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| Fuschia Swing Song |
| Sam Rivers |
| első megjelenés éve: 1965 |
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| (2003)
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CD |
Kérjen
árajánlatot! |
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| 1. | Fuchsia Swing Song
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| 2. | Downstairs Blues Upstairs
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| 3. | Cyclic Episode
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| 4. | Luminous Monolith
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| 5. | Beatrice
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| 6. | Ellipsis
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| 7. | Luminous Monolith [Alternate Take][*]
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| 8. | Downstairs Blues Upstairs [1st Alt TK][*]
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| 9. | Downstairs Blues Upstairs [2nd Alt TK][*]
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| 10. | Downstairs Blues Upstairs [3rd Alt TK][*]
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Jazz
Sam Rivers - Sax (Tenor)
Jaki Byard - Piano
Ron Carter - Bass
Tony Williams - Drums
* Alfred Lion - Producer
* Francis Wolff - Photography
* Michael Cuscuna - Reissue Producer
* Nat Hentoff - Liner Notes
* Patrick Roques - Design, Reissue Art Director
* Reid Miles - Cover Design, Photography
* Ron McMaster - Mastering
* Rudy Van Gelder - Engineer
Recorded in 1964 immediately after leaving the Miles Davis Quintet, Sam Rivers' Fuchsia Swing Song is one of the more auspicious debuts the label released in the mid-'60s. Rivers was a seasoned session player (his excellent work on Larry Young's Into Somethin' is a case in point) and a former member of Herb Pomeroy's Big Band before he went out with Davis. By the time of his debut, Rivers had been deep under the influence of Coltrane and Coleman, but wasn't willing to give up the blues just yet. Hence the sound on Fuchsia Swing Song is one of an artist who is at once very self-assured, and in transition. Using a rhythm section that included Tony Williams (whose Life Time he had guested on), pianist Jaki Byard, and bassist Ron Carter, Rivers took the hard bop and blues of his roots and poured them through the avant-garde colander. Today, players like Joshua Redman, Branford Marsalis, and James Carter do it all the time, but in 1964 it was unheard of. You either played hard bop or free; Davis' entire modal thing hadn't even completely blasted off yet. The title and opening track is a case in point. Rivers opens with an angular figure that is quickly translated by the band into sweeping, bopping blues. Rivers legato is lightning quick and his phrasing touches upon Coleman Hawkins, Sonny Rollins, Coleman, and Coltrane, but his embouchure is all his. He strikes the balance and then takes off on both sides of the aisle. Byard's comping is actually far more than that, building in rhythmic figures in striated minors just behind the tenor. "Downstairs Blues Upstairs" sounds, initially anyway, like it might have come out of the Davis book so deep is its blue root. But courtesy of Byard and Williams, Rivers goes to the left after only four choruses, moving onto the ledge a bit at a time, running knotty arpeggios through the center of the melody and increasingly bending his notes into succeeding intervals while shifting keys and times signatures. He never goes completely over the edge as he would on his later Blue Note dates. The most difficult cut on the date is "Luminous Monolith," with its swing-like figure introducing the melody. Eight bars in, the syncopation of the rhythm sections begins a stutter stem around the time and then the harmony with Byard building dense chords for Rivers to jump off of. On the Connoisseur Series CD (shame on Blue Note once again for making some of its best outside records "limited editions"; titles like this should be as readily available as Horace Silver's Song for My Father, but the label had been playing it ever so safe for a while and making fans buy the limited number of titles over and again) there are alternate takes of "Luminous Monolith" and three more of "Downstairs Blues Upstairs," making it a very worthwhile look at the entire session. This is a highly recommended date. Rivers never played quite like this again.
--- Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
Sam Rivers
Active Decades: '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s and '00s
Born: Sep 25, 1923 in El Reno, OK
Genre: Jazz
Styles: Avant-Garde, Avant-Garde Jazz, Experimental Big Band, Free Improvisation, Free Jazz, Post-Bop, Progressive Big Band
Few, if any, free jazz saxophonists have approached music with the same degree of intellectual rigor as Sam Rivers; just as few have managed to maintain a high level of creativity over a long life. Rivers plays with remarkable technical precision and a manifest knowledge of his materials. His sound is hard and extraordinarily well-centered, his articulation sharp, and his command of the tenor saxophone complete. Rivers' playing sometimes has an unremitting seriousness that can be extremely demanding, even off-putting. Nevertheless, the depth of his artistry is considerable. Rivers is as substantial a player as avant-garde jazz has produced.
Rivers' father was a church musician, touring with a gospel quartet. Rivers was raised in Chicago and then Little Rock, AR, where his mother taught music and sociology at Shorter College. He began taking piano and violin lessons at about the age of five. He later played trombone, before finally settling on the tenor. Early favorites were Don Byas, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, and Buddy Tate. Rivers moved to Boston in 1947, where he studied at the Boston Conservatory of Music and, later, Boston University. There, he played in Herb Pomeroy's little big band, who, in the early '50s, also featured such players as Jaki Byard, Nat Pierce, Quincy Jones, and Serge Chaloff. Rivers left school in 1952. He moved to Florida for a time, then returned to Boston in 1958, where he again played with Pomeroy. Rivers became active in the local scene. He formed his own quartet with pianist Hal Galper, and played on his first Blue Note recording session with pianist/composer Tadd Dameron. In 1959, he began playing with 13-year-old Tony Williams. It was about this time that Rivers became involved in the avant-garde. He developed a free improvisation group with Williams. Perhaps befitting his educational background, Rivers approached free jazz from more of a classical perspective, in contrast to the style of his contemporary, Ornette Coleman, who came out of the blues. In the early '60s, Rivers became involved with Archie Shepp, Bill Dixon, Paul Bley, and Cecil Taylor, all members of the Jazz Composer's Guild. In 1964, Rivers moved to New York. That July, Miles Davis hired Rivers on Tony Williams' recommendation. The group played three concerts in Japan; one was recorded and the results released on an LP. In August of 1964, following the brief experience with Davis, Rivers played on Lifetime (Blue Note), Williams' first album as a leader. Later that year, Rivers led his own session for Blue Note, Fuchsia Swing Song, which documented his inside/outside approach. Rivers led four more dates for Blue Note in the '60s. In the middle part of the decade, he also recorded with Larry Young, Bobby Hutcherson, and Andrew Hill. In 1969, he toured Europe with Cecil Taylor in a band that also included Andrew Cyrille and Jimmy Lyons. In 1970, Rivers -- along with his wife, Bea -- opened a studio in Harlem where he held music and dance rehearsals. The space relocated to a warehouse in the Soho section of New York City. Named Studio Rivbea, the space became one of the most well-known venues for the presentation of new jazz. Rivers' own Rivbea Orchestra rehearsed and performed there, as did his trio and his Winds of Change woodwind ensemble. Rivers' trio of the time was a free improvisation ensemble in the purest sense. The group used no written music whatsoever, relying instead on a stream-of-consciousness approach that differed structurally from the head-solo-head style that still dominated free jazz. Much of this early- to mid-'70s music was documented on the Impulse! label.
In 1976, Rivers began an association with bassist Dave Holland. The duo recorded enough music for two albums, both of which were released on the Improvising Artists label. Opportunities to record became more scarce for Rivers in the late '70s, though he did record occasionally, notably for ECM; his Contrasts album for the label was a highlight of his post-Blue Note work. In the '80s, Rivers relocated to Orlando, FL, where he created a scene of his own. Rivers formed a new version of his Rivbea Orchestra, using local musicians who made their living playing in the area's theme parks and myriad tourist attractions. The '80s and '90s found Rivers recording albums on his own Rivbea Sound label, as well as a pair of critically acclaimed big band albums for RCA.
--- Chris Kelsey, All Music Guide |
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