Track Listing

1. Extras
2. Echo
3. From Before
4. Love Song
5. Tee

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #147658 in Music
• Released on: 1990-10-25
• Number of discs: 1

Album Description
Tony Williams was truly a phenomenom. When he made this album, he was 19 and had already put in more than two years with Miles Davis, participated in a dozen classic Blue Note recordings, cut his first album as a leader and revolutionized the way drums were played. This album features tenormen Wayne Shorter and Sam Rivers, pianist Herbie Hancock, bassist Gary Peacock, and Williams in a variety of combinations. The core of this music is empathy -- listening to each other and maintaining the highest level of creativity. It is the last album Williams would make before forming his fusion group Lifetime. Remastered by Rudy Van Gelder from the original analog tapes.

Customer Reviews

another reason to mourn the early departure of tony williams
this album from the mid-sixties when mr. williams was still a teenager, reveals his immense talent as a drummer and the driving engine of a jazz ensemble. this album greatly reflects mr. williams work with the then peak quintet in jazz (miles davis, wayne shorter, herbie hancock, ron carter, and williams). the feel is the same modalism that was working magic on albums such as esp, miles smiles, and the sorcerer with davis. the real joy here is hearing sam rivers and shorter together. the two sax men trade some exquisite solos in this set. particularly noteworthy are the longest tracks , extras and tee. the length allows for some great soloing by all the major players worth hearing over and over again. the addition of rivers and bassist gary peacock add an "out" feel to the proceedings, but once again mr. williams proves himself a master of control even when pushing the limits. a truly great album.

twin tenor force with amazing kid drummer!
This is an astounding recording, from August 1965, with teen sensation Tony Williams on drums and composer of all 5 pieces. It's a great example of '60s Blue Note -- not outside, but spare and angular, moving orthogonally away from straight bop. Williams had been mentored by Sam Rivers in Boston from the time he was in double-digits, and when he made it big with Miles, he brought Rivers along on his first solo dates. Personally I don't think his first solo data, LIFE TIME, ever catches fire, but this one is a different story.

Rivers, already over 40 by the time of this session, and Wayne Shorter, who had jumped from Art Blakey to Miles, are a terrific combination here. Herbie Hancock comes along from Miles' band, and Gary Peacock is more than authoritative on bass. "Echo" is a Williams solo, and "Love Song" is a beautiful waltz-time vehicle for Rivers -- the other 3 tracks all feature both Rivers and Shorter. "Extras" and "Tee" alone would make SPRING well worth hearing! Check it out!

A surprisingly subdued Mr. Williams
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.