Fizzles (album)

Fizzles is a live solo bass album by Barry Guy. It was recorded in September 1991 at Kirche Blumenstein in Switzerland, and was released in 1993 by Maya Recordings.[1]

Fizzles
Live album by
Barry Guy
Released1993
RecordedSeptember 1991
StudioKirche Blumenstein, Switzerland
GenreFree jazz
Length1:09:40
LabelMaya Recordings
MCD9301
ProducerBarry Guy, Maya Homburger

In an interview, Guy explained that the track titled "Five Fizzles (For S.B.)" was inspired by eight short texts, also titled Fizzles, written by Samuel Beckett during the 1960s and 70s:

Each 'Fizzle' is a short compressed outburst—literary chamber music of great power and beauty. It occurred to me that these 'outbursts' could form the basis for little improvisations, each dedicated to particular bass colours and articulations... I find them to be a motivator for precise thinking and musical rhetoric.[2]

The piece became a staple in Guy's solo concerts,[3] and he recorded it again for the 2014 album Five Fizzles for Samuel Beckett.[4]

Reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[5]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz[6]
The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz [7]

In a review for AllMusic, Brian Olewnick praised Guy's "sheer jaw-dropping dexterity" and "pure touch," and wrote: "Fizzles is an often pyrotechnic, sometimes quite moving solo bass performance... As in his orchestral writing, Guy leavens the abstraction with occasional doses of traditional playing... often, Guy is subjecting his instrument to all manner of unspeakable torment, gratingly whipsawing his bow or plucking strings with a ferocity that leaves the listener worried about the capacity of his finger and wrist muscles... After the final, almost ridiculously explosive track, the exhausted listener can only nod his thanks."[5]

The authors of the Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings awarded the album 4 stars, and stated: "Fizzles... has a quiet charm that reveals itself over repeated listenings... Guy concentrates on the tiniest details with an almost hallucinatory intensity... 'She Took the Sacred Rattle and Used It' is one of Guy's finest moments as an instrumentalist."[6]

Track listing

All compositions by Barry Guy.

  1. "Free Fall" – 6:32
  2. "Fil Rouge" – 2:33
  3. "Hilibili Meets... the Brush" – 10:45
  4. "Five Fizzles (For S.B.)" – 10:40
  5. "Invention/The Bird of Infinity" – 8:18
  6. "Afar" – 2:50
  7. "...But the Clouds..." – 5:54
  8. "Tout Rouge" – 2:59
  9. "Still" – 8:09
  10. "Toujours Rouge" – 1:46
  11. "She Took the Sacred Rattle and Used It (To Ray A. Young Bear)" – 9:14

Personnel

References
  1. "Barry Guy: Fizzles". Jazz Music Archives. Retrieved April 4, 2022.
  2. O'Driscoll, Declan (June 24, 2014). "An Interview with Barry Guy". Music and Literature. Retrieved April 4, 2022.
  3. Hareuveni, Eyal (February 2, 2015). "The Masters of the Double Bass". The Free Jazz Collective. Retrieved May 14, 2022.
  4. "Barry Guy: Five Fizzles for Samuel Beckett". Jazz Music Archives. Retrieved May 14, 2022.
  5. Olewnick, Brian. "Barry Guy: Fizzles". AllMusic. Retrieved April 4, 2022.
  6. Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (1998). The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD. Penguin Books. p. 647.
  7. Larkin, Colin (2004). The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz. Virgin. p. 366.
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