Artist: Sam Rivers
Album: The Quest
Genre: Free Jazz, Avant-Garde Jazz
Label: Red Records
Released: 1976/2023
Quality: FLAC (tracks+.cue)
Tracklist:
- Expectation (Rivers) - 6:34
- Vision (Rivers) - 12:20
- Judgement (Rivers) - 10:12
- Hope (Rivers) - 6:55
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- Personnel:
- Sam Rivers - tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, flute, piano
- Dave Holland - bass
- Barry Altschul - percussion
Here’s a welcome reissue of one of the seminal entries in Sam Rivers’ voluminous discography.
Although the multi-reedist made some wonderful orchestral music there was something absolutely compelling about his many small groups, as this 1976 trio formed with bassist Dave Holland and drummer Barry Atlschul, proves in no uncertain terms. A few years prior the two men had been members of Circle, the highly adventurous quartet that also featured Chick Corea and Anthony Braxton, so there is little surprise that there was a strong chemistry that underpinned this particular venture. Rivers, Holland and Altschul fulfilled the ideal of spontaneous composition insofar as the music moves freely in a number of different directions all the while retaining a sense of form because the players are so closely allied in the way they negotiate every twist and turn, responding to one another but also spurring each other on.
The result is music that has a dizzyingly, invigoratingly wide idiomatic range, flowing from a kind of steroidal swing to juddering Latin riffs to off-centre gospel when Rivers turns his attention to the piano.
Then again, the withering explosiveness of his playing also applies to his work on tenor saxophone and flute. Rivers is not as lionised as several others in improvised music, but listening to this recording alongside his startling albums for Blue Note and Impulse! makes it clear that he should be recognised as an innovator who has his rightful place in any modern canon.
Review by Kevin Le Gendre