''Portrait'' is a live solo album by the saxophonist, flutist, and pianist
Sam Rivers. With nine original works, it was recorded on June 18, 1995, at the Workshop Freie Musik held at the
Akademie der Künste
The Academy of Arts (german: Akademie der Künste) is a state arts institution in Berlin, Germany. The task of the Academy is to promote art, as well as to advise and support the states of Germany.
The Academy's predecessor organization was fo ...
in Berlin, and was released in 1997 by the
FMP label. In 2015, it was reissued as a digital download by Rivers's RivBea Music.
Reception
In a review for ''
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
'', John Bush wrote that Rivers "finds a distinctive voice on each instrument" and noted that "his tenor style is hard-driving, while the soprano moments, and his remarkably clean flute playing, are atmospheric and free-flying".
The authors of ''
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings
''The Penguin Guide to Jazz'' is a reference work containing an encyclopedic directory of jazz recordings on CD which were (at the time of publication) currently available in Europe or the United States. The first nine editions were compiled by ...
'' awarded the album a full 4 stars, and wrote, "These unaccompanied essays... are magnificently crafted and thoroughly imbued with the creator's personality... this is the most thoroughly individual thing he has done for many years, a magnificent testament to his creative range, his generosity of spirit and his great, great intelligence."
Steve Vickery of ''
Coda
Coda or CODA may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* Movie coda, a post-credits scene
* ''Coda'' (1987 film), an Australian horror film about a serial killer, made for television
*''Coda'', a 2017 American experimental film from Na ...
'' commented, "Rivers alternates horns... with piano and voice... never running out of ideas or steam. If anything, the space he defines for himself... underlines the vitality of his work as an improvisor."
The critic
Tom Hull remarked, "....first surprise is that he starts off on piano and makes a credible showing; moves on to tenor sax (mostly), soprano sax, flute, and finally back to piano; it's tough to make solo anything work, much less tenor sax, but he's steady and ingenious throughout."
The ''
Chicago Reader
The ''Chicago Reader'', or ''Reader'' (stylized as ЯEADER), is an American alternative weekly newspaper in Chicago, Illinois, noted for its literary style of journalism and coverage of the arts, particularly film and theater. It was founded by a ...
s
Peter Margasak
Peter Margasak is a music critic, journalist, and artistic director of the annual Frequency Festival in Chicago, an event that grew out of his longstanding work programming the weekly Frequency Series for experimental music, experimental, improvis ...
wrote that the album "brilliantly reveals
ivers'swide scope on a variety of instruments", and wrote, "....in a fully improvised setting Rivers shifts seamlessly between rhapsodic ballads, fiery postbop, and intense extended technique."
Track listing
Composed by Sam Rivers.
# "Image" – 8:36
# "Silhouette" – 8:48
# "Reflection" – 6:32
# "Mirror" – 8:25
# "Vignette" – 8:19
# "Shadow" – 8:53
# "Visage" – 5:45
# "Profile" – 9:00
# "Cameo" – 12:14
Personnel
*
Sam Rivers – tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, flute, piano, voice
References
{{Reflist
1997 live albums
Sam Rivers (jazz musician) live albums
FMP Records live albums