Ricochet | ||||
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Live album by Sam Rivers Trio | ||||
Released | 2020 | |||
Recorded | January 12, 1978 | |||
Venue | Keystone Korner, San Francisco, California | |||
Genre | Free jazz | |||
Length | 52:14 | |||
Label | NoBusiness NBCD 128 | |||
Producer | Danas Mikailionis, Ed Hazell, Valerij Anosov | |||
Sam Rivers chronology | ||||
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Ricochet is a live album by the Sam Rivers Trio, led by multi-instrumentalist and composer Rivers, and featuring double bassist Dave Holland and drummer Barry Altschul. Consisting of a single 52-minute track, it was recorded on January 12, 1978, at the Keystone Korner in San Francisco, California, and was released in 2020 by NoBusiness Records as volume 3 of the Sam Rivers Archive Series. [1] [2] [3] [4]
The trio was active from 1972 until 1978, [5] and was influential in the New York loft jazz scene centered around Rivers' Studio Rivbea. [6] Although the group toured and performed widely, it was not well documented on record, with the exception of the Rivers albums The Quest (1976) and Paragon (1977), as well as Holland's Conference of the Birds (1973), which also included Anthony Braxton. [5] In 2007, the trio reunited and recorded the music that was released in 2012 on the album Reunion: Live in New York . [6]
The album 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 | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
The Free Jazz Collective | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Tom Hull – on the Web | B+ [10] |
In a review for All About Jazz , Glenn Astarita stated that the musicians "shoot for the stars" on the single long track, and noted their "stunning fluency and micro-second paradigm shifts." He wrote: "the iconic trio conveys a level of camaraderie and gamesmanship that transforms your listening space into a virtual live event... this is essential listening, and an educational tour-de-force for the younger crowd who have not been indoctrinated to Rivers' early mind-bending recorded output." [8]
Olie Brice of London Jazz News described the trio as "the greatest of Rivers' working groups," and called the album "a fantastic addition to the recorded legacy of one of the great improvising groups," commenting: "The trio embraces a wide range from atonal, chamber-like improvisation to dancing, riff-based grooves with a clear tonal centre to exhilarating, swinging free jazz. The speed and fluency with which they pick up on each other’s suggestions and organically move between improvised sections is a delight." [11]
The Free Jazz Collective's Gary Chapin called the rhythm section of Holland and Altschul "extraordinary" and "one of the pillar rhythm sections of This Kind of Music," and noted that "each instrument – soprano, tenor, piano – opens up different possibilities for Rivers, but they all sound so like him." [9]
Writing for Point of Departure, John Sharpe remarked: "This outfit could write the book on trio interplay... Transitions... are handled with such aplomb that they might be preordained... Such events amid the magnificent flow make this outing one of the most satisfying performances from these three titans." [12]
In an article for Dusted Magazine, Derek Taylor wrote: "the trio was already one of Rivers' most revered configurations and an epitome of spontaneous communication. A reunion convened nearly thirty years later revealed chemistry slightly altered, but effectively undiminished... Rivers is... a wonder of tonal and phrasal ingenuity atop the commensurately marvelous contributions of his colleagues." [13]
Writer Raul Da Gama stated: "The music of Ricochet is rugged and highly charged, and is amongst the finest improvised music on record... it contains extraordinary textures and remarkable juxtapositions between Mr Rivers' horns, flute and piano, and Dave Holland's bass and cello, together with the roaring battery of Barry Altschul's drum kit. This piece seems to have been conceived in fire; carved out of living flesh rather than sonic elements." [14]
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.
David Holland is an English double bassist, bass guitarist, cellist, composer and bandleader who has been performing and recording for five decades. He has lived in the United States since the early 1970s.
Barry Altschul is a free jazz and hard bop drummer who first came to notice in the late 1960s for performing with pianists Paul Bley and Chick Corea.
The Song of Singing is a studio album by Chick Corea, recorded over two days in April 1970 and released on Blue Note the following year. The trio, comprising rhythm section Corea, Dave Holland and Barry Altschul, made up three fourths of the free jazz ensemble Circle—missing only Anthony Braxton.
