Artist: Jimmy Giuffre
Album: Tangents In Jazz
Genre: Cool Jazz
Label: Documents
Released: 1956/2005
Quality: FLAC (tracks+.cue)
Tracklist:
1. Scintilla 1 - 0:58
2. Finger Snapper - 2:38
3. Lazy Tones - 4:14
4. Scintilla 2 - 2:31
5. Chirpin' Time - 5:52
6. This Is My Beloved - 3:33
7. The Leprechaun - 6:39
8. Scintilla 3 - 1:41
9. Rhetoric - 3:29
10. Scintilla 4 - 2:55
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Excellent cool jazz, elevated by clever compositions
This 1954 album is an early example of a group with no chordal instrument. Besides Guiffre (who plays bari and tenor saxes and clarinet) the band includes Jack Sheldon on trumpet, Ralph Pena on bass, and Artie Anton on drums.
Right off the bat this group reminds me heavily of the classic Gerry Mulligan Quartet. Admittedly, it'd be hard not to with the instrumentation, however the first two tunes have Guiffre on bari sax, and are rich with cool-jazz style counterpoint between the two horns. The laid-back swing and interplay of the two horns just helps underscore the cool-school feel. For the aptly-named "Lazy Tones," Guiffre picks up his clarinet for gently moving ballad of long tones passed around the instruments.
"Scintilla II" has a bit more of a boppish feel, though it keeps the tight counterpoint between the horns. The sparseness of the drumming adds an interesting element to the music. Often Anton just fills in with quick rhythmic answers to the phrases of the horns. At times, the drums become less of a rhythmic voice and more of a melodic one. Several times throughout the record he plays excellent imitations on the drumset of melodic phrases the honrs just played. At times its hard to tell where the composition ends and the improvisation begins. Several of the tunes ("This is my Beloved," "Scintilla I") appear to be through-composed.
Despite the group's similarities to the Gerry Mulligan Quartet, their mastery of the style and obvious attention to detail in composition gives the music a highly unique sound. At times the counterpoint sounds almost Baroque. For example, "The Leperchaun" is a playful tune that passes melodies around between the trumpet, tenor, and bass. Throughout the album, the music remains very sparse, but Guiffre's use of different woodwind instruments makes for texture changes in the music and keep it from becoming too homogenous. "Scintilla III" is one of the more energetic tracks and is a standout with a high level of interplay.
This is cool jazz that is quite above average. Gerry Mulligan's classic group (which preceded this recording by several years) had a similar instrumentation and approach to music but I think this music definitely matches and possibly surpasses the music made by the Mulligan quartet. Guiffre's music is more thoughtfully composed and places less emphasis on swing and blues (though these elements are certainly not absent by any means.) Both the composition and improvisation show considerable talent and attention to detail. Best of all, the group does it all with a laid-back, West Coast, cool attitude. Highly recommended.
Review by jazzthreadguy