Braids | ||||
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Live album by Sam Rivers Quartet | ||||
Released | 2020 | |||
Recorded | May 15, 1979 | |||
Venue | Hamburg, Germany | |||
Genre | Free jazz | |||
Length | 56:51 | |||
Label | NoBusiness NBCD 138 | |||
Producer | Danas Mikailionis, Ed Hazell, Valerij Anosov | |||
Sam Rivers chronology | ||||
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Braids is a live album by the Sam Rivers Quartet, led by multi-instrumentalist and composer Rivers, and featuring tubist and euphonium player Joe Daley, double bassist Dave Holland and drummer Thurman Barker. Consisting of a single 57-minute performance, it was recorded on May 15, 1979, in Hamburg, Germany, and was released in 2020 by NoBusiness Records as volume 4 of the Sam Rivers Archive Series. [1] [2] [3] [4]
The Rivers Quartet with this lineup also appeared on Waves (Tomato, 1978 [1979]) [5] and Live in Vancouver (Condition West, 1979 [2017]). [6] Braids is based on material selected from Rivers' massive recorded archives, which are curated by writer and producer Ed Hazell, who spent a year reviewing tapes with the goal of choosing the best recordings for release by NoBusiness Records. [7]
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
All About Jazz | [8] |
All About Jazz | [9] |
The Free Jazz Collective | [10] |
Tom Hull – on the Web | A– [11] |
In a review for All About Jazz , John Sharpe called the album "thoroughly entertaining," and noted Rivers' "freewheeling anything-goes approach" to the music. He wrote: "Each member of the group proves adept at hinting at form, even when it's not explicitly present, both through dramatic solo development... and through the cohesive arc of ensemble performance." [8]
Dusted Magazine's Derek Taylor stated that the album "beautifully encapsulates the weave-like structure that was both Sam Rivers' musical methodology and his history of creative partnerships," and commented: "the music unfolds in episodic suite-like fashion... It's another invaluable aperture into the master's antiquity when he was regularly in the company of expert peers." [12]
Ken Waxman of The Whole Note noted Daley's "sophisticated dexterity on tuba and euphonium... [in] both accompanying and frontline roles," and his ability to play "with the swift facility of a valve trombonist," enabling him to "bounce from treble sheets of sound to guttural scoops." [13]
Writing for the Downtown Music Gallery , Tim Niland stated that "the performance is very strong," and remarked: "the music has a very interesting sound with both Daley and Holland creating wonderful low end textures that play with and off of one another alongside the reeds, piano and drums to build unique and compelling conception." [14]
The Free Jazz Collective's Tom Burris wrote: "The music builds toward a very mid-70s Holland/Rivers/Altschul dynamic with tuba counterpoint for accentuation. It's completely exhilarating and engrossing right up until the death scene at the end of a spaghetti western." [10]
Composed by Sam Rivers.
Samuel Carthorne Rivers was an American jazz musician and composer. Though most famously a tenor saxophonist, he also performed on soprano saxophone, bass clarinet, flute, harmonica, piano and viola.
Velvet Brown is an American tubist and euphonium player. She is currently a Distinguished Professor of Music at Pennsylvania State University, prior to which she taught at Bowling Green State University and Ball State University.
Africa/Brass is a studio album by the jazz saxophonist and composer John Coltrane. It was released on September 1, 1961 through Impulse! Records. Coltrane's working quartet is augmented by a larger ensemble that brings the total to twenty-one musicians. Its big band sound, with the unusual instrumentation of French horns and euphonium, presented music very different from anything that had been associated with Coltrane to date. While critics originally gave it poor ratings, more recent jazz commentators have described it as "amazing" and as a "key work in understanding the path that John Coltrane's music took in its final phases." It is Coltrane's first release for Impulse!.
Thurman Barker is an American jazz drummer.
Blu Blu Blu is an album by Muhal Richard Abrams released on the Italian Black Saint label in 1991 and features performances of eight of Abrams compositions by a big band. Abrams dedicated the title track on the album to Muddy Waters.
Crystals is an album by Sam Rivers released by Impulse! Records in 1974 in a stereo/quadraphonic format.
