Unraveling Mysteries: Sam Rivers in the Early ’80s
It was the early ’80s; guitars were shaping the jazz to come with unprecedented brashness, with Ornette Coleman’s Prime Time, Ronald Shannon Jackson’s Decoding Society, and James Blood Ulmer’s Music Revelation Ensemble leading the charge. It is a narrative that excludes Sam Rivers’ 1981 quartet with Jerry Byrd and the 1982 edition with Kevin Eubanks—units rounded out by electric bassist Rael-Wesley Grant and drummer Steve Ellington.
There is a simple answer why this is the case—Rivers’ quartets flew under the radar of the New York jazz elite. They played everywhere but New York: the Midwest, Western Canada, the West Coast, and throughout Europe. Rivers’ sole quartet gig in NYC during this period was the 10 p.m. set at the Public Theatre the weekend before Christmas in 1981, when many jazz fans were reveling elsewhere, and few if any concerts that didn’t include the “Hallelujah” chorus were reviewed in the dailies or the weeklies. Byrd had left and Eubanks had yet to come on board—Marvin Horne was enlisted as a place-holder. Hardly the scenario for an impactful New York debut.
Additionally, only the quartet with Byrd was represented on LP. To compound matters, Crosscurrent was issued by Parisian impresario Gérard Terronès’ Blue Marge label, which, without the U.S. distribution enjoyed by Black Saint, Soul Note, and other European labels, barely seeped into the Stateside collectors’ market. Crosscurrent was released in late 1982, presumably after Rivers disbanded the quartet with Eubanks, and shifted his focus to Winds of Manhattan. The album documents the quartet’s April 4, ’81 Jazz Unité concert, which was promptly praised by Paris’ Jazz Magazine and Jazz Hot. But the disc was not reviewed by Jazz Hot until May 1983 (Jazz Magazine passed). At the outset of his Jazz Hot coverage of the Jazz Unité recording, Pierre-Jean Gaucher confessed unfamiliarity with the avant-garde. Beyond giving high marks to the rhythm section, and namechecking Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock’s Head Hunters, there are few specifics in his positive, if perfunctory record review. Fair to say Crosscurrent failed to generate any consequential buzz.
1. Tenor saxophone section I 1 1:17
2. Tenor saxophone solo 4:26
3. Tenor saxophone section II 5:37
4. Drum solo 7:14
5. Piano solo 5:52
6. Piano section I 4:21
7. Piano section II 6:19
8. Guitar solo 5:25
9. Flute section I 4:53
10. Flute solo 4:08
11. Flute section II 2:07
12. Bass solo 5:21
13. Flute section III 4:55
Sam Rivers: tenor saxophone, flute, piano
Jerry Byrd: guitar
Rael-Wesley Grant: electric bass guitar
Steve Ellington: drums
All compositions by Sam Rivers
Recorded May 17, 1981, Florence, Italy
Re-mastered by Arūnas Zujus at MAMAstudios
Photos (cover and pages 2, 7, 9): Courtesy of Monique Rivers Williams
Cover and Booklet Design: Jeff DiPerna
Liner Notes: Bill Shoemaker
Produced by Danas Mikailionis and Ed Hazell
Co-producer: Valerij Anosov
