Sam Rivers (saxophonist)

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Sam Rivers (2011)

Samuel "Sam" Carthorne Rivers (born September 25, 1923 in El Reno , Oklahoma , † December 26, 2011 in Orlando , Florida ) was an American jazz musician (tenor and soprano saxophone, piano, flute, composition).

Life

Sam Rivers (2008. Lake Eola, Orlando)

Rivers comes from a musical family. In 1882 his grandfather Marshall W. Taylor published a collection of revival hymns and melodies sung on plantations. The mother was a pianist, the father was a gospel singer and sang with the Fisk Jubilee Singers and the Silverstone Quartet . Rivers began playing the piano at the age of five, then learned to play the violin and alto saxophone, and at the age of twelve he played the soprano saxophone in a marching band. He then learned tenor saxophone at Jarvis Christian College in Texas . After completing his military service he studied composition , viola and violin at the Boston Conservatory from 1947 . Meanwhile at night he worked in a bar as a saxophonist; he also played with Quincy Jones , Jaki Byard , Joe Gordon , Tadd Dameron and Herb Pomeroy . Between 1955 and 1957 he lived in Florida , where he participated in jazz & poetry programs and worked with singers and dancers. He also accompanied Billie Holiday on their live performances. In 1958 he worked again in Boston with Herb Pommeroy and had his own quartet (drummer was the young Tony Williams ).

At the beginning of the 1960s, Rivers dealt with the music of Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor ; at the same time he led a band that accompanied guest appearances by BB King or Wilson Pickett and went on tour with T-Bone Walker . In 1964 he worked for six months with Miles Davis and went on tour with him through the United States and Japan ( Miles in Tokyo ). He then signed to Blue Note and recorded with Jaki Byard, Herbie Hancock and Freddie Hubbard as a band leader, but has also appeared on records by Tony Williams, Andrew Hill , Larry Young and Bobby Hutcherson ( Dialogue ).

In 1967 he moved to New York City to teach in his Harlem loft studio. Between 1968 and 1973 he played with Cecil Taylor. Since 1968 he has also been the resident composer of the Harlem Opera Society . In 1971 he and his wife Bea expanded their Rivbea studio into a performance studio in which Rivers introduced bands to musicians from the loft scene who were friends ( Wildflowers - The New York Jazz Loft Sessions 1976), but also with his own group and guest musicians such as Dewey Redman , Clifford Jordan or Sonny Fortune performed. In 1975 he worked with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra . In 1978 he was able to present the World of Sam Rivers at the Newport Jazz Festival . With Dave Holland he also appeared in Europe in a duo and trio. Since the mid-1970s he devoted himself more to the piano and the flute and often used to play one piece on each of his four main instruments in a set. In the late 1980s he was also traveling with Dizzy Gillespie . Rivers most recently lived near Orlando , Florida, and worked with his Trio A (Anthony Cole and Doug Matthews).

Rivers was also active as a university professor at times; so he taught at Wesleyan University .

Discographic notes

  • Fuchsia Swing Song , Blue Note 1964.
  • Contours , Blue Note 1965.
  • A New Conception , Blue Note
  • Crystals, a large ensemble work , Impulse! Records , 1974
  • Waves, Tomato , 1978.
  • Live in Vancouver , 1979, ed. 2017
  • Inspiration , RCA Victor , 1999.
  • Culmination , RCA Victor, 2000.
  • Sam Rivers and the Rivbea Orchestra - Trilogy , Mosaic , 2008/09
  • Celebration , Posi-Tone Records , 2011
  • Emanation (1971, ed. 2019), Cecil McBee , Norman Connors
  • Zenith (1977, ed. 2019)
  • Ricochet. (NoBusiness, Archive Series. Volume 3, ed. 2020), with Dave Holland, Barry Altschul

collection

Web links

Commons : Sam Rivers  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nate Chinen: Sam Rivers, Jazz Artist of Loft Scene, Dies at 88 . In: The New York Times
personal data
SURNAME Rivers, Sam
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rivers, Samuel Carthorne (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz musician (tenor and soprano saxophone, piano, flute, composition)
DATE OF BIRTH September 25, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH El Reno , Oklahoma
DATE OF DEATH December 26, 2011
Place of death Orlando , Florida