Originally released as a Verve LP in 1959 and reissued by Essential Jazz Classics in 2007 with four live bonus tracks,
7 Pieces qualifies as a definitive early
Jimmy Giuffre recording. Beautifully conceived and realized, this is a friendly album of cool, creative jazz that is easy to groove to without ever becoming predictable.
Giuffre, who blew tenor and baritone saxophones on this date as well as the clarinet, was joined by guitarist
Jim Hall and bassist
Red Mitchell. This meeting of minds bore fruit that still has the power to soothe, rejuvenate, and transform the listener.
Mitchell and
Hall were ideally suited to this project, which resulted in some of the best jazz any of the three would ever come up with. An extraordinarily comfortable early modern offering,
7 Pieces was the first of numerous Verve recordings by
Giuffre, and would be closely followed by "The Easy Way," "Ad Lib," and the ambitious "Piece for Clarinet and String Orchestra/Mobiles." Strong and very tangible parallels can and should be drawn with contemporaneous work by
Lee Konitz,
Gerry Mulligan,
Warne Marsh,
John LaPorta, and
Buddy DeFranco. [The 2011 reissue was amended with four precious bonus tracks recorded live at the Teatro Adriano in Rome three months after the studio recording, on June 19, 1959. On that occasion, which took place on a summer tour organized by producer
Norman Granz,
Mitchell was replaced by
Red Norvo's bassist
Buddy Clark.]