Another irreplaceable giant has left the planet.
Sam Rivers, always graceful, elegant and cool as a mofo, certainly carved out his own niche in the jazz idiom.
While his work as a leader will –and should– be celebrated, he also did remarkable work on sessions led by his compatriots.
Anyone not familiar with this great reedist should proceed directly to the tri-fecta of Fuchsia Swing Song (1964), Contours (1965) and Dimensions & Extensions (1967).
Check him out on Dave Holland’s classic Conference of the Birds (1973), Tony Williams’s Spring (1965) and Bobby Hutcherson’s Dialogue. After that, enjoy picking and choosing from the gems he created over five decades on the scene.
In one of the early obits to hit the press, this revealing quote from his daughter pretty much puts the man and his work in proper perspective:
“Music was his life, music is what kept him alive,” said his daughter Monique Rivers Williams of Apopka, who also handled her father’s concert bookings and learned from him the joy of making music. “My father, in my eyes, was on vacation all his life. He used to tell me, ‘I’m working, but I’m loving every minute of it.’ Retirement was not in his vocabulary. ‘Why do we even have that word,’ he used to ask me, ‘there should be no such thing.'”
