Deep Listening: Jimmy Giuffre 3, Pony Express

Sounds Out of Time, episode 36

Jul 04, 2021

(This is the edited transcript of Sounds Out of Time episode 36. Here’s a playlist that includes most of the tracks featured in the episode.)

I’ve always loved trios in any style, from Beethoven string trios to the Jimi Hendrix Experience. There’s something conversational about a great trio: you can hear the interplay of three voices.

And I really have a thing for unconventional trios. If you’ve listened to the Episode 4 interview with saxophonist Dana Colley, you know that my favorite band of the ’90s was Morphine, which featured saxophone, bass, and drums. Nobody had done that before, and it reminded me of other trios that broke ground with unusual lineups.

The next few episodes are going to focus on unconventional trios, and there’s nowhere better to start than the Jimmy Guiffre 3.

I first learned about Jimmy Giuffre when I was playing a lot of Dixieland jazz that features the clarinet. Giuffre played clarinet and sax, but he was hardly a traditionalist. The original lineup of the Jimmy Giuffre 3 featured Giuffre, Jim Hall on guitar, and Ralph Peña on bass. No drums. This set the group apart, and it became something of a signature even when the lineup changed. Here’s a taste of “Gotta Dance,” the first track from the the debut album. (clip)

There’s something very “on the beat” about that tune that has always defined it for me. The melody starts right on the one, which gives it an usual kind of swing.

A year later Giuffre switched up the band. Instead of a bass player, he had valve trombonist Bob Brookmeyer joining him and Jim Hall. This was a different odd trio: reeds, trombone, and guitar. The tune that really exemplifies the sound of this band is “Pony Express,” a section of a longer piece called “Western Suite.”

This piece really fits in the context of a larger mid-century Americana movement. Aaron Copland’s “Appalachian Spring” is the most famous piece that exemplifies this, but the composer I think of first is Roy Harris, who never got the same degree of public attention as Copland. Harris explored Western themes in his music, most straightforwardly in his Symphony 4, American Folksong. Here’s the opening of the second movement of that symphony, which is called “Western Cowboy.” (clip)

It’s also impossible to separate the music from what was going on in film at the time. Classic Westerns like “The Searchers” and “High Noon” had created a soundtrack for a mythological Old West that became part of the musical culture. Check out this snippet of composer Max Steiner’s soundtrack from “The Searchers” — this is titled “Ethan Returns.” (clip)

“Pony Express” is over five minutes long, and it doesn’t follow any conventional form. One thing I love is how Jim Hall manages to fill so much space around the Here’s the opening. (clip)

What really makes this track, though, is the interplay when Giuffre, Hall, and Brookmeyer are playing off each other. (clip)

The next lineup of the Jimmy Giuffre 3 featured pianist Paul Bley and bassist Steve Swallow. Here’s a bit of “Jesus Maria,” a composition by Carla Bley, from the album Jimmy Giuffre 3 1961. (clip)

I love this melody, these players, and this recording, but the instrumentation is definitely more conventional than Giuffre’s earlier bands.

After going in separate directions for decades, Giuffre, Bley and Swallow regrouped in 1990 and recorded two live albums over a weekend called “The Life of Trio: Saturday” and “The Life of Trio: Sunday.” These late recordings are both quieter and freer than the early ones, and they speak to an artistic commitment that the three of them shared: they never stopped searching for something new.