Sam Rivers

Thanks, Stoner, for turning me on to Sam Rivers. I've been playing Contours pretty much every day for a week. It's a used out-of-print CD on the BN Connoisseur label. I've been hesitating buying other Rivers albums because the only ones that are available are RVG Editions, which are not very good from a sonic perspective. As luck would have it, I came across this Mosaic box set (CDs again) of The Complete Blue Note Sam Rivers Sessions. It was expensive, but totally worth it to hear this excellent music in the best possible (digital) sound quality. I'll be on the lookout for vinyl copies, especially of the Impulse titles, which I haven't heard yet.

Before my Sam Rivers binge, I'd been listening to a lot of Ornette Coleman, Jackie McLean, and Grachan Moncur III. So, Rivers is a logical extension of those fine, exploratory musicians.