upon which we all agreed without reservation.

So sad to read.

Sadly, there's not a news report on-line of him passing yet.

[Ron Thorne]

Without question, Jimmy Giuffre was one of the most distinctive jazz voices I've ever heard. He was also inventive and adventurous in ways few others have demonstrated.

I recently acquired a wonderful documentary DVD which covers the halcyon days of The Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach, California. It was great to actually see and hear Jimmy Giuffre and many of his fellow musicians in that environment from the 50's-60's.

He left us with a phenomenal recorded musical legacy, indeed.



R.I.P., Jimmy Giuffre~

[Ron Thorne]

Watch this classic video of the Jimmy Giuffre 3 playing The Train And The River. Jimmy plays baritone saxophone, clarinet and tenor saxophone on this piece, filmed in a recording studio. The expression on Jim Hall's face when Jimmy switches from bari to clarinet is priceless!

YouTube wasn't fully loading this video for me, so I wound up watching it directly from Google. Here's the YouTube link, which I hope works for you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5B9f5GEZYA

[Bill Barton]

R.I.P.

The large font and boldface sum it up.

As others have pointed out, he was one of the true originals. He will be missed. And we all will continue to enjoy and learn from his music for many, many years to come.

[Captain Hate]

RIP to a true original.