Circle was an American avant garde jazz ensemble, active in 1970 and 1971. The group arose from pianist Chick Corea's early 1970s trio with Dave Holland on bass and Barry Altschul on drums and percussion with the addition of Anthony Braxton in a leading role on several reed instruments. The group's earliest recordings were made in 1970 for the Blue Note label but not released until 1975 under Corea's name. A live double album appeared on the ECM label in 1972. These recordings document a period in which Corea's work was steeped in the jazz 'avant garde,' prior to his complete shift to the jazz fusion orientation. Corea, Holland and Altschul also recorded the album, A.R.C. for ECM in 1971, but it was not released under the band name Circle.
Conference of the Birds is an album by the Dave Holland Quartet, recorded on 30 November 1972 and released on ECM the following year—Holland's debut as bandleader and fourth project for the label. The quartet features alto saxophonist Anthony Braxton, tenor saxophonist Sam Rivers, and percussionist Barry Altschul.
Mario Pavone was an American jazz bassist, composer and bandleader. Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead offers that Pavone was not only "great bass player [but also a] big-hearted mensch."
Inside Out is a live album by American jazz pianist Keith Jarrett, recorded at the Royal Festival Hall in London on July 26 & 28, 2000 and released on ECM October the following year. The trio—Jarrett's "Standards Trio"—features rhythm section Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette. Along with Changes (1983) and Changeless (1987), this was the trio's third album to feature mainly original improvised material.
Circling In is a double LP collection by jazz pianist Chick Corea featuring performances recorded between 1968 and 1970, including the first recordings by the group Circle, which was first released on the Blue Note label in 1975. It contains trio performances by Corea with Miroslav Vitouš and Roy Haynes recorded in March 1968, which were later added to the CD reissue of Now He Sings, Now He Sobs as bonus tracks, and performances by permutations of the band Circle recorded in April and July 1970 some of which were later released as Early Circle.
A.R.C. is an album by jazz pianist Chick Corea, bassist Dave Holland and drummer Barry Altschul, recorded over three days in January of 1971 and released on ECM later that year. The trio had recently recorded Corea's The Song of Singing together, which also features a version of Wayne Shorter’s “Nefertiti”.
Town Hall 1972 is a live album by American jazz saxophonist Anthony Braxton recorded in 1972 at The Town Hall in New York City and originally released on the Japanese Trio label and rereleased on the hatART label as Town Hall 1972 in 1992.
Dortmund (Quartet) 1976 is a live album by American composer and saxophonist Anthony Braxton recorded in Germany in 1976 but not released on the hatART label until 1991. The album was subsequently reissued as Quartet (Dortmund) 1976 in 2001 and in 2019.
Iskra 1903 is the debut album by the group of the same name, featuring trombonist Paul Rutherford, guitarist Derek Bailey and bassist Barry Guy which was recorded at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in 1970 and in a studio in 1972 and first released as a double album on the Incus label then as a triple CD box set entitled Chapter One 1970-1972 on Emanem in 2000 with additional material.
The Fred Frith Trio is a San Francisco Bay Area based experimental music and free improvising group featuring Fred Frith, Jason Hoopes and Jordan Glenn. They were formed in Oakland, California in 2013, released two studio albums on Intakt Records in 2016 and 2018, and toured Europe in 2015 and 2017, and Brazil in 2018.
Reunion: Live in New York is a live album by the Sam Rivers trio, featuring Rivers on saxophone, flute, and piano, Dave Holland on bass, and Barry Altschul on drums. It was recorded on May 25, 2007, at Columbia University's Miller Theatre in New York City, and was released in 2012 as a double-CD set by Pi Recordings.
NoBusiness Records is an independent record label, based in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Da Bang! is an album by violinist Billy Bang. It was recorded on February 2 and 3, 2011, roughly two months before Bang's death, at Studio MI of the Finnish Broadcasting Company in Helsinki, Finland, and was released in 2013 by Tum Records. On the album, Bang is joined by trombonist Dick Griffin, pianist Andrew Bemkey, double bassist Hilliard Greene, and drummer Newman Taylor Baker. The recording features one composition each by Bang, Barry Altschul, Don Cherry, Ornette Coleman, Miles Davis, and Sonny Rollins.
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.
Paragon is an album by Sam Rivers on which he is accompanied by double bassist Dave Holland and drummer Barry Altschul. It was recorded on April 18, 1977, at Davout Studio in Paris, and was released later that year by Fluid Records. In 2015, it was reissued as a digital download by Rivers's RivBea Music.
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.