BLP 4216

Anthony Williams - Spring

Released - June 1965

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, August 12, 1965
Wayne Shorter, tenor sax #1-3; Sam Rivers, tenor sax #1-4; Herbie Hancock, piano #2-4; Gary Peacock, bass #1-4; Anthony Williams, drums.

1642 tk.2 Extras
1643 tk.4 Tee
1644 tk.6 From Before
1645 tk.18 Love Song
1646 tk.19 Echo

Session Photos

Photos: © Francis Wolff/Mosaic Images 
https://www.mosaicrecordsimages.com/

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
Extras	Anthony Williams	August 12 1965
Echo	Anthony Williams	August 12 1965
From Before	Anthony Williams	August 12 1965
Side One
Love Song	Anthony Williams	August 12 1965
Tee	Anthony Williams	August 12 1965

Liner Notes

...

RVG CD Reissue Liner Notes

A NEW LOOK AT SPRING

The original issue of Spring contained no liner notes, with only a photo of the leader (identified here for virtually the last time as Anthony Williams) and the usual credits on the back cover. Williams clearly took Miles Davis's notion of letting the music speak for itself seriously, to an even greater extent than his fellow Davis band mate Herbie Hancock, who had commissioned impressionistic essays by Nora Kelly for his own recent albums Empyrean Isles and Maiden Voyage. It is a sign of the respect in which producer Alfred Lion held his precocious artist that he deviated from the label's standard format and acceded to Williams's wishes.

But Williams was exceptional, only 19 years old at the time of this session and already in his third year as a member of the Davis Quintet. His first recording as a leader, Life Time, had broken conventional molds with odd and shifting instrumentation among the tracks, and group improvisations that were often themeless yet hardly without structure. Spring complemented the earlier effort by employing four different groupings over its five tracks, featuring three of the same accompanists as the earlier album, and ensuring that even when compositions had melodies they were not confining. Shorter was the new addition here, though at this point he had been working with Williams for over a year in the Davis band and had used the drummer on his own session, The Soothsayer, five months earlier. Rivers was one of Williams's hometown mentors in Boston, and is no doubt responsible for much of the young drummer's open-minded attitude. Peacock, as virtuosic, venturesome, and stylistically versatile as any bassist of the era, was one of several notables (including Eddie Gomez and Buster Williams) who occasionally subbed for Ron Carter in the Davis band.

"Extras," the opening track of both the recording session and the album, has no piano and no theme. As on the other tracks featuring both saxophonists, Shorter is heard on the right channel, Rivers on the left. Shorter solos first over Williams's brushes and a medium swing tempo, displaying a preference for flowing, melodically developed lines. Peacock's solo takes the groove into a more elastic direction, then Rivers (who begins with comments at the close of the bass solo) displays a gruff, irregular approach to tenor sax improvisation in a solo where bass and drums begin at a slow pace, regenerate the earlier tempo, and then drop out before returning with Shorter in tow. Williams's beautiful touch with brushes makes it easy to overlook the abstract nature of this gem.

The gentle flourish Williams employs to end "Extras" proves a perfect anticipation of his solo piece "Echo," which was actually the session's final piece. Brushes have been replaced by sticks here, yet the control and finesse of the previous track are sustained in a highly original improvisation that features great concentration, meticulous pacing, and painterly shading, not to mention a bit of humor at the final click-off.

"From Before," with the full quintet, begins at a rubato pace as the two horns improvise a cushion for Hancock's dreamy responses. The saxophones quickly exit, and an elusive tempo begins to take shape as bass and drums emerge. Hancock is the featured voice throughout, sustaining the track's mysterious aura as he develops his ideas with cautious insistence before concluding the performance with a final minute of unaccompanied reflection. Before that coda, both saxophones have returned, extending their opening interplay and giving further evidence of their contrasting approaches.

"Love Song, " which Williams retitled "Love Stone" when he revisited the piece on Branford Marsalis's 1987 album Renaissance, is a folk-like melody in 5, 3, and 4 with Rivers as the Ione tenor. The knotty form is retained for the solos by Rivers (first lean, then textured, but always into the incredible ensemble flow) and Hancock (swinging and thematically rich) and Rivers again (this time in a mood that sets up the reprise of the melody). The feeling on this track is one of several spots on the album that anticipate another classic session involving Rivers and a second saxophonist, Dave Holland's Conference of the Birds.

The pithy, asymmetrical unison "Tee" is closest to the kind of material that the Davis Quintet was investigating in this period. Both tenors are present, but Shorter does most of the blowing after the opening. The uncanny telepathy that he, Hancock, and Williams had already developed is in bold relief during the tenor solo. Hancock weaves ideas with both hands over the gently bristling accompaniment, then Peacock attacks the beat from all angles, still soloing at the final edit.

For all its subtlety, this is a boldly adventurous album, one of the most original and quietly daring of the period. It should have led to more recordings under Williams's name, yet nearly four years would pass before the drummer would record again outside Of the Davis band. When he did, he had left both Blue Note and the trumpeter, and was innovating in another direction with his electric Lifetime unit featuring John McLaughlin and Larry Young.

— Bob Blumenthal, 2008