Contours (album)

{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}}

{{Infobox album|

| name = Contours

| type = Album

| artist = Sam Rivers

| cover = Contours (album).jpg

| alt =

| released = January 1967[https://books.google.com/books?id=9SgEAAAAMBAJ&dq=sam+rivers+Contours+4206&pg=PA52 Billboard Jan 28, 1967]

| recorded = May 21, 1965

| venue =

| studio = Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ

| genre = Avant-garde jazz

| length = 40:08

| label = Blue Note
BST 84206

| producer = Alfred Lion

| chronology = Sam Rivers

| prev_title = Fuchsia Swing Song

| prev_year = 1964

| next_title = A New Conception

| next_year = 1967

}}

Contours is the second album by American saxophonist Sam Rivers recorded in 1965 and released on the Blue Note label.[http://www.jazzdisco.org/blue-note-records/catalog-4200-series/#blp-4206 Blue Note Records discography] accessed November 22, 2010 The CD reissue contains an alternate take as a bonus track.

Reception

{{Music ratings

| rev1 = AllMusic

| rev1Score = {{rating|5|5}}

| rev2 = DownBeat

| rev2Score = {{Rating|4.5|5}}Down Beat: April 6, 1967 vol. 34, no. 7

| rev3 = The Encyclopedia of Popular Music

| rev3Score = {{rating|4|5}}{{cite book |editor-last=Larkin |editor-first=Colin |title=The Encyclopedia of Popular Music |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2006 |pages=1968 }}

|rev4 = The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings

|rev4score = {{Rating|3|4}}{{cite book |last1=Cook |first1=Richard |authorlink1=Richard Cook (journalist) |last2=Morton |first2=Brian |authorlink2=Brian Morton (Scottish writer) |title=The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings |year=2008 |edition=9th |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-0-141-03401-0 |page=1217}}

| rev5 = The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide

| rev5Score = {{rating|4|5}}{{Cite book

|editor-last=Swenson

|editor-first=J.

| author-link =

| year = 1985

| title = The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide

| publisher = Random House/Rolling Stone

| location = USA

| isbn = 0-394-72643-X

| pages = 168

}}

| rev6 = Tom Hull – on the Web

| rev6Score = B+{{cite web |last=Hull |first=Tom |url=https://tomhull.com/ocston/nm/get_gl.php?n=Sam+Rivers |title=Grade List: Sam Rivers |website=Tom Hull – on the Web |access-date=October 22, 2023}}

}}

The Allmusic review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine awarded the album 5 stars and stated "On Contours, his second Blue Note album, tenor saxophonist Sam Rivers fully embraced the avant-garde, but presented his music in a way that wouldn't be upsetting or confusing to hard bop loyalists... Rarely is Contours anything less than enthralling, and it remains one of the {{Sic|hide=y|high water|marks|expected=high-water marks}} of the mid-'60s avant-garde movement".Erlewine, S. T. [{{AllMusic|class=album|id=contours-r146341|pure_url=yes}} Allmusic Review] accessed November 22, 2010

Track listing

All compositions by Sam Rivers.

  1. "Point of Many Returns" - 9:20
  2. "Dance of the Tripedal" - 10:07
  3. "Euterpe" - 11:43
  4. "Mellifluous Cacophony" - 8:58
  5. "Mellifluous Cacophony" [Alternate Take] - 9:04 Bonus track on CD reissue

Personnel

References