Last Friday night, German multi-instrumentalist Gunter Hampel returned to the Boston area for the first time in 20 years, with a trio featuring two Americans — clarinettist Perry Robinson, who has worked with him for more than 30 years, and drummer Lou Grassi. Unlike many European improvisers of his generation, Hampel never turned his back on his roots in American jazz. In fact, his bands almost always feature American jazz players (for many years including his wife, the late African-American free-jazz vocalist Jeanne Lee), and his compositions pulse with a genuine swing. The trio’s first set at the Zeitgeist Gallery featured several of the prolific Hampel’s tuneful lines (he’s written well over a thousand), two poems read by author Hershel Silverman, and marvelous collective improvising. All of it was enlivened by the varied tone colors of Hampel’s three primary instruments: vibraphone, flute, and bass clarinet.

Hampel has his own style on each instrument, but he’s a major voice on the vibraphone. On the opening "Workout," he revealed all the instrument’s potential: sharp clanking notes fell like drumbeats, his linear passages and four-mallet chords indicated a kinship with the piano keyboard, and when he depressed the damper pedal, he built huge orchestral clouds of sound that enveloped the group.

Robinson’s lyricism played off the variety of Hampel’s accompaniment, their lines at times intertwining in close counterpoint. Robinson built interlinked phrases that snaked through the billows of tone colors, and his notes pecked the air when Hampel’s percussive notes rang out. Even Robinson’s most agitated playing is suffused with warmth and an often wry humor (he threw in a whimsical quote of "The Mexican Hat Dance" at one point). Grassi orchestrated a constantly shifting foundation, often concentrating on his bass drum, toms, and snare to provide low-pitched contrast with the treble-range instruments. Once a piece started, the trio was free to develop it spontaneously and there were unaccompanied solos, duets, and full trio passages that kept the textures varied.

Poet Silverman read two works, one inspired by John Zorn, the other by Hampel. There were a few awkward moments during the recitations, but the trio, with Hampel on flute and bass clarinet briefly, often picked up verbal cues from the poems, and most of the time there was a nice give-and-take between image and sound. A solo vibraphone piece by Hampel covered a breathtaking range of moods and techniques.

On one of the set’s two other compositions, Hampel’s solo bass-clarinet introduction set up a tight-knit duet with Robinson. Grassi displayed both economy of means and variety of expression as he concentrated on just his hi-hat, bass, and snare drums for a madly swinging solo, after which Hampel returned for a joyful exchange with the drummer. The composition’s title summed up the set’s intimate, uplifting character: "Smiling Energy."