The Jimmy Giuffre 3, Thesis (side A)

1962's Free Fall is generally considered Giuffre's canonical accomplishment of genre-defying innovation.  It's only fair to compare 1961's Thesis, which immediately preceded Free Fall, against it.  The two records are in many ways remarkably similar, with Giuffre, Paul Bley, and Steve Swallow stretching jazz to illogical conclusions.  The drummerless trio here also uses hints of jazz harmonic content and notions of improvisation to explore its distinctive musical vision.  While Thesis never explodes frenetically, it has moments of energetic playing that exceed anything found on Free Fall.  There are also surprising moments of extended technique here, with hissing clarinets and and clanking bass sounds.  Thesis is natural sounding and incredibly dynamic—it was hard to hear the quiet parts over the air conditioner without the loud parts blaring at a volume annoying to my neighbors.  The muted olive green cover and simple font only delicately stretch the idiom of a jazz record cover of this era, with only an understated hint of the innovation found within.  The 1992 reissue mix sounds a lot worse.  It sacrifices the period sound to emphasize high-end detail and a bit of fast compression—while it is in some places nice to hear new details of these amazing players' performances, it's far more distracting to hear such an unrepresentative mix.