Customer Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful
Comment: Man, what a great record... I don't do too many reviews, but this music should be heard by more people. Love the Rudy Van Gelder editions too.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Sam Rivers' Most Avant-Garde BN Album
Comment: With the reissue of "Dimensions & Extensions," three of Sam Rivers' four Blue Note albums are now available domestically on CD. (I personally couldn't have ever imagined this happening when I purchased the Rivers Mosaic Set a dozen years ago.) This March 17, 1967 session is certainly the most avant-garde outing Rivers had for the label, and signaled the tone of later efforts he would make in the 70s for Impulse and ECM. The expanded frontline personnel of James Spaulding, Donald Byrd and Julian Priester, and the pianoless rhythm duo of Cecil McBee and Steve Ellington lay the ground work for this departure. But it is Rivers' increasingly complex original compositions that showcase a new level in his talent. Granted his extreme take on standards on his previous album (the still OOP "A New Conception") was far from run of the mill, but the depth and layering in these tunes compared to Fuchsia Swing Song or Contours (see my reviews) is striking. Fans of the more "eccentric" mid 60s Blue Notes -- Out to Lunch, Dialogue, Point of Departure, Life Time, etc. -- will be delighted with the dimension of this disc!
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