BLP 4184

Sam Rivers - Fuschia Swing Song

Released - March 1965

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, December 11, 1964
Sam Rivers, tenor sax; Jaki Byard, piano; Ron Carter, bass; Anthony Williams, drums.

1487 tk.3 Fuchsia Swing Song
1488 tk.6 Cyclic Episode
1489 tk.10 Luminous Monolith
1490 tk.15 Ellipsis
1491 tk.20 Downstairs Blues Upstairs
1492 tk.23 Beatrice

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
Fuchsia Swing Song	Sam Rivers	December 11 1964
Downstairs Blues Upstairs	Sam Rivers	December 11 1964
Cyclic Episode	Sam Rivers	December 11 1964
Side Two
Luminous Monolith	Sam Rivers	December 11 1964
Beatrice	Sam Rivers	December 11 1964
Ellipsis	Sam Rivers	December 11 1964

Liner Notes

NOT much appears in the national magazines about jazz in Boston, but that city remains a continuing source of important jazzmen. Most recently, Tony Williams, Miles Davis' astonishingly resourceful young drummer, came out of Boston. And now, With Sam Rivers' appearances on Tony Williams' Life Time (Blue Note BLP4180), Larry Young's Into Somethin' (Blue Note 4187) and this album, another substantial talent from Boston is emerging. This is Rivers' first album as a leader and it signals the start of his exclusive association with Blue Note.

Rivers is very much a complete tenor man. His technique is remarkable; and the depth and fulness Of his tone recall the vibrant amplitude of the older tradition of jazz tenor playing. He is, moreover, a continually adventurous improviser; but while Rivers is in context in the avant-garde, he does not experiment haphazardly. His has a disciplined inventiveness with a secure sense of form. Furthermore, like all the best Of the jazz explorers, he is motivated to try new approaches by a desire to deepen and expand his emotional expressivity. With Sam Rivers, his formidable technique is a means, not an end in itself.

The son of a pianist mother and a father who sang with the Silvertone Quartet, which specialized in spirituals, Sam Rivers Was born in El Reno, Oklahoma, on September 25, 1930. The Silvertone Quartet had been on a tour When Sam came, and so El Reno was quickly left behind as the family returned to Chicago. Starting at four or five, Sam took both violin and piano lessons. He dropped the violin at eight, concentrating on the piano. In 1937, his father was killed in an accident, and Sam's mother took a position teaching music and sociology at Shorter College in North Little Rock. Living at a dormitory on campus, Sam went to school in Little Rock, and there, in the school's marching band, he started on trombone When he was eleven. He also played trombone in an informal band; and two years later, picking up a tenor one day, he found he preferred it to the less flexible trombone.

Dizzy Gillespie, whom Sam heard for the first time in 1944, was the initial major jazz influence on his playing. Then came Charlie Parker, Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, Chu Berry and Louis Jordan. In addition to records, Sam added to his jazz knowledge by standing outside jazz clubs and absorbing the sounds that came out. In 1947, he went to Boston to attend the Boston Conservatory Of Music. There was an active, inter-stimulating nucleus of young jazzmen in the city at that among them, Gigi Gryce, Quincy Jones, Charlie Mariano, Joe Gordon, Dick Twardtik and a pianist, Jaki Byard, who was a pervasive influence on nearly every young Boston musician who was interested in discovering new jazz routes.

Sam worked occasionally with Gryce, Gordon and Byard as he went on to Boston University where he majored in composition and took up the viola. In 1952, he dropped out of Boston University, was ill for a couple of years during which he composed but did very little playing, and moved to Florida in 1955 for two years. Back in Boston in 1958, he joined Herb Pomeroy's big band at the Stable where he remained until 1962. Since then, Sam has been gigging around Boston with various combos. In addition he spent two months With Miles Davis in the fall of 1964.

Among the more recent influences on his playing have been Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy and Ornette Coleman. He also is intrigued by the work of Albert Ayler and Archie Shepp. Sam's style, however, cannot be easily categorized because he has developed his own very singular way of fusing tradition and experimentation, as is stimulatingly evident in this album for which Sam wrote all the compositions.

