RIP JIMMY GIUFFRE

Via Jazzcorner comes this sad news:

"Jimmy died of pneumonia and Parkinson's today (April 24) two days before what would have been his 87th birthday."

I have been profoundly inspired by this man's music, especially in the past couple of years. He was a true innovator, once heralded by the jazz press but eventually all but abandoned by them as he embraced open improvisation, atonality, microtonality and pulseless rhythm long before it became "acceptable" to do so. But I think the most significant thing (evidenced by his early 60s work in particular) is that he proved that free improvisation didn't have to abandon melody, and it certainly didn't have to abandon the intimacy and quiet dynamics of chamber music. AND he had just about the prettiest clarinet tone in all of jazz...

This morning I've been listening to Free Fall, the ultimate statement by Giuffre's 1961 trio with Paul Bley and Steve Swallow. Amazing album. From the allmusic.com review:

Indeed, Free Fall was such radical music, no one, literally no one, was ready for it and the group disbanded shortly thereafter on a night when they made only 35 cents apiece for a set.

35 cents! Quite a bargain if you ask me... Everything that trio did was good: the two studio albums (Fusion and Thesis) and two live albums (Emphasis and Flight) that preceded Free Fall are little miracles. The group got back together for the Life of a Trio sessions in 1989, and then again for the fantastic Fly Away Little Bird in 1992. All of these records are must-listens.

But for starters, you can still download an unreleased live performance by the 1961 Giuffre/Bley/Swallow Trio over at Elastic Rock. While you're at it, read this worthy tribute written a couple of years ago by my friend Rex Butters. And here are two versions of "The Train and the River" with two previous incarnations of the Jimmy Giuffre 3 (does anyone know of any existing video of the 1961 trio?):