SAM RIVERS – Waves (Tomato Records – TOM-8002 / LP-1979)

Label: Tomato – TOM-8002

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: US / Released: 1979

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded at Big Apple Studio in New York City on August 8, 1978.

Design – Milton Glaser

Photography By – Steve Salmieri

Engineer – Elvin Campbell, James Jordan

Produced by Rivbea Music Company
Liner Notes – Robert Palmer

All compositions by Sam Rivers

Matrix / Runout (Side A Label): TOM 8002-A

Matrix / Runout (Side B Label): TOM 8002-B

A1 - Shockwave .............................................................................. 14:58

A2 - Torch ......................................................................................... 7:05

B1 - Pulse ....................................................................................... 10:33

B2 - Flux ........................................................................................... 6:10

B3 - Surge ........................................................................................ 5:18

Personnel:

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

Dave Holland –  bass, cello

Joe Daley – tuba, baritone horn

Thurman Barker – drums, percussion

Waves is an album by American jazz saxophonist Sam Rivers featuring performances recorded in 1978 and released on the Tomato label.

An explosive late '70s set with underrated composer, multi-instrumentalist, and arranger Sam Rivers leading a strong quartet. While bassist and cellist Dave Holland and percussionist Thurman Barker merged to form a strong, challenging rhythm section, Rivers and Joe Daley, playing tuba and baritone horn, worked together to create instrumental dialogues in sequence. Their array of contrasting voicings, with Rivers on tenor and soprano sax and flute, makes for compelling listening.

(_ Review by Ron Wynn)

Here's a LP that I love very much. Tomato Records (TOM-8002) as one of the great documents of 70s creative jazz. Sam Rivers is one of the all-time greats on tenor sax, and a mean soprano, flute, and piano player, as well. Anyone who's caught his trio live in recent years can attest to the fact that his talents are undiminished, even at the age of 80. This particular album was recorded in 1978, and prominently features bassist Dave Holland, one of Rivers' most sympathetic collaborators of the decade. Holland is the anchor here, with Thurman Barker's spare, understated, and masterfully economical drumming going from rapid hi-hat timekeeping to volcanic surges of Varese-like pile-ups. The bass player has an almost unreal sense of time, and his rapid, wandering lines are consistently articulated with impeccable clarity. Also holding the bottom end down is Joe Daley's tuba. He handles What one would assume to be an unweildly instrument for fast-paced improvisation with a deftness that allows him to flow easily amongst the quicksilver play of the other musicians. Daley also plays baritone horn on the opening cut "Shockwave", his lines and Holland's interlocking in a fluid tussle. The piece opens with Rivers on the piano, playing with a robust, but beautiful force that prefigures the style Matthew Shipp would take to the next level some years later. After the aforementioned duet between Holland and Daley, Barker gradually asserts his presence, while Rivers enters on tenor. His angular, clean lines evolve into impassioned shrieks, while the rapid free-bop pace never lets up. "Torch" is a similarly speedy number, with Rivers on flute. After the rhythmic, acoustic quasi-fusion of "Pulse", where Holland's playing most recalls his work with Miles Davis, "Flux" features the bassist's cello playing in a duet with Rivers' piano. The piece recalls twelve-tone classical in its more restrained moments, before building up into a dramatic cloud of sound accented by Barker's bells. Rivers' rich tenor returns on the closing "surge", as does Daley's tuba. Holland stretches out on arco bass while Barker lays low for much of the track, adding manic snare shapes at unpredictable peaks. Overall, this album met with my high expectations.

If you find it, buy this album!

CECIL TAYLOR – Nuits De La Fondation Maeght Vol. 1 / Vol. 2 / Vol. 3 (3LPs-1972)

Cecil Taylor – Nuits De La Fondation Maeght Vol. 1

Label: Shandar – SR 10011 / 83 507

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: France / Released: 1972

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded live on 29 July 1969 at Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France.

Photography By – Horace, Philippe Gras

Engineer [Sound] – Claude Jauvert

Producer [Conception] – Georges Perdriaud

Sleeve Notes [Inside] – Daniel Caux

Matrix / Runout (Side A): 10011 A [83507A]

Matrix / Runout (Side B): 10011 B [83507B]

A - Second Act Of A ............................................................................... 21:25          

B - Second Act Of A ............................................................................... 19:55

Cecil Taylor – piano

Jimmy Lyons – alto saxophone

Sam Rivers – tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone

Andrew Cyrille – drums, percussion

Nuits De La Fondation Maeght is a live album by Cecil Taylor recorded in St. Paul de Vence, Nice, on July 29, 1969. The album was originally released as Nuits de la Fondation Maeght on the French Shandar label, 3LPs-1971 as a box set.

