Giuffre/Bley/Swallow - Emphasis & Flight 1961

Hatology 2-595

When Jimmy Giuffre’s Free Fall came out on the heels of his trio’s European tour of 1961, it continued to be to the complete and utter astonishment of his fans and his critics alike. A reunion with Jack Sheldon, Russ Freeman, Shelly Manne and the likes seemed less and less likely. Immediately preceding the European shows, there was Fusion and Thesis. Giuffre’s music of this period was as bold as it was groundbreaking; with all of the ado surrounding Ornette Coleman’s Free Jazz and Coltrane’s 1961 dates at the Village Vangaurd, Giuffre was busy executing his own ideas about how to create music free of traditional form and devoid of any (then) recognizable formula. To my knowledge, the folks at Hat Hut are the only to have ever held the rights to the recordings of the 1961 shows, now reissued a third time in its own double set as Emphasis & Flight 1961 (recorded in Stuttgart and Bremen, respectively). The beauty of these recordings are the simple, focused meanderings of Giuffre, Paul Bley and Steve Swallow, simultaneously building upon Giuffre’s written frameworks while pulling unintentional harmonies out of the air. In removing the drums as a rhythmic foundation, the trio was left with the responsibility of filling a structural void, and Swallow’s bass would take on a new function. Giuffre had been working without percussion for a few years at this point, but his earlier music was also more linear in form, and the music for the “3” was not quite ready for the sweeping steps Giuffre was yet to take. By this time Giuffre was also creating music exclusively for clarinet, adding to further implausibility for an already unconventional trio format.

Emphasis & Flight 1961 has the distinction of being the only live documentation – at least commercially available – of this historically significant trio. For a group that would seem crippled by its mere dimensions and in the unlikely instrumentation, it is difficult to call up instances in other recordings where three instruments are so immediately omnipresent. The multitasking achieved by the individual musicians is nothing short of remarkable. Giuffre’s occasional drones in “Stretching Out (Suite for Germany)”, for instance, are provocative in that they are related to pedal points to support Bley’s inside and outside improvising. Like Fusion and Thesis, these recordings remain influential as keystones of structure and in the applicability of the clarinet in improvisation, especially. Echoes of Giuffre’s delicate playing of the melody of Carla Bley’s dreamy “Jesus Maria” can be heard in many of today’s players of that instrument, from Ben Goldberg to Michael Moore. The clarity of these recordings offers a number of focal points for the listener as well. The timbral properties to all three instruments are in full color, allowing another angle to peer in from, in examining the trio’s communication. Many of the pieces, particularly from the Bremen recording, clearly show the interchangeability of the roles each instrument was to take in performance. Counterpoint to this group was neither ornamental nor elementary. It was critical.

The Hatology label so continues its dedication to keeping the cream of its discography available, and glory be that these monumental recordings find themselves in print yet again. These, in particular, are essential.

~Alan Jones