Herman Leonard's Stolen Moments June 6,7,8 - New Jersey Jazz ...

Big Band in the Sky
By Tony Mottola Jersey Jazz Editor
■ Jimmy Giuffre, 86, clarinetist,
saxophonist, composer and arranger,
April 26, 1921, Dallas, TX – April 24,
2008, Pittsfield, MA. Jimmy Giuffre was
a well-educated musician who earned a
degree in music from North Texas State
Teacher’s College and later studied composition
with Wesley LaViolette. He is
probably most widely known as the composer
of the popular big band anthem
“Four Brothers,” which he wrote while
arranging for Woody Herman’s “Second
Herd” in 1947. In the early 1950s Giuffre
was a seminal part of the development of
the West Coast Cool Jazz style, working in
Shorty Rogers and Shelly Manne’s small
combos and mainly playing saxophone.
Later he concentrated on the clarinet,
playing in an innovative and adventurous
style in drummerless trios called the Jimmy
Giuffre 3, first with guitarist Jim Hall and
bassist Ralph Pena, and later with Hall and
trombonist Bobby Brookmeyer. The latter
group is prominently featured in Bert
Stern’s documentary of the 1958 Newport
Jazz Festival, Jazz on a Summer’s Day,
playing their signature piece, “The Train and
the River.” Giuffre was also an important
teacher of music beginning at the Lenox
School of Jazz in 1957 and later at the
New School, New York University and the
New England Conservatory of Music,
where he taught until the early 1990s.
■ Phil Urso, 83, saxophonist, Oct. 2, 1925,
Jersey City, NJ – April 27, 2008, Denver,
CO. Phil Urso, a longtime Elizabeth, NJ
resident, came of age in the hard bop era
but also retained a Lester Young-like tone,
combing the two sensibilities into an
expressive sound played with great technical
abilities. Though not particularly well
known, Urso was much admired by his
fellow players and was associated with many
of the great players of the 1950s. After
service in the U.S. Navy on an aircraft
carrier in World War II, Urso went on to
stints with a number of big bands, including
Jimmy Dorsey, Woody Herman, Claude
Thornhill, Stan Kenton and Louis Bellson.
JerseyArticlesJazz
Jimmy Giuffre, Stars of Jazz 1956/KABC-TV. ©Ray Avery/CTSIMAGES.COM
He worked briefly with Miles Davis and
often paired with trombonists, namely
Frank Rosolino, Bob Burgess, Bill Harris
and Bob Brookmeyer, with whom he co-led
a quintet in 1954. By far his most important
association was with trumpeter Chet Baker,
with whom he worked on and off for 16
years. Jazz.com reported “Urso cherished a
letter he received from Baker in 1971, which
began: ‘I have always felt you were and are
the most underrated of America’s jazz
players and composers.’” His last recording,
16 __________________________________ June 2008