In 1972 the French label Shandar also announced 3 albums individually packaged, Nuits De La Fondation Maeght Vol. 1 / Vol. 2 and Vol. 3. Each has a gatefold cover with same photo but different tint. Black labels with disc logo.

This was a truly magical night for the Taylor unit. The interplay between Lyons and Rivers is impeccable, exploring intervallic reaches of tonal ambience and equanimity. The lack of a bassist in this case is a plus, not a minus, as Taylor gets to indulge his rhythmic impulse to the extreme in order to let the two sax players go into arpeggio overdrive in tandem. The polytonality of Rivers is especially important here as he doesn't so much collide with Lyons, who instinctively knew, in 1969, how Taylor articulated his language, he "extends" him linguistically. Rivers brittle tone on tenor and his shrill soprano engage the steady polyrhythmic attack of Lyons whose ostinato are the cues Taylor takes for his own when moving the piano into solo position. And the two horns find the striated expanses of sonic terrain Taylor prepares them for. And Cyrille knows just how to escalate; the result is no less spectacular than John Coltrane and Pharaoh Sanders on Live in Seattle -- the only real difference is, it's Taylor who does the yelling and shouting when the music gets to the outer limits and can't express what he needs it to. The great Paris concert in its entirety is a Taylor masterpiece.

(Review by Thom Jurek)

Cecil Taylor – Nuits De La Fondation Maeght Vol. 2

Label: Shandar – 83 508

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: France / Released: 1972

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded live on 29 July 1969 at Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France.

Photography By – Horace, Philippe Gras

Engineer [Sound] – Claude Jauvert

Producer [Conception] – Georges Perdriaud

Sleeve Notes [Inside] – Daniel Caux

Matrix / Runout (Side A): NPO SR 83508A

Matrix / Runout (Side B): NPO SR 83508B

A - Second Act Of A ............................................................................... 18:20          

B - Second Act Of A ............................................................................... 16:22

Nuits De La Fondation Maeght, trilogy recordings (for me) is his best work from a particularly enigmatic period. Taylor was playing sprawling immeasurably intense reckless refulgence & asymmetrical avant wizardry with the insane Andrew Cyrille, for me indubitably one of the most fantastic & original drummers ever. Out of the many things that could be said, I would emphasise that Taylor & his unit redefined the elongated-outburst & prolonged-peaking coming with ceaseless surging’s of unparalleled clamour & volatility. Frequently without intervals, extenuation or cessation they would dance an immensely detailed & dynamic squall within the singularity of remorseless & unforgiving outermost, fully-cyclic, hell-for-leather frenzy. A heteronomous hurricane & blitzing blizzard of ebullient fulmination Cyrille was able to maintain physically these momentous requirements but also inflect with a cycle of extensive improvisational embellishment & continually capricious contrasting...

Cecil Taylor – Nuits De La Fondation Maeght Vol. 3

Label: Shandar – 83 509

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: France / Released: 1972

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded live on 29 July 1969 at Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France.

Photography By– Horace, Philippe Gras

Engineer [Sound] – Claude Jauvert

Producer [Conception] – Georges Perdriaud

Sleeve Notes [Inside] – Daniel Caux

Matrix / Runout (Side A): NPO SR 83509A

Matrix / Runout (Side B): NPO SR 83509B

A - Second Act Of A ............................................................................... 13:00          

B - Second Act Of A ............................................................................... 20:00

...Taylor’s closest adjutant saxophonist Jimmy Lyon’s would also duck in & out with sax screel & hysteria. These Olympic stints of decadent comminute went way beyond the threshold, agreeable limitation or somatic restriction that pretty much everybody else was on, with an unapologetic & frankly extremist activity/ideology of severe surplus pandemonium & improvident forceful action whilst exercising immense technical credibility. Many a marvel of withering extravagance was being exercised by other legends during this great era, but this lot did it, to my knowledge, longer & harder without intermission including mostly for each individual musician (consecutive group participation), never slacking & all exploding into one sustained shock-wave of terrific turbulence. these recordings though, do offer the secondary function of a more Avant-Garde slower & emotionally alternate medium occasionally with vocal extracts from Taylor. They are stunning diverse & intricate but also often bizarre. This is another phenomenon of Cecil Taylor & much of his music, lyrics & imagery. It’s dark, I would say at times even quite minatory. Much of the furore from the depths of Free Jazz’s sonic battle field encompassed anger, madness & intensity are as a commodity, but Taylor as with Sunny Murray often depicts & conjures stuff that I would not feel at error calling nasty, dark, or threatening in a direct & mostly unequivocal manner...

