Spring

Artist: Tony Williams
Label: Blue Note Records
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 077774613521
EAN: 0077774613521
ASIN: B000005H43

Release Date: 1990-10-25

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Listmania:

Lesser-known Blue Note classics!
Music to Move and Inspire..... Or Sleep
Sam Rivers - Uncompromised Music
Essential Tony Williams
Music to wet your pants to
Jazz for the center of your brain

Tracks:

Exras
Echo
From Before
Love Song
Tee

Similar Items:

Life Time
Ego
Emergency!
Lifetime: The Collection
Turn It Over

Customer Reviews:

ahead of it's time.......2006-09-17

This is one of those albums that sneaks below the radar. Not many jazz musicians I know have heard or heard of this album. The playing is very free, Tony Williams is not subdued here but definitely tasteful. Gary Peacock is not overly polite either but does weave a strong foundation with his walking lines. The ensemble is highly sensitive to one another and the playing is very modern. There are musicians like Charles Lloyd with his working band of Geri Allen, Robert Hurst and Eric Harland who are putting out stuff that sounds similar to this recording from 1965! The fidelity also makes this album worthy of 5 stars. Get it, you won't regret it...

Amazing Adventure.......2006-05-06

I always find myself inspired when listening to the 60's Blue Note catalog. This is no exception; the ensemble works well as a unit. Some see this as a "free" record and claim that it is lacking because of such, but I don't believe they have digested the very important influence of the avante-garde upon the "second great quintet." To put the avante-garde to the side as if it is nothing is to ignore a part of jazz as important as the growth of bebop. If you like this album, I also suggest Wayne Shorter's "The All Seeing Eye", a very dense work that after many listens is quite rewarding. Also, pick up any album of Miles with this group; I doubt I'll ever stop listening to them.

Enigmatic and elusive.......2005-07-06

As the title says, this album has a very enigmatic quality to it...especially from Sam Rivers and Wayne Shorter, two of the most enigmatic playing styles in jazz history, as well as two of the most elusive PERSONALITY styles as well (especially Shorter.) The first track is a good example of this, as both artists show of their virtuoso sides (especially Shorter, not usually thought of as a virtuoso like Rivers) but not with the usual stream of fire found on Williams dates, or Blue Note free bop dates in general. Rather, it sounds like Shorter is using washes of color in a more subtle way, and Rivers is sketching...both solos are implicit, rather than explicit.

Echo, the second track, is a solo performance from Williams, and shows that he's not just a drummer anymore than he is just a time keeper...he is very much concerned with the rhythmic and symphonic possibilities of his instrument. (LifeTime is an even better example of this.)
The last 3 tracks are probably the most engaging, especially Love Song, an exellent feature for Rivers, and Tee, a vehicle for Shorter, in the main.

Some great playing on this album, but I have to rate this one a "low" 5 stars...which is still great, but it's not the greatest thing any of these guys ever did. All the tunes, save perhaps Love Song, are typical freebop: the band states a melodic idea - not really a melody, just an idea - and go from there...it offers a lot of freedom, and they take advantage of it. But the characters' personalities (including Peacock and Hancock) can be found in even greater strengths in other areas. It's deffinitely not "just another date" for them (how could it be with Williams in the driver's seat?)but they also don't approach it like they are attempting a masterpiece. This is very much a neglected gem in the Blue Note discography, and very much well worth buying...it's one of those albums that probably doesn't crack into your 10 ten, but you find yourself listening to it once a week anyways. But being a neglected gem means its not a masterpiece, so get Williams' masterpiece "Life Time" first, and then get this. A valuable record.

A surprisingly subdued Mr. Williams.......2003-05-16

I got turned on to Tony Williams via his incredibly expansive and ear-stretching work with the 60's Miles Davis Quintet. I'll buy anything with him on it, although I've since learned that his best work was with Miles Davis. On _Spring_, Tony's second LP as a leader, he largely sticks to brushes, and even when he doesn't, he sounds as though he is. The tempos are fairly brisk and the drum work still plenty impressive, but his playing is surprisingly quiet most of the way through this album.

Most of _Spring_ consists of interesting free-but-not-exactly-dissonant sketches with varying instrumentation. The opening "Extras" is a double-tenor affair with Sam Rivers and Wayne Shorter twisting and colliding off one another, Gary Peacock's intuitive and quick-minded bass work, Tony backing them up, and no piano. As is typical with all the music on this LP, it sounds like the musicians are really intently listening to one another. It's an intimate setting, one in which you can actually hear the sax players' pads popping. "Echo" is a 5-minute drum solo in which Tony runs through various understated rhythmic ideas in a fairly systematic way. Herbie Hancock joins in on piano for the rest of the tracks, the most overtly tuneful of which is "Love Song", which features Sam Rivers.

This album makes for interesting listening, but it's not quite as satisfying or cohesive as certain other free-but-not-quite-dissonant works such as Herbie Hancock's "The Egg" and "The Collector" (the latter of which is on the CD reissue of Wayne Shorter's _Adam's Apple_). Still, it's a worthy and fairly impressive effort.

When the boss is away--.......2002-06-24

Miles' second "great quintet" sans Miles lacks cohesion, focus, purpose, at least on this outing. The "compositions" seem to be titles manufactured after the fact as a way of providing dividers to the free-form meanderings that took place while the tape was running. There are a few sparks created by Rivers and Shorter on the first couple of tracks, but the rest of the album is curiously unengaging. Peacock's unfaltering walking bass lines provide coherence and civility, but this would hardly seem to be the occasion for exercising politeness. And for a Van Gelder-engineered session, Williams' cymbals are surprisingly subdued in the total mix.

If you're a musician, hearing a session like this makes you wish you were taking part in it. I'm more impressed by recordings that "scare" me back into the practice room.

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