Social Studies is an album by American composer, bandleader and keyboardist Carla Bley, recorded in 1980 and released on the Watt/ECM label in 1981.
Waves is an album by American jazz saxophonist Sam Rivers, recorded in 1978 and released on the Tomato label.
Contrasts is an album by American jazz saxophonist Sam Rivers recorded in December 1979 and released on ECM the following year. The quartet features trombonist George E. Lewis and rhythm section Dave Holland and Thurman Barker.
Bradford Steven "Steve" Ellington was an American jazz drummer. He was the grand-nephew of Duke Ellington.
Amarcord Nino Rota is an album by various artists, recorded as a tribute to composer Nino Rota.
First Prize is an album by pianist and composer George Gruntz's Concert Jazz Band, which was recorded in Switzerland in 1989 and released on Enja Records.
Joseph Peter Daley is an American educator, jazz musician, composer and arranger known for his work with the tuba, trombone and euphonium.
Bradley James Felt was an American tuba and euphonium player, composer, bandleader and educator. His work extended modern jazz traditions, using tuba and euphonium as lead and featured solo instruments.
Culmination is an album by multi-instrumentalist and composer Sam Rivers. It was recorded during September 1998 at Systems Two Recording Studio in Brooklyn, New York, at the same sessions that yielded the album Inspiration, and was released in 1999 by BMG France. On the album, Rivers is joined by members of the Rivbea All-star Orchestra: saxophonists Greg Osby, Steve Coleman, Chico Freeman, Gary Thomas, and Hamiet Bluiett, trumpeters Baikida Carroll, James Zollar, Ralph Alessi, and Ravi Best, trombonists Art Baron, Joseph Bowie, and Ray Anderson, baritone horn player Joseph Daley, tubist Bob Stewart, bassist Doug Mathews, and drummer Anthony Cole.
Ascent of the Nether Creatures is a live album by bassist Rashied Al Akbar, drummer Muhammad Ali, trumpeter Earl Cross, and saxophonist Idris Ackamoor. It was recorded on July 12, 1980, in the Netherlands, and was released on LP in limited quantities by NoBusiness Records in 2014.
The Quest is a live album by Sam Rivers on which he is accompanied by double bassist Dave Holland and drummer Barry Altschul. It was recorded on March 12 and 13, 1976, during the Rassegna Internazionale Jazz at the Palazzo dello Sport in Milan, Italy, and was initially released later that year by Red Records. It was reissued the following year by Pausa Records, and was also reissued by Fabbri Editori in a variety of forms over the next four years.
Zenith is a live album by the Sam Rivers Quintet, led by multi-instrumentalist and composer Rivers, and featuring tubist and euphonium player Joe Daley, double bassist Dave Holland, and drummers Barry Altschul and Charlie Persip. Consisting of a single 53-minute track, it was recorded on November 6, 1977, at Jazztage Berliner 1977, held at the Philharmonie in Berlin, Germany, and was released in 2019 by NoBusiness Records as volume 2 of the Sam Rivers Archive Series.
Undulation is a live album by the Sam Rivers Quartet, led by multi-instrumentalist and composer Rivers, and featuring guitarist Jerry Byrd, bass guitarist Rael-Wesley Grant, and drummer Steve Ellington. Consisting of a single performance lasting over an hour, it was recorded on May 17, 1981, in Florence, Italy, and was released in 2021 by NoBusiness Records as volume 5 of the Sam Rivers Archive Series.
Gravity!!! is an album by multi-instrumentalist Howard Johnson and his band Gravity. Johnson's second release as a leader, it was recorded at Clinton Recording Studios in New York City, and was issued in 1996 by Verve Records. On the album, Johnson is joined by tubists Dave Bargeron, Joseph Daley, Nedra Johnson, Carl Kleinsteuber, Tom Malone, Earl McIntyre, Marcus Rojas, and Bob Stewart, guitarist Georg Wadenius, pianists Ray Chew, Paul Shaffer, and James Williams, double bassists Bob Cranshaw and Melissa Slocum, drummers Kenwood Dennard and Kenny Washington, and percussionist Victor See Yuen.