Released in 1992 by ECM, 1961 is a reissue of two timeless albums that Jimmy Giuffre made for Verve: Fusion and Thesis, both featuring an influential, Debussy-inspired trio that includes Paul Bley on piano and Steve Swallow on upright bass. Swallow would switch to electric bass about a decade later, making 1961 one of the key documents of his early acoustic period, along with Chick Corea’s Tones for Joan’s Bones. Both Fusion (recorded on March 3, 1961) and Thesis (captured on August 4, 1961) are spellbinding collections of Giuffre originals, not to mention Gordon Jenkins’ “Goodbye”, four tunes by Carla Bley and “Carla” by Paul Bley (her husband at the time). All of them are rendered in an intimate, mysterious, chamber-like environment. The sound is one of warmth and bluesy lyricism—more haunting and abstract than Giuffre’s earlier swinging, unorthodox trios with guitarist Jim Hall. A native of Dallas, Texas, Giuffre was one of the more experimental figures associated with the “cool jazz” school of the 1950s and 1960s. He wrote “Four Brothers”, a signature bop-oriented piece for Woody Herman’s Second Herd. And his airy, voice-like tenor and baritone saxophones in the Jim Hall trios gave way to clarinet for all the early Swallow-Bley recordings, including 1963’s Free Fall and the archival live double album Emphasis & Flight, 1961. When the group reformed in the late 1980s, Giuffre remained on clarinet but added soprano sax to the mix. There’s an edge to the music on 1961, even if the overall tone is gentler than the emerging free jazz of the time. Giuffre’s clarinet has a broad dynamic and expressive range, whether it’s the bracing post-tonality of “Emphasis” and “Scootin’ About”, or the blues surrealism of “Cry, Want”. The Carla Bley pieces capture the aesthetic well: “Ictus” is jagged and uptempo, “Temporarily” sounds relaxed and free, while “Jesus Maria” and “In the Mornings Out There” are sublime in their melodic beauty and understatement.