Free Fall, as�its name suggests, is Ken Vandermark's new concept band, formed as a homage�after the 1961 Columbia album by the Jimmy Giuffre 3, with Steve Swallow on double bass and Paul Bley on piano. Vandermark plays the Bb and bass clarinets, and his Norwegian mates - Ingebrigt Haker Flaten on bass (who also plays in another of Vandermark's US/Scandinavian concept bands, School Days, named after the now legendary 1963 quartet of Steve Lacy and Roswell Rudd, and the last collaboration between Vandermark's DKV trio with Mats Gustafsson's AALY trio, Double or Nothing, released by Okka Disk) and Havard Wiik (who plays with Flaten in the Norwegian/Swedish quintet Atomic).

Vandermark is the first to acknowledge these references,�especially to the Guiffre 3. He covered one of Giuffre 3 pieces, "Scootin' About" (from Jimmy Guiffre 3 released in 1961 by Verve), with the Vandermark 5 on his Free Jazz Classics Vol. 2�(Atavistic) and dedicated a piece, "Taken," to Guiffre on the trio disc No Such Thing (Boxholder, 2001) with pianist Pandelis Karayorgis and bass player Nate McBride. But Free Fall is not a tribute band but a band that is informed by Giuffre's aesthetics, updating those references�by filtering�them through developments of improvisers who "have shifted architectural possibilities" (as Vandermark says in the notes), such�as�Anthony Braxton, Misha Mengelberg, Peter Brotzmam, William Parker, Mat Maneri,�Gustafsson and Joe Morris. The ever prolific Vandermark has recorded�with all of these musicians, save Braxton.

Vandermark is not only a devotee with a great knowledge of jazz history. He is a great player and a wise leader. In this trio he employs two player who are also aware of the rich�history of free jazz in the last forty years. He says that Flaten reflects "some of Henry Grimes earthiness" and in Wiik he sees "elements of Lennie Tristano" (these descriptions from�Vandermark's�liner notes to Atomic). Vandermark's playing here, perhaps consciously, lacks Giuffre's elegance; he opts for a dirtier, more muscular tone. On the track "Hopscotch" he slurps and shouts through his bass clarinet in ways Guiffre would not�have thought of.

The only track on Free Fall that openly pays tribute to the Guiffre 3 is the opening piece, Vandermark's�"Inside Out" which is dedicated to Paul Bley�and clearly follows Giuffre's methods of composition. Vandermark wrote five out of the nine tracks - dedicating the other four to dancer Merce Cunningham, poet Frank O'Hara, Eric Dolphy and Bill Evans - and gives a lot of space to Flaten and Wiik throughout. Wiik's three pieces are more introspective, almost too polite compared to the�restrained, raging energy of both Vandermark and Flaten. Flaten wrote one piece but his contribution is evident on every track. He can play all over the bass, in a Kowaldian way,�or supply solid support, as on Vandermark's�gentle�"Furnace." All three players sound as if they played some of the pieces for many years, another testimony to their deep knowledge of the history of the father figures of jazz as well as to the close musical kinship between them three.