The years between the release of Jimmy Giuffre's ground-breaking 1962 album Free Fall and his return to the studio in 1971 with Night Dance have become known as the legendary clarinetist and saxophonist's "lost decade," a key period in his and jazz's musical evolution which sadly went undocumented. The release of these two remarkable 1965 performances on New York Concerts, unheard for nearly 50 years, offer a rare and revelatory glimpse into that discographical dark period. <p>This captivating two-disc set, would be valuable solely for the brilliant music, which finds Giuffre leading otherwise undocumented trio and quartet line-ups that advance his experiments in counterpoint and abstraction from the chamber-like Free Fall into even more adventurous avant-garde territory. But it also offers much-needed insight into one of jazz's most innovative thinkers at a key moment in his development. <p>The first disc was recorded in September 1965 at Judson Hall during Charlotte Moorman's New York Festival of The Avant Garde, produced by saxophonist and jazz critic Don Heckman, on a triple bill with bands led by Heckman and Charles Lloyd. The concert marks the only performance by this particular trio with bassist Richard Davis and drummer Joe Chambers. <p>Disc two travels slightly back in time to May 1965, with a performance in an empty Wollman Auditorium on the campus of Columbia University, that sees Giuffre perform with Chambers, pianist Don Friedman, and bassist Barre Phillips.
