About
Sam Rivers's tenor saxophone solo opens the improvisation on "Ellipsis," the closing track of his 1964 Blue Note debut Fuchsia Swing Song. A contrafact on the chord changes of "I Got Rhythm," the tune features Rivers taking six commanding choruses of the 32-bar AABA form at 238 BPM in B-flat, navigating the familiar rhythm changes with the angular intensity and extended technique that characterize his playing throughout the album. Rivers's approach to the well-worn harmonic framework is distinctly his own, pushing beyond conventional bebop vocabulary into more adventurous harmonic territory. He is the first of three soloists, followed by Jaki Byard on piano and Tony Williams on drums.
Sam Rivers was 40 to 41 years old at the time.
Comments
What do you think of this solo?