Jazz Articles about Sam Rivers

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Sam Rivers Celebrates His 80th at the Jazz Bakery

by Rex Butters
December 1, 2003

Sam Rivers brought his boundless goodwill and energy to the Jazz Bakery for a week to celebrate his 80th birthday with adoring fans. The amazing Rivers played two sets a night, and jammed and recorded with local musicians after hours. The ebullient octogenarian performed with his longtime trio featuring Doug Matthews and Anthony Cole. Like Rivers, both Matthews and Cole are multi-instrumentalists yielding a variety of configurations, sometimes within the same piece. Matthews played acoustic bass, six string electric bass, ...

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Sam Rivers Trio: Firestorm

by David Adler
May 1, 2001

Sam Rivers’s new trio is not just a trio. The avant-garde tenor legend, now in his late 70s, unites with the rhythm section from his Rivbea All-Star Orchestra — bassist Doug Mathews and drummer Anthony Cole. But what the simple word “trio" doesn’t tell you right off is that each player brings to the table prodigious skills on at least three instruments. These eleven independently released tracks were culled from live performances in New York, where audiences have been blessed ...

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Sam Rivers' RivBea All-Star Orchestra: Culmination

by Mark Corroto
June 1, 2000

Recorded at the same session as last year’s Inspiration, the follow up disc Culmination delivers more of the same goods. Sam Rivers, long exiled (by choice) to Orlando, FL, has been making music in semi-obscurity for the past few decades with many of the Disney-based musicians. In this environs Rivers has total control over composition and arrangements, plus a supply of very talented but probably bored musicians. His 1996 trio recording Concept for the Rivbea is worth searching for.

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Sam Rivers' Rivbea All-Star Orchestra: Culmination

by David Adler
June 1, 2000

The anticipated follow-up to last year’s acclaimed Inspiration is here. Rivers, well into his 70s, is as sharp as ever on tenor, soprano, and flute. The music is similar to that heard on the previous album — strident yet sublime big band charts crafted by Rivers roughly between 1969 and 1994, resuscitated by alto sax man and M-Base creator Steve Coleman. Most are vamp-based funk pieces, the solos interspersed with tightly arranged, dissonant shout choruses and thematic statements from the ...

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Sam Rivers: The Complete Blue Note Sam Rivers Sessions

by C. Andrew Hovan
April 1, 2000

Although he's been a victim of those stylistic ins and outs since he first hit the national scene as a member of the Miles Davis quintet in the mid-'60s, multi- instrumentalist Sam Rivers seems to be enjoying a renewed popularity thanks in part to his 1999 Grammy-nominated RCA release Inspiration. His first recording for a major label in some time, it will be followed-up by a second collection of his works, Culmination, due sometime in May. Residing now in Florida, ...

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Julian Priester & Sam Rivers: Hints on Light and Shadow

by Glenn Astarita
February 1, 2000

Man vs. Machine was a common phrase or term often heard during the infancy of analog synthesizers, especially when jazz and/or classical artists decided to meld acoustic instruments with electronics. Saxophonist-composer-improviser Anthony Braxton’s infamous and often intriguing duets with synthesist Richard Teitelbaum come to mind, yet history dictates that many of these engagements in general, represented nothing other than mere experiments featuring little if any musical value. On Hints on Light and Shadow, renowned jazz luminaries – saxophonist Sam Rivers ...

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Bruce Ditmas: What If

by Glenn Astarita
November 1, 1999

Drummer Bruce Ditmas’ wish list comes to fruition on the 1995 “Postcards” release titled, What If. Among the noteworthy crop of re-releases from Arkadia Records who now own the Postcards catalogue is this mind boggling work featuring a who’s who of modern jazz stylists such as pianist Paul Bley, bassist Dominic Richards, saxophonist Sam Rivers and guitarist John Abercrombie. According to the liners, Ditmas handed Postcards something similar to a Christmas want-list as they proceeded to round up these consummate ...