This reissue of Fusion and Thesis, the two albums the new Jimmy Giuffre 3 made in 1961, prior to their breakthrough and breakup in 1962, is nothing short of a revelation musically. Originally produced by Creed Taylor, who was still respectable back then, the two LPs have been complete remixed and remastered by ECM proprietor and chief producer Manfred Eicher and Jean Philippe Allard and contain complete material from both sessions resulting in one new track on Fusion and three more on Thesis.
Why aren't there more recordings like Fly Away Little Bird? Perhaps it's because there aren't more musicians of this stature. The studio reunion of the legendarily experimental Jimmy Giuffre 3 in 1992 was reissued in 2002 on the French Sunnyside label and is a radical departure from anything the trio had done in the past. These studio apparitions of the band are their most seamlessly accessible while being wildly exploratory. In addition to the consummate improvisations and compositions by Giuffre (title track, a redone "Tumbleweed"), the tender meditations by Steve Swallow ("Fits" and "Starts"), and the bottom-register contrapuntal improves by Paul Bley ("Qualude"), this is a trio recording that uses standards such as "Lover Man," a radically and gorgeously reworked "I Can't Get Started," "Sweet and Lovely," and "All the Things You Are" to state hidden textural possibilities inside chromatic harmony. There is never the notion of restraint in the slow, easy, and proactive way these compositions are approached.
Features 24 bit remastering and comes with a mini-description. Jimmy Guiffre 3 features the first version of Giuffre's 3. With guitarist Jim Hall and either Ralph Pena or Jim Atlas on bass, Giuffre is heard on clarinet, tenor, and baritone. The generally introverted music is wistful, has a fair amount of variety, and is melodic while still sounding advanced. In addition to the nine original songs (including the earliest recording of Giuffre's classic folk song "The Train and the River"). An excellent introduction to Jimmy Giuffre's unique music.
Columbia Records dropped Jimmy Giuffre following 1962’s experimental Free Fall, and he didn’t record another album for nine years. The period in-between has been called his “lost decade,” but the clarinetist-saxophonist kept busy. His forward vision fit right in at the New York Festival of the Avant Garde in 1965, even though he wasn’t completely aligned with the New Thing. Giuffre’s set from the festival was recorded and broadcast once on Columbia University’s radio station, WKCR-FM, along with a session done earlier in the year in a college auditorium. Both sets are being released as New York Concerts, heard for the first time since those broadcasts, and they present some missing pieces of the Giuffre puzzle.
Controversial, misunderstood, and underappreciated, Jimmy Giuffre was an unlikely candidate to break as much ground as he did in the art of free improvisation. A swing orchestra veteran, Giuffre made his name as part of the West Coast school of cool jazz, but his restless creative spirit drove him to push the boundaries of texture, dynamic shading, counterpoint, and improvisational freedom in surprisingly avant-garde ways, despite maintaining a cool, cerebral exterior.
Features 24 bit remastering and comes with a mini-description. One of the most sublime Jimmy Giuffre albums of all time – and a perfect realization of his piano-less/bass-less trio style! The approach here is really revolutionary, especially for the time – as the group simply features Bob Brookmeyer on trombone, Jim Hall on guitar, and Giuffre on reeds – working with no other rhythm at all, and coming up with this incredible approach to music that's as breathtaking as it is groundbreaking! Notes hang in mid-air, slowly sliding around one another, flying freely from the players, yet still managing to swing in a beautiful way. The titles are a mix of standards and originals – but all tracks sound completely unique, with a sound unlike anything else we can describe.
This unusual set has Jimmy Giuffre (on clarinet, tenor and baritone) in a pianoless quartet with trumpeter Jack Sheldon, bassist Ralph Pena and drummer Artie Anton. The music (all but one of the ten numbers are by Giuffre) puts an emphasis on cool tones and relaxed improvising, hinting at folk themes but sounding quite modern for the time.