1964 · Album
Into Somethin'
Recorded 1965 · Blue Note Records · Personnel: Larry Young (organ), Sam Rivers (tenor saxophone), Grant Green (guitar), Elvin Jones (drums)
Sam Rivers' Tenor Defines Young's Debut
Rivers' searching tenor gives this Blue Note debut its restless intelligence and forward motion.
What makes Into Somethin' distinctive is Sam Rivers' presence on tenor saxophone. Young's organ can swing hard and lay down grooves, but Rivers brings a different kind of heat — he's questing, unpredictable, willing to fracture a melody or hover over a single note until it feels strange. On this Blue Note debut, Rivers isn't a sideman playing the changes. He's a voice in conversation, sometimes argumentative, never settling for the obvious answer. Young had worked with Grant Green and Elvin Jones before, so there was chemistry already built in. But Rivers was the new element, and he's the one who gives the album its character — that sense of musicians figuring something out in real time rather than executing a plan. The interplay between organ and tenor drives most of these tracks. Green's guitar is clean and supportive, Jones keeps everything locked in behind them, but the album lives in the space between Young's chords and Rivers' horn. AllMusic gave it 4.5 stars, and that rating makes sense for a record that sounds assured without being slick, exploratory without being show-offy. It's the kind of debut that announces something new is happening, even if you can't quite name it yet.
Who's playing
Where next?
More by Larry Young
All 13 albums →
The musicians on this record
The Latin Bit 1963
Grant Green
plays guitar here
plays guitar here
Dear John C. 1965
Elvin Jones
plays drums (drum set) here
plays drums (drum set) here
