PROFILBARU.COM

Fusion
Fusion
Studio album by Jimmy Giuffre
Released	1961
Recorded	March 3, 1961
Studio	Olmstead Studios, New York City
Genre	Jazz, West Coast jazz, cool jazz, third stream, chamber jazz
Label	Verve, reissued by ECM, 1992
Producer	Creed Taylor
Jimmy Giuffre chronology

Fusion is a 1961 album by the Jimmy Giuffre 3.^[1]

The trio on the recording was Giuffre's second drummerless group. He said at the time that the trio was “searching for a free sense of tonality and form”.^[2] The album title comes from Giuffre's sense that a meeting (fusion) of minds of the musicians was required in the free improvisation sections of the performances.^[3]

It was remastered, remixed and (partially) re-released by ECM in 1992 as a double-album with the trio's other 1961-Verve recording, Thesis (with three previously unissued tracks from the August sessions), substituting an alternate take of "Trudgin'" and omitting "Used To Be."

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	^[4]
DownBeat	^[3]

The contemporaneous DownBeat reviewer commented that the recording was dominated by Bley, not Giuffre, and concluded that it was "off the beaten track in exploring possibilities for this type of guided democracy in jazz".^[3] AllMusic awarded the album 4 stars stating "The debut recording by Jimmy Giuffre's new trio was as startling a new development in Giuffre's music as it was in jazz... The elegance and grace of this album didn't set the American jazz world on fire as Free Fall would the next year, but it did set up further textural and architectural possibilities for the trio's next album, Thesis".^[4]

Track listing

"Scootin' About – 3:39
"Jesus Maria" (Carla Bley) – 6:17
"Emphasis" – 4:18
"In the Mornings Out There" (Carla Bley) – 6:54
"Cry, Want" – 5:13
"Trudgin'" – 4:02
"Used to Be'" – 3:58
"Brief Hesitation" – 4:19
"Venture" – 4:00

The original Verve mono LP included the complete take of "Used to Be," while the Verve stereo LP included a version that fades out at approximately 3:40.

Additional tracks on 1992 ECM reissue:

"Trudgin'" (alternate take) - 4:33
"Afternoon" – 5:15

Tracks released on 2016 Emanem Records CD release "Bremen & Stuttgart 1961":

"Trudgin'" (originally issued take) – 4:02
"Used to Be'" (stereo take edited to mono conclusion) – 3:58

All compositions by Jimmy Giuffre except as indicated.

Personnel

Jimmy Giuffre - clarinet
Paul Bley - piano
Steve Swallow - bass

References

^ Fitzgerald, M., Jimmy Giuffre discography, accessed June 29, 2014
^ Quoted by Steve Lake in sleevenotes for 1992 reissue
^ ^a ^b ^c Tynan, John (September 14, 1961). "Jimmy Giuffre: Fusion". DownBeat. Vol. 28, no. 19. p. 26.
^ ^a ^b Jurek, T., AllMusic Review accessed June 26, 2014