MY NORTHERN SKIES

This Week’s Featured Album:

The Jimmy Giuffre Trio

The Train and the River

Atlantic 590 011

1967

Atlantic Records produced an excellent series of fine albums in the 1960s and 1970s on their specially designed orange label, each album released in a uniform turquoise sleeve and each featuring noted jazz artists that included at one point or another, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Erroll Garner, Charles Mingus and many other jazz greats. Jimmy Giuffre had already released the selections on this release ten years earlier under the title The Jimmy Giuffre 3, most notable amongst them being the title instrumental “The Train and the River”, famously featured over the title sequence of the film Jazz on a Summer’s Day. Joining several other albums in the series, The Train and the River became a fine addition and an essential classic from this or any other period in jazz. Joined by Ralph Peña on bass and Jim Hall on guitar, Jimmy Giuffre demonstrates his flair on the clarinet, tenor saxophone and baritone saxophone and sometimes all three on the same number. Recommended tracks, “The Train and the River”, “Gotta Dance” and the bluesy “Crawdad Suite”.

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Playlist:

Angelica – Duke Ellington & John Coltrane (Duke Ellington & John Coltrane)

Gotta Dance – Jimmy Giuffre Trio (The Train and the River)

Hang Up Your Hang Ups – Lionel Loueke (HH)

Dancing – Modern Jazz Quartet (Plastic Dreams)

Big P – Jimmy Heath (Really Big!)

Oh Papa Blues – Ma Rainey (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom)

Deed I Do – Blossom Dearie (Blossom Dearie)

I Want To Be With You – Shirley Horn (Travelin’ Light)

Good Deed – Tommy Smith (Karma)

Killer Joe – Toots Thielemans (Bluesette)