Free Fall

Clarinetist Jimmy Giuffre was solidly established as the leader of unorthodox but coolly restrained groups when he enlisted pianist Paul Bley and bassist Steve Swallow in 1961. With this trio, he would take listeners into challenging terrain and offer the avant-garde a different direction--witness the 2-CD reissue 1961. Often taking its style cues from European modernism, this group mixed pointillism and atonality while moving seamlessly between composition and free improvisation. Free Fall, from 1962, was the group's ultimate recording and Giuffre's most radical statement, balancing duos and trios with unaccompanied clarinet improvisations that explored novel sounds, spontaneous structure, and uncommon brevity. Quietly revolutionary and brilliant in itself, this music was the culmination of the "Third Stream" synthesis and also paved the way for a younger generation of radicals. Today it still sounds fresh. This CD restores edited portions and adds five unissued clarinet solos that range from spiky inventions to the original lyricism of "Future Plans." -- Stuart Broomer