I really want to avoid any cheesy jazz adjectives or idioms here. But I don't really know what else to say; the title of this album very aptly suits its sound. I mean shit, this album is NUTS. Play the above YouTube video, you'll hear what I mean. Dave Holland on cello? WTF! The depth of the compositions is astounding, which is not something I generally associate with music that is this funky. Sam Rivers, all the way up through his most recent recordings, managed to keep everything extremely funky without falling into some of the trappings that are lent to musicians that make "funk." My friend Jonathan Sindleman often remarks on the level of content contained in Sam Rivers music. "Content" is a good word to describe his body of work. But I don't use the word "content" in the same way I would use the word "content" in describing my scientific keys I use for botanical identification purposes; although I would use the word "content" in that way when describing Sam Rivers music a little bit, sometimes. I mean it this like this: His music is not dry, overly complex, or too "wordy:" Though as far as I am concerned, it contains a level of information only comparable to what is found in certain botany related textbooks I use when I'm identifying plants in the woods here in the Pacific Northwest. And you'd have to be about as passionate about your art as these nerds that write these botany books to produce such works of music. Like, I have to be searching pretty hard to identify what I see, and still be completely excited about what I found through my searches. Ya dig?
Rest In Peace, Samuel Carthorne Rivers - September 25, 1923 – December 26, 2011
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