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Album Info

Some Shapes to Come

Some Shapes to Come

By Steve Grossman

Jazz - 1973

After saxophone great Wayne Shorter left Miles Davis, the Brooklyn-born 19-year-old Steve Grossman came in as his replacement. Born to... more

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About Some Shapes to Come

After saxophone great Wayne Shorter left Miles Davis, the Brooklyn-born 19-year-old Steve Grossman came in as his replacement. Born to play the instrument, Grossman was a monster on tenor and soprano, soon making perhaps an even bigger mark with drum legend Elvin Jones on such albums as Merry-Go-Round and Live at the Lighthouse. His 1974 debut, Some Shapes to Come, was essentially an incarnation of Stone Alliance, another group that found Grossman making history, before addiction curbed his meteoric rise. He lived to nearly 70, making serviceable old-school jazz records all the while, but dying in relative obscurity in 2020. His early catalog, including Shapes, the 1977 follow-up Terra Firma, and all his Stone Alliance output, remains golden. Some Shapes to Come came out on bassist Gene Perla’s PM label, and was relegated to cult status. Yet it’s extraordinary, with Perla on acoustic and electric bass and Don Alias on drums and percussion, plus turns from keyboardist Jan Hammer. “WBAI,” “Haresah,” and “Pressure Point” are Grossman originals, while “Zulu Stomp” is by Alias, and the remaining tracks are hair-raising improvisations credited to the full band. The influence of John Coltrane, Joe Henderson, and other 1960s forebears was huge on Grossman and his tenor peer group, including his former bandmate David Liebman, and the younger up-and-coming Michael Brecker. You hear that tough, sinewy sound and borderline free-jazz energy on Shapes, an approach to improvising on static harmony that’s at once precise and systematic—but also raw and spiritual.
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