March 9, 2011 – 3:36 am

SAM RIVERS R.I.P. 1923-2011

Saxophonist, flutist and composer Sam Rivers died on December 26, 2011 from pneumonia. He was 88.

Click on the panels for a better view or to download artwork.

SAM RIVERS’ RIVBEA ORCHESTRA

Brussels 1977 [no label, 2CD]

Live at the Centré Culturel, Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, Brussels, Belgium; October 19, 1977. Very good soundboard; slight hiss.

For many listeners, free jazz proponent Sam Rivers (saxophone, flute, harmonica, piano) is noted for being a member of the Miles Quartet in 1964 and who appeared on Miles In Tokyo.

In his Autobiography, Miles Davis recounted how Rivers joined the group.

I want to clear up the story about me wanting to get Eric Dolphy in my band when George Coleman left. Eric was a beautiful guy as far as his personality went, but I never liked his playing. He could play; I just didn’t like the way he played. A lot of people loved it; I know Trane did, and Herbie, Ron, and Tony [Williams] did, too.

When George quit, Tony did bring up Eric’s name, but I didn’t even consider him seriously. Sam Rivers was the man Tony was really pushing because he knew him from Boston and Tony’s like that; he was always pushing people he knew. Afterwards, around 1964 when Eric Dolphy died, I got a lot of criticism because I was quoted in a Leonard Feather blindfold test in Down Beat saying that Eric played “like somebody was standing on his foot”. The magazine came out just about the time Eric died, and everyone thought that was so cold-blooded. But I had said that months before.

My first choice to replace George was Wayne Shorter, but Art Blakey had made him musical director of the Jazz Messengers and he couldn’t leave then. So we hired Sam Rivers.

The wikipedia added that Rivers’ playing style was too free to be compatible with Davis’s music at this point, and he was soon replaced by Wayne Shorter.

Listening to these two sets here, 13 years after Rivers had played with Miles, it is not difficult to see the direction Rivers had taken. The two wouldn’t have stayed together.

Thanks to relyles for sharing these tracks in 2007.

Click on the highlighted tracks to download the MP3s (these are high quality MP3s - sample rate of 224 kbps). As far as we can ascertain, these tracks have never been officially released on CD.

Please Do Not Hammer The Links. Due to the size of some of the files, please be very patient when downloading the tracks. It could be that the server was very busy. The tracks should still be around. Please try again later. Kindly email us at [email protected] if you encounter persistent problems downloading the files.

Disc 1

Track 01. First Set - 46:11 (74.0MB)

Track 01. First Set (alternative link)

Disc 2

Track 02. Second Set - 46:14 (cut at end) (74.0MB)

Track 02. Second Set (alternative link)

Both sets played as continuous performance with no pauses between songs.

Lineup:

Sam Rivers, Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre, Byard Lancaster, George Adams , Rene McLean, Chico Freeman (reeds)

Frank Gordon, Ahmed Abdullah (trumpet)

George Lewis (trombone, tuba)

Charles Stephens (trombone)

Youseff Chauncey Yancy (third trumpeter)

Joe Daley (tuba)

Don Pullen (piano)

Abdul Wadud (cello)

Brian Smith, Dave Holland (bass, cello)

Barry Altschul, Charlie Persip (drums)

Click on the link to order Sam Rivers releases.