{"title":"Sam Rivers","description":"\u003cp\u003eSam Rivers spent his career operating at the edge of what jazz could structurally sustain, and the records he left behind across Blue Note, Impulse!, and ECM track that inquiry in close detail. Born in El Reno, Oklahoma in 1923, Rivers came up through the Boston Conservatory and the city's working jazz scene, where he was among the first musicians to recognise the talent of a teenage Tony Williams. It was Williams who introduced Rivers to Miles Davis, and Rivers toured briefly with the Davis quintet in 1964, documented on \"Miles in Tokyo\". That same year he moved to New York and recorded \"Fuchsia Swing Song\" for Blue Note, with Williams on drums, Jaki Byard on piano, and Ron Carter on bass. The album introduced the approach that would define his playing: a post-bop harmonic architecture pushed to its outer limits, with the structure always present but rarely declared. \"Beatrice\", the ballad from that session, has since become a recognised standard. Three further Blue Note albums followed before the label relationship ended, with \"Dimensions and Extensions\" recorded in 1967 but not released until 1986.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy the early 1970s, Rivers had become a central figure in the New York loft jazz movement. He and his wife Beatrice opened Studio Rivbea on Bond Street in lower Manhattan in 1970, which critic John Litweiler later called the most famous of the lofts. The recordings made there, released across the Wildflowers series on the Douglas label, documented an era of jazz that was largely self-organised and self-funded. Rivers continued recording for Impulse! through the early-to-mid 1970s, most notably capturing his trio live at Montreux in 1973 on \"Streams\", and built a separate body of duo work with bassist Dave Holland for the Improvising Artists label. His \"Contrasts\" for ECM in 1980, recorded with Holland and Barry Altschul, remains among the strongest documents of that working trio. Rivers relocated to Orlando in 1990 and died there on 26 December 2011.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"sam-rivers-fuchsia-swing-song-2023-blue-note-classic-vinyl-series-vinyl-lp","title":"Sam Rivers - Fuchsia Swing Song (2023 Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series Vinyl LP)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSam Rivers - \u003cem\u003eFuchsia Swing Song\u003c\/em\u003e | Vinyl LP - 2023 Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series 180g (4859563, Kevin Gray\/Cohearent Audio, Optimal Media GmbH)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSam Rivers grew up in Boston, where he had been playing with the teenage Tony Williams since 1959. When Williams recorded his own Blue Note debut, \u003cem\u003eLife Time\u003c\/em\u003e, in 1964, he brought Rivers in as a sideman. From there, Rivers appeared on Larry Young's \u003cem\u003eInto Somethin'\u003c\/em\u003e, and Williams also recommended him to Miles Davis for a brief Japanese tour. Miles and Rivers were not a natural fit, but Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Williams all found him extraordinary to play with. When Rivers was offered his own Blue Note date, he called Carter and Williams, both of whom agreed. He also called Jaki Byard, a fellow Bostonian he had known since the late 1940s, who had been working with Charles Mingus since 1962.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlfred Lion produced; Rudy Van Gelder engineered; Reid Miles designed the cover and took the photographs; Nat Hentoff wrote the liner notes. All six tracks are Rivers originals. \"Fuchsia Swing Song\" opens the album with a hard bop figure that the band translates into pushing blues. \"Downstairs Blues Upstairs\" and \"Cyclic Episode\" develop the same territory. \"Luminous Monolith\" pushes further toward free playing. \"Beatrice,\" named for Rivers's wife, is the standout ballad — Rivers states the melody directly, Byard and Carter hold the lyricism, and the piece has since been recorded by many other groups. \"Elipsis\" closes Side B with forward movement. Williams, nineteen years old, plays throughout with the combined precision and looseness that would define his work with Miles.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis Classic Vinyl Series edition was mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio from the original analog master tapes and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal Media GmbH.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Blue Note","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43437486342203,"sku":null,"price":70.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0630\/3203\/3339\/files\/71l9gXfJA0L._UF894_1000_QL80.jpg?v=1776728651"}],"url":"https:\/\/lushliferecords.com.au\/collections\/sam-rivers.oembed","provider":"Lush Life Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}