SAM RIVERS and DAVE HOLLAND – Vol. 2 (LP-1976)

Label: Improvising Artists Inc. – IAI 373.848

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: US / Released: 1977

Style: Avant-garde Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded at Big Apple Studio, New York City, February 18, 1976.

Painting [Jacket Cover Drawing] – David Garland

Photography By [Jacket Liner] – Carol Goss

Producer – Paul Bley

Recorded By, Mixed By – David Baker

A - Ripples ............................................................. 23:49

bass – Dave Holland / flute, composed by – Sam Rivers

B – Deluge .............................................................. 23:23

bass – Dave Holland / piano, composed by – Sam Rivers

Sam Rivers / Dave Holland Vol. 2 is an album by American jazz saxophonist Sam Rivers and English double-bassist Dave Holland featuring performances recorded in 1976 and released on the Improvising Artists label. Not Easy Listening, but unique and beautiful music, and as with Volume I, excellently formed.

...In a significant discography now approaching forty titles as a leader across five decades, "Contrasts" stands out as the only recording that left-of-center saxophonist/flautist Sam Rivers led for ECM. Originally released in 1980 on vinyl.

Rivers made his ECM debut on Dave Holland's classic 1973 ECM recording, "Conference of the Birds". In the years between these two recordings, the pair continued to work together in a number of formats, most notably as the duo responsible for Sam Rivers/Dave Holland Vol. 1 (I.A.I., 1976) and Vol. 2 (I.A.I., 1977), and in a trio with drummer Barry Altschul on "Sizzle" (Impulse!, 1976) and "Paragon" (Fluid, 1977). But it was with "Waves" (Tomato, 1979), that the seeds of "Contrasts" were born, as Rivers and Holland were joined by drummer/percussionist Thurman Barker, a similarly avant-reaching member of Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM)...

...When Sam Rivers met up with bassist Dave Holland for a set of duets, he decided to record two LPs and play a different instrument on each of the sidelong pieces. While Rivers performs on tenor and soprano during the first volume, the second recording finds him playing "Ripples" on flute and switching to piano for "Deluge"; both performances are over 23 minutes long. Since tenor is easily Rivers's strongest ax, this set is something different, equally successful and very intriguing. The flute piece has several different sections that keep both the musicians and listeners interested, while Rivers's piano feature is quite intense...

Hey, that's Sam & Dave, isn't it?

Enjoy!

If you find it, buy this album!