| Western Suite | |
| Type: | Studio |
| Artist: | Jimmy Giuffre |
| Cover: | Western Suite.jpg |
| 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 |
| Chronology: | Jimmy Giuffre |
| Prev Title: | The Four Brothers Sound |
| Prev Year: | 1958 |
| Next Title: | Ad Lib |
| Next Year: | 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.
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".
In his 1961 review for DownBeat, Ira Gitler says, "The interaction among the three is remarkable" and concludes: "What is found in this set are lyricism and depth of emotion."
All compositions by Jimmy Giuffre except as indicated