MulesRasch

Jazz great Jimmy Giuffre passed away on Thursday (read New York Times article). He would have been 87 today. 

Prolific on many instruments, he will mostly be remembered for his clarinet playing and his role as one of Woody Herman's "Four Brothers" on tenor. Based on Giuffre composition of the same name which featured a new configuration within the big band. The piece was set with the an alto (played by Sam Marowitz), three tenors (Stan Getz, Zoot Sims and Herb Steward) and a baritone sax (Serge Chaloff). The emphasis of this particular piece, especially with these particular players, featured the three tenors, influenced by the Lester Young school of playing. The alternation between the individual soloists and the relaxed, free flowing, non vibrato playing gave this piece a special coloration which enthused Herman and became a trademark of his ensemble.

Here's a great clip which shows Giuffre's proficiency on multiple instruments as he moves from baritone sax to clarinet to tenor sax in a trio setting of "The Train and the River". This also highlights another of Giuffre's contribution to jazz history, the drumless trio. As Ben Ratliff explains: 

"His album “Tangents in Jazz” (1955) did away with chordal instruments like piano or guitar two years before Sonny Rollins famously did so; his trios from 1956 to 1961 were without a drummer, prefiguring the quieter, classical-timbred music of vanguardist jazz circles in the 1980s."  [New York Times, April 26, 2008]

Here is an interesting interview with Irish composer Greg Caffrey. 

You can hear some more of this interview, including excerpts of some of Caffrey's music which includes a couple of saxophone piece: Honk! and Pluck, Blow, at this site: 

An Interview with Greg Caffrey at the Contemporary Music Center Ireland. 

You'll find two audio files for over 25 minutes of the interview as well as a transcript of it.

After yesterday's Tenor Nostalgia, here is some Tenor Sadness as I hear about two excellent tenor players who have just passed away. 

Monday, April 7th saw Phil Urso, 82, passed away in Denver where he settled in the 1960s after having been part of the West Coast scene for a number of years, most notably with Chet Baker and his groups. 

Here are some interesting tributes about Urso and his legacy. 

Saxophonist Phil Urso RIP by David at the WFIU blog from NPR at Indiana Universuty and Remembering Phil Urso (1925-2008).by Ted Gioia at jazz.com. The last site includes a youtube file of a Chet Baker big band recording.

Earlier this week, on Sunday, Donald Walden, an influential tenor player in Detroit died after his battle with cancer. He was 69. He taught at the Michigan State University, Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio, and eventually found his way to the University of Michigan.

You can read the obit from the Detroit Free Press here. 

Mark Stryker notes that "Walden followed his friends to New York in 1960, where he played with Grant Green, Joe Chambers, Booker Ervin and Sun Ra, but he returned home in 1966 for more opportunities to work. He played in Aretha Franklin's band for five years and toured widely with Stevie Wonder, the Temptations and Four Tops. He played jazz, too, of course, and eventually found security as a teacher."

I was recently pointed to a web site about an early pioneer of the saxophone: Ali Ben Sou Alle. 

Interesting figure who was active in the 1850-1860's. Born Charles-Valentin Soualle, he received a first prize in Clarinet at the Paris Conservatory in 1844. After the 1848 Revolution, he found himself exiled to England where he took up the saxophone. He added the single octave key mechanism (the modern system which still exists today). He became known as a virtuoso of the instrument and travelled world wide introducing the sax to Australia, New Zealand, Java, China and India. He finally settled in Mysore, becoming the director of the Royal Music for the Maharadjah. That is where he converted to Islam and changed his name to Ali Ben Sou Alle. 

Around 1860, Soualle returned to France.

Thanks to Paul Wehage for his research and his work uncovering and publishing the works of this intriguing personality. 

You can find some of Ali Ben Sou Alle's music published by Musik Fabrik as well as a longer biographical sketch at this link: http://www.classicalmusicnow.com/absa.htm#French.