...Yes, for me, tones of hazard, tragedy & outright tenebrous madness etc are very apparent (hell, it could be just my misinterpretation, but I feel these elements skulk within his work amongst other sentiments & energies of a far more positive distinction). This is another specialist feature of Taylor & contributes even more to his significant idiosyncrasy. Anyway, as for this mind-blowingly marvellous 3LP set released by Shandar, there is another foreign element/irregularity that kicked shit completely into hyper-space. On these recordings they threw fucking Sam Rivers into the mix! Can you imagine? As if things were not preposterous enough, the absolute madman Rivers was air-dropped into the vortex with his tenor & soprano cannons. The results are just ridiculous & why these recordings are amongst the most precious & heavily rotated in my stash. Unfortunately, to my knowledge, no further foray frenzy was created with Rivers after this tour. Thank the goddess that someone was recording & captured this brain scattering murrain so expertly & issued it in this cult vinyl trilogy...

Enjoy!

If you find them, buy these albums!

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!

WILDFLOWERS 1 – The New York Loft Jazz Sessions (Douglas / LP1-1977)

Label: Douglas – NBLP 7045

Series: Wildflowers: The New York Loft Jazz Sessions – 1

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

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded May 14 thru May 23, 1976 at Studio Rivbea, 24 Bond Street, New York.

Engineer [Assistant] – Les Kahn

Engineer [Chief] – Ron Saint Germain

Engineer [Remote Assistant] – Matt Murray

Executive-producer – Harley I. Lewin

Liner Notes – Ross Firestone

Mastered By – Ray Janos

Photography By – Peter Harron

Producer – Alan Douglas, Michael Cuscuna, Sam Rivers

A1 - Kalaparusha – Jays ...................................................................................... 6:00

        Bass, Electric Bass – Chris White

        Drums – Jumma Santos

        Tenor Saxophone – Kalaparusha (Maurice McIntyre)

A2 - Ken McIntyre – New Times .......................................................................... 7:25

        Alto Saxophone – Ken McIntyre (Makanda)

        Congas – Andy Vega

        Percussion [Multiple] – Andrei Strobert

        Piano – Richard Harper

A3 - Sunny Murray & The Untouchable Factor – Over The Rainbow ................. 5:30

        Alto Saxophone – Byard Lancaster

        Bass – Fred Hopkins

        Drums – Sunny Murray

        Tenor Saxophone – David Murray

        Vibraphone – Khan Jamal

B1 - Sam Rivers – Rainbows ............................................................................. 10:00

        Bass – Jerome Hunter

        Drums – Jerry Griffin

        Soprano Saxophone – Sam Rivers

B2 - Air – Usu Dance ............................................................................................ 7:45

        Alto Saxophone – Henry Threadgill

        Bass – Fred Hopkins 
         Drums, Percussion – Steve McCall

In the mid-1970s, a jazz renaissance blossomed in large New York loft spaces that the musicians had reclaimed from the depressed blocks of the trendy Soho and Noho areas. The Wildflowers sessions, originally released on Douglas on five LPs, captured performances by almost 100 musicians in numerous configurations. The recordings were made over two weekends at the most famed of the lofts, Studio Rivbea, the home and workspace of saxophonist-flutist-composer Sam Rivers and his wife, Beatrice. Rivers orchestrated the lineup, played host to patrons, and performed as well. The sessions featured many figures well-established in New York, including Rivers, drummer Andrew Cyrille, and pianist Randy Weston, but they also attracted players from the seedbed of so much African American aesthetic jazz exploration in the 1960s and '70s, Chicago.

In addition, Rivers invited to town some key players from Philadelphia and New Haven; there were several newcomers to New York, too, including, from out West, a very young David Murray. The music all had immediacy and urgency fitting to the aesthetic task at hand--to consolidate the gains of the free-jazz and New Thing movements of the 1960s. Indeed, many of the players remain key figures today in that project: Anthony Braxton, Roscoe Mitchell, and Leo Smith among them. In addition to their performances, highlights of the package include Rivers's radiant meandering over his composition "Rainbow"; pianist Weston's impassioned homage to his father; and performances by important, but often under-recognized innovators, including saxophonist Ken McIntyre and pianist Dave Burrell. Here is a seminal document in American music...

If you find it, buy this album!

