''Fizzles'' is a live solo bass album by

Barry Guy Barry John Guy (born 22 April 1947, in London) 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 orchestras ...

. It was recorded in September 1991 at Kirche Blumenstein in Switzerland, and was released in 1993 by Maya Recordings. In an interview, Guy explained that the track titled "Five Fizzles (For S.B.)" was inspired by eight short texts, also titled ''

Fizzles The "fizzles" are eight short prose pieces written by Samuel Beckett: * Fizzle 1 e is barehead* Fizzle 2 orn came always* Fizzle 3 ''Afar a Bird'' * Fizzle 4 gave up before birthref name='FIZZLE4'/> * Fizzle 5 losed place* Fizzle 6 ld eart ...

'', written by

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and tragicomic expe ...

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.

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

Reception

In a review for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

, 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." The authors of the ''

Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings ''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 by ...

'' 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."

Track listing

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

Personnel

– double bass, chamber bass

References

{{Reflist 1993 live albums Barry Guy live albums