Sam Rivers makes rhinos pirouette and rainbows melt into sound on this phenomenal outing with a 17-piece band that, with the exception of bassist Doug Matthews, has no strings attached. No guitars, no pianos, just ten brass, five reeds, bass and drums. Appropriately named the RivBea All-Star Orchestra, it boasts the likes of saxophonists Greg Osby, Hamiett Bluiett, Chico Freeman and Steve Coleman, trombonists Ray Anderson and Joseph Bowie and — well, every instrumentalist but bassist and drummer are distinguished enough to have discs released under their own names.

Culmination is taken from the same September 1998 session that spawned Inspiration, Rivers 'first big band date since the 64-piece leviathan behind Crystals a quarter-century before in 1974. But where Inspiration tries to cram pieces Rivers envisioned as 50-minute opuses into less than a third that length, Culmination's eight songs are right-sized between 5:53 and 12:39.

You can hear the compositional ramp Rivers has built to make his music, specifically his essential voicings for horns. There are the creamy tones and buoyant bustle of the swing era, some Mingusian and Ellingtonian chromatic harmonies, some Ornettish atonality, and healthy dollops of funk and blues. "Spectrum" is an… read more »