jimmy guiffre 3 - freefall

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strange and beguiling record this. what you say?

― bob zemko (bob), Tuesday, 8 October 2002 12:19 (twenty-three years ago)

spaz. giuffre

― bob zemko (bob), Tuesday, 8 October 2002 12:29 (twenty-three years ago)

Genius, but certainly not for the uninitiated. Which is not an attempt to get all jazz snob, just an acknowledgment that some of this music can be considered "difficult," and benefits from context. An "easier" Giuffre piece to begin with is "The Train and the River," which has the same chamber jazz feel but is not as demanding.

TMFTML
http://intonation.blogspot.com

― TMFTML (TMFTML), Tuesday, 8 October 2002 13:11 (twenty-three years ago)

I can never remember how to spell it either. I found it a bit too sterile or something, but it's no surprise, really, that I wouldn't like it. "Interesting" though.

― Rockist Scientist, Tuesday, 8 October 2002 13:13 (twenty-three years ago)

I am the uninitiated listener.

― Rockist Scientist, Tuesday, 8 October 2002 13:20 (twenty-three years ago)

i think we might have talked about this one on a "soft improv" thread a while back...or, i did anyway. yeah, it's a very, very special record. i haven't really been listening to much jazz in the last few months, but i remember really being obsessed with this for a while.

― jess (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, 8 October 2002 14:21 (twenty-three years ago)

"In the morning out there" also v beautiful/accessible Guiffre.

― ArfArf, Tuesday, 8 October 2002 15:49 (twenty-three years ago)

The two previous albs that the trio made, 'Thesis' and 'Fusion', are only slightly more 'conventional' than 'Freefall', and v. v. nearly as gd. They've been reissued by ECM as a dbl CD.

― Andrew L (Andrew L), Tuesday, 8 October 2002 16:28 (twenty-three years ago)

mmm. sterile perhaps yes, but i bought this at the same time as larry young's "lawrence of newark" and as much as i was always gonna prefer the awesome spacey skronk-out so what? free fall has the intrigue. i don't think i have to like it before loving it.

(partly why amerie's "why don't we..." is the single of the year)

― bob zemko (bob), Tuesday, 8 October 2002 17:34 (twenty-three years ago)

I have Music For People, Birds, Butterflies And Mosquitoes (Choice 1001, 1972) on vinyl (though it might be a later reissue), but no turn-table. I wish they would reissue this on CD, even though I am mostly after one track. There is a track with prominent flute playing which is quite gorgeous (my adjective of the week). "Blue Genesis" a (mostly) free jazz show I used to listen to late at night on WXPN used to play this in the background during the concert announcements, but they had it looped so that it would just keep going. That's how I was exposed to it.

― Rockist Scientist, Wednesday, 9 October 2002 01:02 (twenty-three years ago)

one year passes...

so i re-bought this today and i was trying to figure out what the hell i loved about it so much back in the day. it sounds like early 20th centurty classical to me now.

― fiddo centington (dubplatestyle), Sunday, 30 November 2003 02:06 (twenty-one years ago)

maybe it always did.

― fiddo centington (dubplatestyle), Sunday, 30 November 2003 02:06 (twenty-one years ago)

"it sounds like 20th century classical" is not necessarily a diss but i was expecting something "flowing and lyrical" from memory and this sounds kind of cranky and hermetic.

― fiddo centington (dubplatestyle), Sunday, 30 November 2003 02:13 (twenty-one years ago)

hmm...listening to it now. the "modern classical" thing...maybe his tone? (giuffre's that is.)

i wish there were more duo's and trio's on this record.

― fiddo centington (dubplatestyle), Sunday, 30 November 2003 02:20 (twenty-one years ago)

my copy has a weird booklet. like the printers accidently bound a few pages from some 90's jap pop band in there.

― gaz (gaz), Sunday, 30 November 2003 06:00 (twenty-one years ago)

does that make it worth something?

(and yeah, i remember wishing for more group interplay when i bought it)

― gaz (gaz), Sunday, 30 November 2003 06:09 (twenty-one years ago)

i think there's an interview somewhere here where Evan Parker relates his affection for this album, and reveals it was something of an inspiration for him.
and i listen to Giuffre cheafly, with the band almost seemingly performing duties on dissonance for this session. It's still funky when the band are there though.

It reminds me of a lot of the possibilities that Evan Parker went on to explore most interestingly. So i wish Giuffre was faster more often, but i think he really delivers despite the slightly formal presentation. I wish they'd given him an orchestra. Evan Parker has delivered on a lot of the musical angles that the Giuffre music merely suggested in the first place.

Giuffre's playing is very good. This bizarre set of noises elegantly and perfectly executed as the right notes.

― george gosset (gegoss), Thursday, 4 December 2003 17:31 (twenty-one years ago)

the cd reissue, with its painfully prominent bleed-through, seems to unintentionally anticipates Anton Bruhin's tape-head experiments too. i do wish there was more duo and trio interplay for this style, but i absolutely adore the somewhat recent _The Easy Way_ reissue, which is deceptively inside and easy.

― Beta (abeta), Thursday, 4 December 2003 18:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, this one is one of my all-time faves in any genre. I've just always loved music that makes great use of space, that allows you to hear tone choices bouncing off each other, and the lack of a drummer really opens things up nicely. I think that's where a lot of the "chamber music" and neo-classical comparisons come in. Man, no one really played clarinet like Giuffre; especially at the time this thing was recorded, incorporating split tones and so forth. That I can think of anyway.

Just playing the unaccompanied solos was pretty damn radical in itself! And thankfully the cd reissue restores the opening "Propulsion" to its full recorded length. This record was also a big favorite of Braxton's, and you can hear a shared sensibility. One wonders how much he was inspired to record For Alto by Free Fall's example.

I've never noticed the thing about the bleed-through. Hmmm... I guess I've never listened to the thing on headphones either, though. Might give it a closer listen that way and see what I pick up.

The two Hat-Art discs of live material by this group, Flight and Emphasis 1961, are well-worth checking out as well...

― Broheems (diamond), Thursday, 4 December 2003 19:26 (twenty-one years ago)

I'll get this.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Thursday, 4 December 2003 23:29 (twenty-one years ago)

yes, julio, let me know what you think.

― fiddo centington (dubplatestyle), Thursday, 4 December 2003 23:37 (twenty-one years ago)

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