Brings together for the first time the talents of rising composer/trumpeter Brian Groder and the legendary Sam Rivers Trio. Groder's gift for working with other composer/performers gives this recording true improvisatory richness and depth.

14 MP3 Songs
JAZZ: Free Jazz



Details:
"Your new cd, Torque, has touched me deeply."
-- Charles Lloyd


Brian Groder, trumpet & flugelhorn
Sam Rivers, flute & saxophones
Doug Mathews, double-bass
Anthony Cole, drums




   "Brian Groder is one of those local wonders who happened to show up at the store recently and left us with his super-fine disc. He plays with the great Noisetet, who has a strong disc out.

   "He is backed by the Sam Rivers Trio, who've been playing together for nearly a decade now and hail from Florida. Sam's trio is a most extraordinary one, as any of their gigs and discs have shown.

   "Brian wrote or co-wrote all of the tracks on this Torque. On "Betwixt", the quartet opens with a wonderful free yet focused intro, as Anthony plays some marvelous mallet work, both Sam and Brian take some short, explosive solos and only break into the theme near the end. The trio swings hard on "Diverging Orbits" with strong solos by Sam and Brian. You can tell that the rhythm team has been playing together for a while, since they flow so tightly together, always moving in waves. It is Doug who takes a long and expressive bass solo on this tune as well. "Behind The Shadows" is an amazing duo of haunting flute and muted flugel, spinning tightly around one another. "Iota" is a fine duo for somber flugel and poignant acoustic bass. These pieces often unfold organically, freely at first until the rhythm team hit their stride and then everyone erupts quickly together, playing tightly as they soar. "Involution" has a most familiar head that sounds like something swell from the 70's. It was co-written by someone called Brackeen. Joanne perhaps? "Camouflage" is another fine duo for laid back tenor and flugel, with both Sam and Brian playing with warm and glowing tones.

   "What really knocks me out is the way that Sam and Brian sound as if they have been playing together for a long while, matching ideas and tones throughout. This is the most lyrical and laid back I've heard Sam Rivers play in recent memory, his rhythm team also perfect no matter where they go. The magic here is that even when these men are playing in the free mode, they seem to sail together and anticipate each other's moves, always flowing together in one stream. Due to health problems in Sam Rivers' family, we have not been able to get any more copies of Sam's big band disc that we had during the last Vision Fest. In the meantime, those Sam Rivers freaks out there should check out this wonderful new quartet disc."
                         Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery



   "Jazz trumpet-eer Brian Groder and group explore the avant-garde idiom ... Just crossing over from ''mainstream'' to ''avant'' ... And, Brian has written some compelling originals to instruct us in that area of music. Brian and his cohort on reeds, Sam Rivers, have never sounded better! While the group drives hard, they manage to maintain a certain simplicity to what they deliver musically which increases our interest. Brian and group play their music with a beautiful 'touch' with their virtuosic technique. I sense that although they are keeping a tight rein on technique just for the sake of technique, they can also swing mightily. And, lo ... they do!"
                        George W. Carroll, ejazznews.com



   "The son of two swing musicians and someone who spent his early years in Atlantic City house bands, Brian Groder has decidedly different ideas when he leads his own session. On Torque, his fourth as a leader, the trumpeter/flugelhorn player's music hearkens back to the '60s avant-garde where arrangements were wide open but the rhythm section usually swung and had a strong linear quality to it.

   "The Sam Rivers Trio here backs Groder, including the saxophonist himself, so there is a solid chemistry that anchors each track. Another strength is that Groder chooses to keep his tunes short, seldom breaking the four-minute barrier and only going over six minutes once. This brevity allows listeners who may not be fans of avant-garde jazz to take in the music without being overwhelmed. Groder also offers plenty of solo time to Rivers, who is still his same old speedy self even in his 80s. Highlights include the horn and sax duo piece called "Camouflage," the nicely lyrical "Oculus" and the jaunty "Involution," which is co-written with Joanne Brackeen. Points for packaging as well."
                       Tad Hendrickson, JazzWeek