Dave Douglas quoted in New York Times piece on Jimmy Giuffre
Booed in the ’60s, but Time Will Tell: Jimmy Giuffre’s Music Finds New Appreciation
By Nate Chinen
A rigorous composer, clarinetist and tenor saxophonist, Jimmy Giuffre made a conscientious break from the jazz mainstream in the 1960s; by today’s standards, his music sounds quite modern.
It’s anyone’s guess what Jimmy Giuffre was thinking when he improvised the stark, intriguing solo clarinet pieces intended for his 1962 Columbia album, “Free Fall.” Along with the five that made the cut, there were five others that saw the light of day some 35 years later, as bonus tracks on an overdue reissue. Small gems of oblique investigation, they bear titles that seem to hint at Giuffre’s state of mind; among them is one with a lonesome air, played in shadowy subtones, that he called “Time Will Tell.”
That would have made a decent mantra for Mr. Giuffre (pronounced JOO-free), who died in 2008, of complications of Parkinson’s disease. A rigorous composer, clarinetist and tenor saxophonist, he’d had a few tastes of critical and commercial success before “Free Fall,” which also features the bassist Steve Swallow and the pianist Paul Bley, and belongs to the small category of jazz recordings that truly were ahead of their time. Its dismal reception cost Giuffre his recording contract and his momentum: He didn’t make another album for a decade, missing the peak years of the ’60s avant-garde.
“The Jimmy Giuffre 3 & 4: New York Concerts” (Elemental), due out on Tuesday, is a startling dispatch from that season in exile. Comprising a pair of previously uncirculated live recordings from 1965, it illuminates a murky period in Giuffre’s career. Atypically for him, both sessions feature a drummer, the superbly alert Joe Chambers, who brings a firm rhythmic push without muddying the music’s intent. “They sound great together, just so natural and flowing,” said the trumpeter and composer Dave Douglas. “If they had made a Blue Note record, it would be considered one of the big classics of the period.”
The urge is almost irresistible, when discussing Giuffre, to dwell on what might have been. But the new release also encourages some thoughts of what might yet be. It happens to arrive at a moment of growing admiration for Giuffre among current jazz musicians drawn to his chamberlike counterpoint and thoughtfully abstracted form.
Read the whole article here.
Dave Douglas to appear in Red Bull Music Academy's Night of Improvised Round Robin Duets!
Dave Douglas to release "Present Joys" on July 22
Longtime Collaborators Dave Douglas and Uri Caine, Record First Duo Album, Present Joys, A Special Collection of Songs, Hymns & Improvisations Inspired by The Sacred Harp & The Shape Note Tradition
The tradition of shape-note singing has been passed down for centuries in tunebooks like The Sacred Harp and Ye Olde New England Psalm-Tunes, allowing groups of untrained and unrehearsed singers to participate in gorgeous four-part harmonies. A uniquely American art form that’s deceptively simple, emotionally moving, and profoundly communal; it’s no wonder these songs were so attractive as the source for a duo project by longtime friends and collaborators Dave Douglas and Uri Caine.
Present Joys, due to be released July 22, 2014 on Greenleaf Music, brings Douglas and Caine together for an intimate but exploratory outing inspired by the Sacred Harp tradition. The pair take on five pieces from shape-note tunebooks as well as several new Douglas compositions undertaken in the same vein. These ten pieces engage Douglas’ trumpet and Caine’s piano in a captivating conversation full of memorable melodies and intricate digressions.
“I’ve always loved the Sacred Harp songs and started thinking about how to do them in the wake of Be Still,” Douglas says, referring to the acclaimed 2012 debut of his new quintet comprising traditional hymns and folk tunes. “But with me, music is always about personalities and I love playing with Uri. He has his hands in so many different kinds of music that he’s really flexible and able to go in a lot of different directions given different kinds of material. I knew that he would get right into it.”
“The recordings of this music are inspiring because they are full of devotion, feeling and the joy of communal music making,” says Caine. “These songs are moving in their simplicity and it is always fun to play together with Dave and to explore new repertoire and musical possibilities.”
Douglas initially discovered shape-note singing in the late 1980s while touring with the Bread and Puppet Theater, the venerable socially-oriented puppet theater company. (That connection is revived on Present Joys in the vivid Masonite-cut artwork that graces the booklet, created by Bread and Puppet founder Peter Schumann.) But it was the process of dealing with the folk melodies of Be Still, many of them chosen by his mother to be played at her memorial service, that led him to revisit these songs. Where those hymns proved fruitful material for his quintet along with the pristine vocals of Aoife O’Donovan, however, a smaller, instrumental approach seemed more appropriate here.
“First of all,” Douglas explains, “the lyrics of the Sacred Harp music can be very biblical. You know, ‘There’s an angry God and I’d best be afraid of Him.’ I don’t really feel that way in my life! And in a way that is not really a part of the music. What I love though is the melodies and the peculiar harmonies and phrase lengths. That says it all for me.”
In addition, Douglas was attracted by discovering a common ground between the non-specialist-oriented Sacred Harp songs and the chamber music sensibility at the foundation of his and Caine’s wide-ranging approach to jazz. “Shape-note and psalm-tune singing comes from very early American composers and really hinges on non-academic ways of thinking about harmony and making multi-part vocal music. That intrigued me because sometimes what we do as improvisers is to go on instinct and intuition, making stuff that may not always be precisely explainable.”
Paring down to the duo format allows for the unadorned beauty of these songs to shine through, but also makes its own unique demands on the instrumentalists, Caine says. “Playing duo is a special challenge, especially when accompanying a singer or horn player. The pianist is often responsible for keeping the groove happening as well as creating textures for the soloists. There is also a lot of freedom in playing duo as well as the chance to create a dialogue with another musician, which is a lot of fun with a musician like Dave.”
