Even more Sam Rivers

Here's another 70s trio, perhaps the ultimate one with Dave Holland and Barry Altschul. This was recorded live at the "New Foxhole Café", Philadelphia, on April 19th, 1976 (2nd set).

Sam Rivers,tenor & soprano saxophones,piano,flute
Dave Holland,bass
Barry Altschul,drums

1. Improvisation (1:08:12)

This is another scorcher with Altschul very much to the fore in the mix. As indicated above, only one piece slightly over one hour, similar to the Foggia set posted here before. This is a format that suits Rivers very much, so no complaint this time about being cut short, due to the limitations of the album format. As on the Foggia date, he starts out on tenor, switches to soprano at the 20+ minute mark and rounds off with two briefer interludes on piano and flute after the 50+ minute mark. New to this date is the piano section which in my view is the weaker part, but others may disagree. Top interaction throughout and it is particularly facinating to hear Altschul and compare with Steve Ellington on the other date. Altschul comes off as more forceful and intense and with Holland on board, this set rocks and sizzles from beginning to end.

This gem was supplied by riccardo in our contributions section, so a tip of the hat for that one. I thought it warranted a proper post as it dovetailed nicely with the recent Rivers postings here. Readers are advised to dig in for more gems from riccardo and others.