Although it was recorded on Friday, Might 21, 1965, Sam Rivers’ second Blue Notice LP, Contours, didn’t get a business launch till two years later, in 1967. An missed gem within the Oklahoma-born reedman’s canon, this basic jazz album has now been reissued as a part of Blue Notice’s new connoisseur LP line, Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Sequence.
The son of a gospel singer, Samuel Carthorne Rivers was a saxophonist and flutist initially from El Reno, Oklahoma. He was one thing of a late starter when it comes to recording as he didn’t arrive at New York’s Blue Notice Information, the place he made his debut LP, Fuchsia Swing Track, till 1964, when he was 41 years previous.
Rivers got here to the eye of Blue Notice’s boss, producer Alfred Lion, by way of his affiliation with drummer Tony Williams, then a brand new addition to the Miles Davis Quintet. Regardless of a 22-year age distinction, Rivers and Williams had develop into good mates whereas dwelling in Boston – Rivers’ adopted hometown – within the late 50s, and the 2 musicians practiced collectively.
“He carried a new sound”
In July 1964, 18-year-old Williams beneficial Rivers (who was working because the musical director for bluesman T-Bone Walker) to Miles Davis as a substitute for the departing George Coleman for an upcoming tour of Japan. Influenced by the avant-gardism of Ornette Coleman, Rivers performed in a a lot freer model than George Coleman and, throughout his quick stint with Miles’ band – a matter of weeks – he introduced a brand new edge to the Darkish Magus’ younger cohorts (which included pianist Herbie Hancock and bassist Ron Carter). “He changed the sound of the group,” mentioned Miles in an interview on the time. “He carried a new sound into the band. He made the rhythm figures and harmonies of the group freer than before.”
Certain by different musical commitments, Rivers solely stayed with Miles for the Japanese tour (he might be heard on the stay album Miles In Tokyo) and left to get replaced by a youthful saxophonist, Wayne Shorter, who would spur Miles’ quintet on to better issues. Again within the US, Rivers’ affiliation with Miles Davis, regardless of its brevity, elevated his visibility within the jazz group and it was, maybe, no shock that he was supplied a recording contract.
Earlier than that occurred, nonetheless, he did two periods as a sideman for Blue Notice. Rivers appeared on his good friend Tony Williams’ maiden LP, Lifetime, which was recorded on August 21, 1964, proper after his Japanese sojourn with Miles Davis; later that 12 months, on November 12, he performed tenor saxophone on organist Larry Younger’s auspicious Blue Notice debut, Into Somethin’.
Little question impressed by Rivers’ contributions to these two albums, Alfred Lion supplied the saxophonist a recording session of his personal on December 11 of that 12 months. It resulted in Fuchsia Swing Track, launched in April 1965. Now thought to be a basic post-bop Blue Notice session, the album discovered Rivers backed by Tony Williams together with Ron Carter and pianist Jaki Byard.
Level of many returns
Simply after that album’s launch, in Might 1965 Lion booked Rivers for a follow-up session for Blue Notice at Rudy Van Gelder’s Englewood Cliffs studio for what would develop into Contours. Rivers wrote all the fabric and introduced in famous trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, plus Herbie Hancock and Ron Carter from Miles Davis’ band, to hitch him. For some motive, nonetheless, Tony Williams couldn’t make the date and his place on the drum package was taken by Joe Chambers, a rising drummer/composer from Philadelphia, who was simply starting to make his mark at Blue Notice.
Alternating between saxophone – soprano and tenor – and flute, Rivers expanded the musical idea he offered on the sooner Fuchsia Swing Track and delved extra deeply right into a freer mode of jazz, the place the harmonies and rhythms had been extra exploratory. His distinctive and really private musical idea is vividly illustrated on the thrilling opener, “Point Of Many Returns,” on which a jagged horn motif (performed in unison by Rivers on soprano sax and trumpeter Hubbard) floats above a fierce swing beat powered by Carter’s strolling bass and Chambers’ kinetic drums. Hubbard takes the primary solo, adopted by a protracted one from Hancock, who serves up the type of spacey, discursive improv he’d delivered within the Miles Davis Quintet and on his solo LPs for Blue Notice. Rivers’ soprano saxophone solo is outlined by spurting liquid runs which are executed in a free vein. He jousts with Hubbard’s wild horn for just a few bars of dazzling interaction earlier than Ron Carter brings the temper all the way down to a light-weight simmer with a passage of refined bass extemporization. A recap of the opening theme rounds off the efficiency.
Rivers performs tenor on the waltz-time “Dance Of The Tripedal” and, after the preliminary assertion of a twin horn theme, breaks off for a uncooked however thrilling solo that’s peppered with anguished screams and cries. It’s fiercely avant-garde however beneath his strong wailing, the rhythm part, which is subtly nuanced, maintains a way of stylish repose. Hubbard’s rangy solo – which is initially performed at some extent when the rhythm part goes quiet after which drops out fully – is a masterclass of virtuosity. Hancock’s solo, with its mysterious left-hand tremolo figures all through, creates an eerie sense of suspense.
New heights of creativity
Herbie Hancock’s mild piano begins the strangely-titled “Euterpe,” a slower, Japanese-flavoured piece constructed on a repeated ostinato bass determine and gently churning drum sample. It options Rivers on flute and Hubbard enjoying a muted trumpet. His solo is filled with concepts however veers in temper from wildly flamboyant to tender and lyrical. Hancock contributes some glisteningly delicate piano asides. The observe ebbs and flows, with the rhythm part virtually fading out within the center because the music grows ever softer. Then the quantity progressively crescendos, permitting River to show his prowess on the flute. After a mellow starting, his solo grows extra intense and animated, although the temper of the piece stays subdued.
After an intro consisting of a scattergun collision of horns, “Mellifluous Cacophony” morphs into an uptempo piece pushed by a pulsating, bop-inflected swing groove that finds Rivers again on tenor saxophone. There’s a scrumptious sense of crispness and precision to Carter and Chambers’ thrusting rhythm observe, which drives the track ahead and spurs the soloists – Rivers, Hancock, Hubbard, Carter, and, close to the track’s conclusion, Chambers – to new heights of creativity.
Although it was left within the can for over a 12 months, Contours, finally launched in 1967, confirmed Sam Rivers’ undoubted development as a composer, instrumentalist, and jazz conceptualist. In addition to being a flexible and supremely proficient musician, the album demonstrated in no unsure phrases that he was an innovator, advancing the language of post-bop jazz in an period when notions of what constituted melody, concord, and construction had been being challenged.
The Tone Poet reissue of Contours might be purchased right here.
