Liner Notes

Despite the well-worn repertoire—including the chestnuts “When I Fall In Love,” “I’ll Never Smile Again,” “Detour Ahead,” and “Secret Love”—Rivers’ striking originality is utterly apparent in each of these seven performances on which he’s heard on tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, and flute.

After releasing two astonishing albums of original material with his remarkable debut Fuchsia Swing Song (1964) and the follow-up Contours (1965), multi-instrumentalist Sam Rivers went another direction on his third Blue Note album A New Conception (1966) by presenting a set of standards that were given riveting interpretations with a quartet featuring Hal Galper on piano, Herbert Lewis on bass, and Steve Ellington on drums.