DAVE HOLLAND / SAM RIVERS – Dave Holland and Sam Rivers, Vol. 1 (LP-1976)

Label: Improvising Artists Inc. – IAI 373843

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: US / Released: 1976

Style: Avant-garde Jazz, Free Improvisation

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

Artwork [Jacket], Photography By – Carol Goss

Composed By – Sam Rivers

Producer – Paul Bley

Recorded By, Mixed By – David Baker

A - Waterfall  ........................................................ 17:10

bass – Dave Holland / soprano saxophone – Sam Rivers

B - Cascade  .......................................................... 21:20

bass – Dave Holland / tenor saxophone – Sam Rivers

Intimate improvisational music played with absolute mastery by the incredible Sam Rivers (saxophonist/flutist/composer) and a great virtuoso of the double bass Dave Holland. A profound musical journey - but also just a dialogue between friends. Essential.

The first of two LPs that bring back a daylong duet session by Sam Rivers and bassist Dave Holland consists of two lengthy improvisations featuring Rivers on soprano and tenor; volume two features him playing flute and piano. Rivers' adventurous solos and interplay with the virtuosic Holland make this record of interest to listeners with open ears toward the avant-garde, despite the LP-length playing time.

Please be aware that this music will not immediately mandate foot tapping. Nor was it intended to, at least not during the first listen. It IS the combination of two legendary musicians providing wholly improvised, extended duo performances that never weaken with time. This music was recorded in 1976, and is still fresh. It does not fall into the traps of, I am sorry to say standard, so-called free form music, with its inability to focus. Rather, this musical set brings the listener to and through distinctly formed stream of consciousness improvisations with Sam Rivers playing and soprano then tenor saxes, underpinned by Dave Holland on bass. This, along with Volume two of this collaboration, should be a part of anyone's collection who appreciates interactive music which develops musical forms with structure and clarity; music that never fades.

If you find it, buy this album!

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!

SAM RIVERS – Black Africa! - Villalago 1976 (Horo,2LP-1977) and Perugia 1976 (Horo,2LP-1977)

Label: Horo Records – HDP 03-04
Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP, Album; Country: Italy - Released: 1977
Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation
Recorded live at Villalago (Umbria Jazz) July 24, 1976,
except D2 recorded live at Perugia, July 25, 1976
Re-Design Covers By – ART&JAZZ Studio, By VITKO
Producer – Aldo Sinesio

Sam Rivers - Black Africa! Villalago
Horo HDP 3/4 (2 LP) 1977 Italy

A  -  Black Africa (Soprano Section)  19:54
B  -  Black Africa (Piano & Flute Section)  19:56
C  -  Black Africa (Flute & Tenor Section)  19:58
D1 - Black Africa (Villalago: Encore)  11:04
D2 - Black Africa (Perugia Concert: Finale)  11:03

SAM RIVERS - tenor & soprano saxophone, flute, piano, voice
JOE DALEY -  tuba, euphonium
DON PULLEN - piano (track C)
SIDNEY SMART - drums, percussion

"Umbria Jazz certainly has got to be one of the most unique jazz events in the world. Taking place in the Umbria region of central Italy, this festival is a mini tour by both participating musicians and the public of the little towns in the region. The performances take place in the piazzas or parks of the village, and no entrance fee is charged. A nominal charge is made for bus transportation to the villages. These two double albums document the performances by the Sam Rivers tour: the villages of Villalago and Perugia."
_ Carl Brauer, CADENCE / Vol. 4, No. 4 / June 1978

Sam Rivers Trio performs Rivers` composition BLACK AFRICA in Villalago/Perugia, Italy on July 24/25, 1976. Joe Daley plays tuba & euphonium and Sidney Smart is on drums and percussion. Rivers employs his usual repertoire of sax, flute, piano and screaming. In addition, the editors of this LP have seen it fit to print Don Pullen`s name in capital letters on the back cover, but I wouldn`t make too much out of this, for reasons mentioned shortly.
The set is more a free jazz freak-out than a composition. I`ve heard wilder things, but not from Rivers. The music is excellent. In addition to Rivers` contribution, especially Joe Daley on tuba is awesome. If there`s one shortcoming, it`s the sound quality, which is admittedly relatively poor. It just so happens that one of the worst moments in this regard coincides with Pullen`s comes, making his contribution barely audible. That`s why marketing this with his name seems pretty misleading.
But despite these shortcomings, I am sure you will enjoy this legendary gig.

