When I think of Sam Rivers – and I do – I don't think of his great Blue Note records but of this trio. It featured on Dave Holland's magnificent Conference of the Birds (with the addition of Anthony Braxton), as well recording The Quest, one of the finest albums of the 1970s. This double CD was recorded four-and-a-half years before Rivers’ death and 19 after the trio ceased operations. In a way, time hangs suspended here. It could be now or you could be there at Studio Rivbea sometime between 1972-78. The sheer breadth of music, the undiluted quality of the playing, the almost spooky degree of empathy between the musicians and the sense of warmth, joy and controlled power that this trio could convey – nothing has been lost. Dave Holland's two bass solos on CD1 suggest that if he had sold his soul to the devil, he had extracted bloody good terms from Old Nick. Barry Altschul is never less than perfect, a brilliant foil, who anticipates, frames and enhances what his colleagues are doing. As for Rivers, he is righteous on tenor, insidious on soprano, exquisite on flute and remarkably lyrical on piano. An amazing valediction from a genuinely classic jazz trio.