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Complete Jimmy Giuffre On Black Saint & Soul Note (Dragonfly/Quasar/Liquid Dancers/Conversations With A Goose) (4CD set)

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Four great albums from reedman Jimmy Giuffre – all of them representing a bold step forward for his music! Three of the albums here – Dragonfly, Quasar, and Liquid Dancers – feature the Jimmy Giuffre 4 – a group that moves between fusion touches and some of the freer modes of Giuffre's later years! Jimmy himself is all acoustic – working on flute, soprano, tenor, and clarinet – but the group also features a fair bit of keyboards from Pete Levin, who plays Fender Rhodes, moog, and oberheim – plus electric bass from Bob Nieske and percussion and marimba from Randy Kaye. The best tracks have a pensive, introspective quality – Giuffre's reeds snaking around the keyboards nicely, with a sense of warmth you might not have expected from him a decade or so before – and a sonically sensitive quality that's mighty nice too. The fourth album in the box – Conversations With A Goose – features Jimmy's clarinet and soprano sax in a trio with Paul Bley on piano and Steve Swallow on bass – working in a mode that really gets back to some of Giuffre's most exploratory music of the 60s! Bley's piano is wonderful – spinning out in lines that really set Jimmy loose – and although some tracks are short, they still have a tremendous amount of creative interplay. There's some solo moments on the record that are especially expressive – a great chance to hear that amazing Giuffre sound, still razor-sharp in these later years. Box set features 38 tracks in all.  © 1996-2013, Dusty Groove, Inc.