Label: Horo Records – HDP 05-06
Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP, Album; Country: Italy - Released: 1977
Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation
Recorded live in Perugia (Umbria Jazz), July 25, 1976.
Re-Design Covers By – ART&JAZZ Studio, By VITKO
Producer – Aldo Sinesio

Sam Rivers - Black Africa! Perugia
Horo HDP 5/6 (2 LP) 1977 Italy

A - Black Africa! (Tenor Section)  19:55
B - Black Africa! (Piano Section)  19:47
C - Black Africa! (Flute & Soprano Sections)  16:26
D - Black Africa! (Tenor Section)  21:04

SAM RIVERS - tenor & soprano saxophone, flute, piano, voice
JOE DALEY -  tuba, euphonium
SIDNEY SMART - drums, percussion

Note:
Back covers is slightly altered in order to insert the informations which is found in the inner pages of the both albums.



If you find it, buy this album!

IMPROVISORS POOL featuring A. von SCHLIPPENBACH & S. RIVERS – Backgrounds For Improvisors (1996)

Label: FMP – FMP CD 75 

Format: CD, Album; Country: Germany - Released: 1996 

Style: Free Improvisation

Recorded on 5 April 1995 at 'Podewil', Berlin.
Photography By – Dagmar Gebers
New Cover Design by ART&JAZZ Studio, by VITKO
Producer – Johannes Bockholt-Dams
Producer, Recorded By [Live] – Jost Gebers
Recorded By [Live] – Holger Scheuermann


Review:
 
For those who've long admired Sam Rivers or Alexander von Schlippenbach, this set, recorded live in 1995, is one of those "grail"-like recordings. While both men have been rooted in large settings for improvisation over the past 40 years -- Rivers with his wonderful Winds of Manhattan group and von Schlippenbach with the Globe Unity Orchestra, they'd never met, much less played together, before the rehearsals for this date. FMP has done a stellar job of capturing a gig so charged and spirited, where the goodwill and encouragement inspired every member of this nonet to perform as both a soloist and a contributor to the unit - - perhaps beyond their own conception of potential. The members of this group, besides the two headliners, were well-known in Europe if not on the American improv and free jazz scenes: Tina Wrase on soprano saxophone, Axel Dörner on trumpet, Felix Wahnschaffe on alto saxophone, Tilman Denhard on flute and tenor, and Claas Willecke on baritone, with Horst Nonnenmacher on bass and drummer Johannes Bockholt-Dams rounding out the band. This comes out of the gate swinging with von Schlippenbach's "If You Say," with piano, bass, and drum kit ushering in a two- and then four-chord vamp, before the horns come in playing knotty and true as Rivers and Wrase engage in call and response above the chart. Rivers then gets big and takes the first solo with von Schlippenbach answering contrapuntally, alternating lines of his theme and playing tough blocky chords for the soloist to jump from. But it's rhythmically so engaging, it just swings like mad. Rivers' "Terrain" is next. Though it is more angular from the jump, it too is rooted in the melodic interpolation of Ornette Coleman and the edgier post-bop of Eric Dolphy. But truly, this one is all Rivers -- and one can hear the same composer of "Fuschia Swing Song" here as well as the arranger for the Winds of Manhattan. As the section engages with the rhythm players, the horn interplay here is just stunning -- it's so playful and whimsical. There is some seriously out playing in the middle where Rivers, Wrase, and Dörner engage in some counterpoint improvisation without the rest of the band.

The sparse "Top Dogs Double Hop," by von Schlippenbach, is actually a wonderful exercise for the arco playing of Nonnenmacher, Rivers' flute, and the intricate chromaticism of the composer. Most everyone gets in on the act for a bit, but it is so halting and deliberate that the listener is captivated by the multi-threaded melodic work for the flutes. "Background," by Rivers, is the longest piece here, and though it begins with his solo tenor, it is the hinge on which the rest of this date opens and closes. Here, the "background" is the rhythm section, charging furiously through a series of taut, dense patterns and vamps as Rivers solos furiously on top of them. When the horns enter full bore on one of the "choruses," it is like a window opening: an entirely new textural ground is laid, and a brilliant array of sonorities and colors presents itself anew as Dörner, Willecke, Rivers, Wrase, and Denhard dig in, playing through and around one another. While there are some dynamic changes and spatial interludes, for the most part this is an exhilarating ride and itself worth the price of admission. It makes the utterly meditative flute duet "Encounter" possible -- a breather for the listener -- before von Schlippenbach's closer, "The Forge." Here is where the "free" in free jazz comes from, stacked atop an opening theme that is knotty, at right angles, and full of thematics from European theater music, but it too approaches jazz's edgiest "swing." The brief spaces where one or two instruments wander are merely interludes as the next set of ideas is revved up for the go and von Schlippenbach conducts it all with mischievous glee. This is one of the true wonders -- of many -- in the FMP catalog, and a high point for both of the set's leaders.

_ By THOM JUREK



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