''Gryffgryffgryffs: The 1996 Radio Sweden Concert'' is a live album by the Guy/Gustafsson/Strid Trio, featuring bassist

Barry Guy Barry John Guy (born 22 April 1947, in London, England) is an English composer and double bass player. His range of interests encompasses early music, contemporary composition, jazz and improvisation, and he has worked with a wide variety of or ...

, saxophonist

Mats Gustafsson Mats Olof Gustafsson (born 29 October 1964) is a Swedish free jazz saxophone player. Career Gustafsson came to the attention of lovers of improvised music as part of a duo with Christian Munthe (started in 1986), as member of Gunter Chris ...

, and percussionist

Raymond Strid Raymond Strid (born 1956 in Stockholm, Sweden) is a Swedish drummer in the genre of free jazz and the new European improvised music. Biography When Strid picked up drumming, he was inspired by musicians like Han Bennink, Paul Lytton, and Tony ...

, with guest artist

Marilyn Crispell Marilyn Crispell (born March 30, 1947) is an American jazz pianist and composer. Scott Yanow described her as "a powerful player... who has her own way of using space... She is near the top of her field." Jon Pareles of ''The New York Times'' ...

on piano. It was recorded on January 22, 1996, at the Radio House, Studio 2, in Stockholm, and was released by the

Music & Arts Music & Arts is a classical and jazz record label founded in Berkeley, California by Frederick Maroth. It began in 1984 as a classical music label before adding jazz and world music. The catalog includes classical composers and musicians Milton B ...

label in 1997. In 2017, the album was reissued in digital form by Catalytic Sound. The album title is a word that appears in

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...

's ''

Finnegans Wake ''Finnegans Wake'' is a novel by Irish literature, Irish writer James Joyce. It was published in instalments starting in 1924, under the title "fragments from ''Work in Progress''". The final title was only revealed when the book was publishe ...

'', and that, according to author Gaurav Majumdar, suggests "stammering." The remaining track titles were inspired by Joyce ("Ififif"), Tony O'Mally ("Inscape"),

Ted Hughes Edward James Hughes (17 August 1930 – 28 October 1998) was an English poet, translator, and children's writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his generation and one of the twentieth century's greatest writers. He wa ...

("Org," "Ghast," and "Orghast") and Tekla Melin ("What Else?").

Reception

The editors of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

awarded the album 4 stars. The authors of ''

The Penguin Guide to Jazz ''The Penguin Guide to Jazz'' is a reference work containing an encyclopedic directory of jazz recordings on CD which were (at the time of publication) currently available in Europe or the United States. The first nine editions were compiled b ...

'' wrote: "The key sequence consists of three tracks, "Org," "Ghast," "Orghast," which seem to explore a carefully delimited range of ideas, except that Crispell is never content to remain within narrow harmonic or rhythmic bounds. It works, despite her overblown expressionism."

Track listing

# "Gryffgryffgryffs" – 7:25 # "Ififif" – 13:18 # "Inscape" – 7:25 # "Org" – 5:59 # "Ghast" – 14:48 # "Orghast" – 6:47 # "What Else?" – 8:28

Personnel

– baritone saxophone, soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone *

– piano *

– bass *

– drums

References

{{Authority control 1997 live albums Mats Gustafsson live albums Marilyn Crispell live albums Barry Guy live albums Music & Arts live albums Music based on works by James Joyce Adaptations of works by Ted Hughes