The Mysterious Gigi

that must be a hilarious arrangement

I have been thinking a lot about Gigi Gryce lately. One the finest writers, saxophonists and arrangers of the 1950s and '60s, he walked away from jazz to teach public school for reasons that remain mysterious. I love Gigi and could listen to him all day long. There is something extremely intriguing about his playing and I could listen for a week straight (why stop at a single day?) and I'm not sure I'd be any closer to explaining just what it is about his music that pulls me in.

His recordings with Donald Byrd are essential (you can get a good set from iTunes for next to nothing!), but then again, Gigi recorded so little that anything he was involved with is a worthwhile purchase. He also recorded with some of the other finest trumpet players of the era, Art Farmer (another one of my favourites), Lee Morgan (how can you not love Lee?) and Clifford Brown (who died to young, (25), as did Lee Morgan (33) for that matter, but we don't dwell on the negative here, do we? No, let's focus on the music instead of car accidents and murder.)

Not only did he prove that glasses and sweater-vests are extremely cool, (thanks for paving the way, Gigi!) but he left behind a scattering of wonderful music that is just screaming out for someone like Mosaic Records to pull together in some multi-disc retrospective that will help ensure Gigi's lasting legacy.

sweater vests are cool

As a songwriter he wrote a few songs that have become standards including 'Minority' that has been recorded by just about everybody.

Enjoy the music my friends and perhaps you too will become enthralled by Gigi who may or may not have had his house firebombed by gangsters, would have a public school named after him and would change his name to Basheer Qusim. Intrigued? I thought so. Since I miss you so much, I will offer another musical present: Gigi and Monk playing another of his standards, 'Nica's Dream'. I look forward to hearing how much you love it.

It's Easy To Forget Jimmy Giuffre

How many times have we sat around and discussed the greats? Too often to count. Let's face it though, we talk for an awfully long time before anyone mentions Jimmy Giuffre.

Jimmy showed us clarinets can be cool

Surprising isn't it? Perhaps he was always overshadowed by other players, but he was pushing boundaries and expanding the limits of jazz and everyone that followed him benefited from his explorations. I could go on about his history, about how he was part of the whole 'cool jazz' thing and played with Mulligan and was a great arranger and that he is my favourite clarinetist of all time, (who, as you can see from the clip, can also play a fine baritone and tenor and could probably swing on every instrument ever made if he set his mind to it) but instead I'll just direct you to this great song, 'The Train and the River' with his stellar trio featuring the wonderful Jim Hall on guitar. They two were certainly like minded and recorded a lot of wonderful, highly-recommended music together.
Don't you love the recording Giuffre made with the Modern Jazz Quartet at The Music Inn? That's another essential recording isn't it? Oh yes, and the album Sonny Stitt recorded with him is also wonderful. Jimmy, I could go on and on. Let's talk about him more often, okay?