Douglas recalls meeting Caine for the first time at a Greenwich Village jam session in 1984, but their rewarding collaboration really began while both were touring with Don Byron’s project celebrating the music of clarinetist and composer Mickey Katz. The two continued to work together on each other’s projects through the 1990s: Caine in Douglas’ sextet and, for a decade, in the original version of his quintet; Douglas on a number of Caine’s inventive reimaginings of classical masterworks. “It’s been a long path,” Douglas says of Present Joys, which represents a rare occasion for the two to play together given their hectic schedules. “In a way, it’s a richer experience getting together now, like striking up a conversation with an old friend that you haven’t seen for a while.”
That conversation manifests in stunningly diverse ways throughout Present Joys, from the stately melancholy and transcendence of A.M. Cagle’s “Soar Away” to the surprising transformation of the title track into a bop-flavored blues (including a winking quote of Charlie Parker’s “Now’s the Time”). “Bethel,” reharmonized by Douglas for the occasion, is rendered as a harrowing dirge, while Caine’s precise and warm harmonies starkly enrich Floyd M. Frederick’s “Supplication.” “Confidence” boasts a lovely melody and even in this re-imagining is every bit as heartfelt and spiritual as any of these songs.
Douglas’ original compositions aim for similar levels of intimacy and direct communication without attempting a neo-primitive stance. “Ham Fist” was inspired by cooking dinner at home, with Caine’s percussive strikes evoking the chopping and pounding sounds of a kitchen in action. “Seven Seas” swings with ease of a ship in motion, while “End To End” playfully strings together a series of deceptive climaxes.
The spell cast by these stirring duets is crystallized by the impeccable sound quality captured in Brooklyn’s The Loove studio by Tyler McDiarmid. Caine describes the studio’s Bösendorfer piano as “a great instrument with a wide array of sounds--a strong and imposing bass and a clear treble sound. There are a lot of different dynamics possible with the piano.” Recorded at a high-resolution rate, the album is being released on vinyl as well as CD and download.
For Douglas, this is all a way to explore these timeless melodies in an ideal musical environment. Present Joys is a sparkling new addition to the already rich Greenleaf catalog. “The Sacred Harp tunes are very heartfelt pieces, and I had no intention to play them with any irony. I think the music is really beautiful and hopefully the way that we play them allows the tunes to ring through in a way that jazz listeners and Sacred Harp fans will appreciate and value.”
Riverside in stores today!
Dave Douglas & Uri Caine: "Present Joys" on Tour
European Tour
April 26 - Torino Jazz Festival, Torino, IT
April 27 - Volkshaus Basel, Basel, CH
April 29 - Teatro Lope de Vega, Sevilla, ES
April 30 - Nochtspeicher, Hamburg, DE
May 1 - Katowice JazzArt Festival, Katowice, PL
May 2 - Leeds Grand Theatre, Leeds, UK
May 4 - Bray Jazz Festival, Bray, IE
May 6 - Pol Sud, Strasbourg, FR
May 7 - Kulturzentrum Dieselstrasse, Esslingen, DE
May 8 - Auditorium Parco della Musica, Rome, IT
May 9 - Europa Jazz Festival, Le Mans, FR
May 11 - Casino Estoril Auditorium, Estoril, PT
US Tour - More dates coming!
July 25 - Ars Nova Workshop, Philadelphia, PA
July 26 - An Die Musik, Baltimore, MD
More on Ralph Farris' work with Aquila Theatre
The Aquila Theatre Company is proud to announce the launch of it's new You|Stories program with a staged reading of "A Female Philoctetes" (based on Sophocles' classic "Philoctetes",) running at BAM Fisher's Hillman Studio from April 16 to April 19, with performances at 7 pm. You|Stories in an innovative national program, funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities, that uses arts and humanities to explore the ancient and modern narratives of war.
As part of Aquila Theatre's National Endowment for the Humanities $300,000 multi-year Award for You|Stories, Aquila will explore Sophocles' ancient play "Philoctetes" and reimagine it with the title role played as a female combat soldier. Aquila Theatre is a veteran of Greek Classical Theatre and will boldly take on this newest endeavor. Join Aquila Theatre as they present, "A Female Philoctetes", a staged reading , translated by Peter Meineck (NYU) and directed and adapted by Desiree Sanchez (Artistic Director, Aquila Theatre), with specially commissioned live music composed by Ralph Farris (Artistic Director, ETHEL). Post show talk-backs with Scholars and Veterans to follow each performance.
A combat soldier named Philoctetes is inflicted with an incurable and insufferable injury. The soldier's comrades cannot bear to hear the cries of pain or the sight of the wound. They maroon the injured soldier, sailing away and forgetting him, that is until ten years later when they learn that the war cannot be ended without Philoctetes' help. In this way, Sophocles' ancient play, "Philoctetes," captures a reality for all combat veterans who have been physically or mentally wounded, exploring ethical dilemmas which remain as dynamic and relevant today as they were to the Greeks 2,500 years ago.
Read the rest here.
Ralph Farris to compose music for The Aquila Theatre's production of A Female Philoctetes.
A combat soldier is inflicted with an incurable and insufferable injury. The soldier’s comrades cannot bear to hear the cries of pain or the sight of the wound. They maroon the injured soldier and sail away. The soldier is forgotten. That is, until ten years later, when they learn they cannot end the war without the help of the wounded warrior. Sophocles’ ancient play, Philoctetes, captures a reality for all combat veterans who have been physically or mentally wounded and explores ethical dilemmas, as dynamic and relevant today as they were to the Greeks 2500 years ago. Aquila Theatre will explore this ancient play and reimagine it with the title role played as a female combat soldier.
Read more at The Aquila Theatre's site.
