The first time I played this, it gave me a headache; the second time I really couldn’t believe my ears; and the third time I was convinced my watch had stopped. It is without exception the ugliest piece of music I have ever heard. Rivers honks and squeals without rhythm or reason, the two bassists play in varying tempos with conflicting beats, and the drummer works up a grand thrash for no apparent reason at all. There is no beginning and no end, the whole thing being a series of ugly noises joined together by other more ugly noises. If it weren’t for the liner note, I would hardly have believed that it was serious, but Mr. Lawrence Rutter’s blurb, which is, if possible, even more pretentious than the music, leaves one in no doubt that this is a genuine attempt to give jazz something different. And looking at it that way, I suppose it succeeds.
Discography
(a) 2 Pieces Of One – Red; Green (17 min) – (b) Tomorrow Afternoon; (c) Memory; (d) Barb’s Song To The Wizard (19 min)
(a) Sam Rivers (ten); Richard Davis, Gary Peacock (bs); Anthony Williams (d).
(b) Rivers, Peacock, Williams.
(c) Bobby Hutcherson (vbs/mari); Herbie Hancock (p); Williams (d): Hancock (p); Ron Carter (bs).
(Blue Note 4180 12inLP 45s. 3d.)
