Western Suite

Western Suite
Studio album by Jimmy Giuffre
Released	Late June/early July 1960[1]
Recorded	December 3, 1958 Atlantic Studios, NYC and Lenox, MA
Genre	Jazz
Label	Atlantic LP 1330
Producer	Nesuhi Ertegun
Jimmy Giuffre chronology
The Four Brothers Sound (1958) Western Suite (1960) Ad Lib (1959)

Western Suite is an album by American jazz composer and arranger Jimmy Giuffre which was released on the Atlantic label in 1960.^[2][3]

Featuring an unusual trio of clarinet, guitar and valve trombone, the first half of Western Suite is devoted to Giuffre's country music/folk-inspired suite, while the second half features a lengthy and abstract version of the big band standard "Topsy" and a Thelonious Monk song.

Reception[]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[4]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings	[5]

Thom Jurek of Allmusic states: "Giuffre, ever the storyteller, advanced the improvisation angle and wrote his score so that each player had to stand on his own as part of the group; there were no comfort zones. Without a rhythm section, notions of interval, extensions, interludes, and so on were out the window. He himself played some of his most retrained yet adventurous solos in the confines of this trio and within the form of this suite. It swung like West Coast jazz, but felt as ambitious as Copland's Billy the Kid".^[4]

Track listing[]

All compositions by Jimmy Giuffre except as indicated

1. "Western Suite"
   1. "First Movement: Pony Express" - 5:56
   2. "Second Movement: Apaches" - 4:18
   3. "Third Movement: Saturday Night Dance" - 2:56
   4. "Fourth Movement: Big Pow Wow" - 4:28
2. "Topsy" (Edgar Battle, Eddie Durham) - 11:28
3. "Blue Monk" (Thelonious Monk) - 8:16

Personnel[]

• Jimmy Giuffre - clarinet (1-3, 2, 3), tenor saxophone (1-1, 1-4), baritone saxophone (1-2)
• Jim Hall - guitar
• Bob Brookmeyer - valve trombone

References[]