Liudas Mockūnas / Samuel Blaser / Marc Ducret: Twisted Summer

All of modern jazz and improvised music owes a debt to Jimmy Giuffre (1921—2008). A quiet revolutionary, Giuffre helped reshape the language of jazz in ways that many musicians now take for granted. His solo recordings anticipated those of Anthony Braxton and Roscoe Mitchell, while his early experiments without a rhythm section, common practice today, were once considered radical. Even his approach to free jazz set him apart. Where contemporaries like John Coltrane and Albert Ayler explored the music's most explosive possibilities, Giuffre pursued a more introspective path, crafting a form of free jazz that was cerebral, restrained, and deeply attentive to space.

For many listeners, Free Fall (Columbia, 1963), recorded with pianist Paul Bley and bassist Steve Swallow, serves as an entry point into Giuffre's work. Yet it is his earlier trio with guitarist Jim Hall and trombonist Bob Brookmeyer that provides the foundation for Twisted Summer, the collaboration between Liudas Mockūnas, Samuel Blaser and Marc Ducret. That original trio described its music as "folk jazz," blending the cool lyricism of the West Coast with echoes of Aaron Copland's open, pastoral sensibility. Mockūnas, Blaser and Ducret begin from that premise, but reimagine it through a contemporary lens.

This trio brings a modern vocabulary to Giuffre's aesthetic, drawing on a wide array of extended techniques and timbral possibilities. The brief opener, "Drop It," unfolds like a piece of chamber music, its tension and atmosphere suggesting an imagined film score. Similar qualities shape the concise miniatures "Dama" and "How Lovely," where texture and mood take precedence over conventional form. These pieces demonstrate the trio's sensitivity to space and restraint, qualities central to Giuffre's legacy.

In contrast, the longer works, "Air," "Think of 3," and the title track, expand into more open terrain. Here, each musician steps forward for extended solos, supported and challenged by the others. The interplay is marked by a careful balance: no voice dominates, and each gesture is met with a considered response. Composition and improvisation are treated as equal partners, held together by a shared sense of structure that feels both deliberate and organic.

What emerges across Twisted Summer is a music defined by equilibrium. The trio maintains a triangular balance, honoring Giuffre's emphasis on collective sound while allowing individual expression to shine through. Their playing is disciplined without being rigid, exploratory without losing coherence.

In revisiting Giuffre's legacy, Mockūnas, Blaser and Ducret do more than pay tribute; they extend it. Twisted Summer captures the enduring relevance of Giuffre's ideas, reminding us that innovation need not announce itself loudly. Sometimes it speaks in quieter tones, in careful listening, and in the subtle reshaping of tradition.