There will be no more opportunities to experience saxophonist Sam Rivers, who passed away in 2011, at 89. Then again, you probably hadn't caught him live in decades, since he chose to live in Florida from the early 1990s, although he did release several large ensemble sessions. His 1960s Blue Note Records and 70s Impulse! dates continue to be treasured classics. What ardent fans and collectors look for these days are his trio LPs with bassist Dave Holland and drummer Barry Altschul. Long out-of-print and treasure-seekers booty, these historic (yet obscure) sounds from Rivers' 1970s trio delineated a new path for free jazz that didn't jettison melody for dissonance.
Rivers' prior work with trumpeter Miles Davis and pianists Cecil Taylor and Andrew Hill, Holland's post-electric Davis sound, and Altschul's tenure with pianist Paul Bley created a sort of new sound which could be heard at his now infamous Manhattan Loft sessions.
Certainly these factors set the stage for a historic reunion of the trio. This May, 2007 date at Columbia University capped off a week-long celebration of Rivers by WKCR radio and reunited the three, who hadn't played together in over 25 years.
The nearly one-and-a-half hours of music on two discs was recorded over two lengthy sets of improvised music. The trio glides effortlessly between bebop passages, tonal and atonal breaks and some passionate soloing. Rivers switches between tenor and soprano saxophones, flute and piano, each with its own personality. His tenor paints wide splotches of sound, while his soprano cuts more precise channels. On flute he pops and floats, and his piano sound is informed by a more charming Cecil Taylor. Where Holland's current ensembles featured his organization, here he is freed up to explore without a map. He takes several solos, passages unexpected yet built like a hurricane-proofed structure.
If this recording had been made in 1977 instead of 2007 it would have been a watershed event. Here, it is a masterpiece of a reunion. - Mark Corroto
When I think of Sam Rivers – and I do – I don't think of his great Blue Note records but of this trio. It featured on Dave Holland's magnificent Conference of the Birds (with the addition of Anthony Braxton), as well recording The Quest, one of the finest albums of the 1970s. This double CD was recorded four-and-a-half years before Rivers’ death and 19 after the trio ceased operations. In a way, time hangs suspended here. It could be now or you could be there at Studio Rivbea sometime between 1972-78. The sheer breadth of music, the undiluted quality of the playing, the almost spooky degree of empathy between the musicians and the sense of warmth, joy and controlled power that this trio could convey – nothing has been lost. Dave Holland's two bass solos on CD1 suggest that if he had sold his soul to the devil, he had extracted bloody good terms from Old Nick. Barry Altschul is never less than perfect, a brilliant foil, who anticipates, frames and enhances what his colleagues are doing. As for Rivers, he is righteous on tenor, insidious on soprano, exquisite on flute and remarkably lyrical on piano. An amazing valediction from a genuinely classic jazz trio. - Duncan Heining
Tracks
1-1. Part One
1-2. Part Two
1-3. Part Three
1-4. Part Four
1-5. Part Five
2-1. Part One
2-2. Part Two
2-3. Part Three
2-4. Part Four
SAM RIVERS tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, flute, piano
DAVE HOLLAND bass
BARRY ALTSCHUL drums
All music by Barry Altschul/Dave Holland/Sam Rivers
Recorded live onMay 25, 2007 at Miller Theatre at Columbia University, New York, NY
Pi Recordings - P145 (2012, US)