SAM RIVERS – The Live Trio Sessions (2LP-1978)

Label: Impulse! – IA-9352/2

Series: The Dedication Series – Vol. XII

Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP / Country: US / Released: 1978

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Liner Notes – Robert Palmer

Mixed By – Al Schmitt Jr. (tracks: A, B), Baker Bigsby (tracks: C1 to D2), Ed Michel (tracks: C1 to D2), Michael Cuscuna (tracks: A, B)

Producer – Ed Michel

Design by – Vartan/Rod Dyer Inc.

Photography by – Charles Stewaet

A  -  Hues Of Melanin - Part One (Soprano Saxophone Section) ................................. 15:30

B  -  Hues Of Melanin - Part Two (Flute And Vocal Section) ........................................ 18:47

C1 - Hues Of Melanin - Part Three (Ivory Black - The Piano Section) ........................... 4:13

C2 - Hues Of Melanin - Part Four (Violet - The Tenor Saxophone Section) .................. 5:38

C3 - Encore ..................................................................................................................... 3:05

C4 - Mauve ..................................................................................................................... 4:17

C5 - Indigo ...................................................................................................................... 1:28

D1 - Suite For Molde - Part One ..................................................................................... 8:06

         a. Onyx - The Soprano Saxophone Section

         b. Topaz - The Flute Section

D2 - Suite For Molde - Part Two (The Tenor Saxophone Section) ............................... 11:27

Tracks A-C2 recorded live on November 10, 1973 at the Battel Chapel, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.

Track C3 recorded live on July 6, 1973 at The Montreux Jazz Festival, Switzerland.

Tracks C4, C5 recorded live on October 27, 1972 at Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan.

Tracks D1-D2 recorded live on August 3, 1973, at the Molde Jazz Festival, Molde, Norway.

Sam Rivers – tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, flute, piano, vocals

Cecil McBee (tracks: A1 to C3) – bass

Richard Davis (tracks: C4, C5) – bass

Arild Andersen (tracks: D1, D2) – bass

Barry Altschul (tracks: A1 to C2, D1, D2) – drums, percussion

Norman Connors (tracks: C3) – drums, percussion

Warren Smith (tracks: C4, C5) – drums, percussion

Recorded live at concerts in Molde, Norway, Yale University, the 1973 Montreux Jazz Festival and at Rochester, Michigan, this long-out-of-print double LP has all of Sam Rivers' recordings from the 1972-73 period. The music "Hues of Melanin" (here divided into four parts) lasts 47 minutes. In addition to three much briefer pieces, the two-part "Suite for Molde" is over 19 minutes long. On these numbers Rivers is joined by either Cecil McBee, Richard Davis or Arlid Anderson on bass and Barry Altschul, Norman Connors or Warren Smith on drums. There is surprisingly little tenor playing from Rivers during the performances (including just 5½ minutes of "Hues of Melanin"); he does stretch out more on soprano, flute, piano and even a little eccentric vocalizing. The passionate music is quite adventurous and outside, as close as Rivers came to free jazz. Excellent, but definitely not for all tastes.

_ Review by Scott Yanow

Excerpt from the Liner Notes by Robert Palmer:

...this is a part of the ambitious program Backer and Michel effected during their Impulse tenure. The exceptions are „Onyx“ and „Topaz“, recorded at the Molde Festival in Norway; and „Ivory Black“ and „Violet“, recorded at Yale. These performances were included in „Hues“, an Impulse album of short excerpts from long trio performances, while most of the rest of the present album was scattered over „The Saxophone, Impulse! Artists on Tour, No Energy Crisis“ and „The Drums“. Michael Cuscuna has gone back and restored the integrity of the original sessions, so that the remarkable „Hues of Melanin“ from Yale, with the rhythm section of Cecil McBee and Barry Altschul that Rivers prefers today, and the „Suite for Molde“ are heard complete for the first time.

Rivers may have begun the Yale and Molde performances with an empty stage, but the stage did not remain empty for long, for these are remarkably rich and cohesive examples of group improvisation. Like any discipline that is practiced long enough, Rivers's trio performances have developed their own conventions–the uptempo and midtempo swing sections, the vaguely Eastern sounding drone sections, and so on–but it's remarkable how little convention and how many new sound and new ideas are present here. One could point to the overwhelming momentum of the Yale concert or to the alchemy that occurs between Rivers's flute and Arild Andersen's bowed bass on the second part of „Suite for Molde“ as particular highlights, but in fact, everything here is exceptional. And since Rivers has really recorded very little of his free-form trio music–most of his later trio dates, such as the brilliant „The Quest“ with Holland and Altschul, bring compositional elements into play–the addition of this album to his discography is particulary welcome...

...Rivers's feelings about this music make the album doubly welcome. „Trio performances are the only thing I like to leave completely free“, he said in 1974. „That's really my style of playing, and I've been doing it long enough to be very conscious of developing forms. I start to build into some kind of form and set it up so that there's a rise and fall throughout. I didn't really feel that „Streams“ was one of my best trio performances. I flew over to make the gig in Montreux, and it was kind of hectic. The selections which they put on „No Energy Crisis“ and „Impulse! Artists on Tour“ [these were excerpts from the Yale and Molde concerts] „were better performances; they showed more emotion than „Streams“.“

That should tell you something about the way Rivers evaluates his own music. „Streams“ is a marvel of inventiveness and stamina but it is, perhaps, a little icy. Rivers at his best, as he was at Yale and Molde, is warm and expressive as well as technically formidable. In the end, both these attributes are equally important. „You can't survive in his business on just your intuitive thing“, he said when I interviewed him again in1978. „You can come out here and be an intuitive musician and be really happening, but your dreams and visions won't last forever. If you don't get into the books and get this technical thing together while your intuitive thing is happening, it's over.“ Rivers's great strength is that he has so much of both, the technical and the intuitive. He isn't in the music for one short, apocalyptic instant, he's in it for the long haul. His work, which he considers American classical music, is intended to last, and it's fortunate that these performances, restored to their original length, are going to last along with the rest of his recordings.

Enjoy!

If you find it, buy this album!