Fuchsia Swing Song received its title because the brightness of the tune made Sam think of the bright purplish-red color that is fuchsia. A 32-bar structure, the song has an immediately attractive theme which then becomes absorbingly elasticized by Sam and his extraordinary rhythm section. Throughout the album, Jaki Byard's accompaniment is a model of lithe, propulsive and judiciously colorful support. Tony Williams again reveals his capacity to enliven the time with a continuous flow of cross-accents and shifting textures. Ron Carter, a colleague of Williams in the Miles Davis rhythm section, is another musician of prodigious technique who controls his virtuosity for maximum expressive effect. Rivers, in this number, indicates his capacity for sustained intensity and at the same time, his command of dynamics. He also has a sure sense of how and when to build from a flowing groove into complex turbulence and then back into rolling swing again. Downstairs Blues Upstairs is indeed a blues, but the setting in Sam's imagination is the kind of "upstairs" place where the jazz is usually restrained. In this imaginary setting, however, Sam nonetheless plays the blues as if he were in an informal "downstairs" room — and that's What the title means. Of particular interest here is Jaki Byard's solo which emphasizes his unusually limber sense of swing, his acute knowledge of how best to use space and the provocative echoes of the past in his very contemporary playing. Rivers again is forceful without losing control and his ideas have a density of content as well as a clarity of execution.

Cyclic Episode is more or less a series of minor 7ths, but it keeps moving up and up through the cycle, giving the impression Of a ceaseless, spiraling circle. Note here Sam's control over the full range of his horn, the firmness as well as the resiliency of his beat and the way he can intensify lyricism into a whirlpool of feeling. The performance also contains a supple, searching solo by Ron Carter and a crisp, witty statement by Jaki Byard.

Luminous Monolith is meant to convey a big rock, anchored in time and space, and shining With a luminosity that nothing Will ever be able to dim. "What meant to symbolize," says Rivers, "is the ability of man to keep on believing in himself and working toward his goals in art or anything else regardless of obstacles." The tune is structured in units Of 14 bars, 8 bars and 12 bars. "Harmonically," Rivers explains, "I tried to achieve a modal effect Without actually writing the song modally. There are chords, but the players can be quite free on top of them except on the bridge in A 7 where the choices are limited." Among other things, this performance demonstrates how hot Rivers can cook and it also focuses on the polyrhythmic assurance of a Tony Williams solo.

The graceful ballad, Beatrice, is dedicated, Sam makes certain to point out, "to my lovely Wife who is so easy to get along with." His playing here shows how subtle and introspective Rivers' lyricism can be, and the track is further deepened by superb solos from Byard and Carter. This, on the part Of all the musicians, is an example of sensitivity fused with strength.

Ellipsis derives its title, says Sam, "from the fact that part Of the melody is left Out - it's hinted at but not completely stated." A 32-bar tune, based to some extent On I Got Rhythm changes, Ellipsis begins as a gentle swinger, digs deeper in Sam's solo and then in the pungent dissonances of Jaki Byard's playing. Tony Williams, led into his solo by the ominous-sounding comping of Byard, improvises One Of his most subtle pyramids Of time and textures on record.

Rivers was delighted at the work Of his associates during the session. "Jaki," he notes, "was always one Of the most imaginative pianists I knew. I remember it was hard for me to play With him When he was in Boston because I was so busy listening to what he was doing. Jaki's extraordinarily flexible and he knows all styles fluently. But when he goes into the past, he doesn't play the Older idioms He really feels them."

Sam has known Tony Williams since the drummer, then thirteen, sat in at a Rivers' job in Cambridge around 1959. Ever since then, they have worked together off and on. "Even at thirteen," Sam recalls, 'Tony knew where he was all the time. As he's matured, what most impresses me about Tony is the emotional content of his playing. No matter how technically fascinating he becomes, you're always aware of his sensitivity and of the emotional power behind all that technique. The same is true of Ron Carter who is so thoroughly accomplished in every area — melodically, rhythmically and harmonically."

Sam Rivers is now back at Boston University, working towards a Bachelor of Music degree and majoring in composition. He also intends to start his own group. Trying to describe the jazz direction he's taking, Sam makes clear: "I never become deliberately avant-garde. I do what's natural to me. Within my sense of the form of any particular piece, I go where my emotions lead me, and if rising intensity calls for 'human' sounds and other departures from conventional jazz practice, that's what I'll do."

Fuchsia Swing Song as a collection is an introduction to a jazzman of striking capacity as both player and Writer. His emotions — and his self-discipline — have already led him far; and in Blue Note albums to come, there's no telling how much farther and deeper he's going to go.

— NAT HENTOFF

Cover photo and Design by REID MILES
Recording by RUDY VAN GELDER