Herman Riley, R.I.P.

[ValerieB]

Tenorman, Herman Riley's passing yesterday was an enormous loss for the entire jazz community but to Los Angeles even more so. He was/is one of our very favorite musicians as he excelled, beyond par, on his instruments and was a warm, loving, sweet, generous human being. And no one was a more soulful musician. Herman was only 73 and had been battling various medical problems for quite awhile, but even within the last month was still playing his butt off!!

I will post the obit when it is available.

[Dan Gould]

Very sad news. Certainly deserved more recognition while he was alive ...

[Soul Stream]

I always dug his playing with Jimmy Smith, whom he seemed to have played with a lot... Another great gone....

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

A LOSS TO WEST COAST JAZZ

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

who else did he used to play with in LA?

[mikeweil]

I remember him mostly from one of Bobby Bryant's LPs - highly energetic tenor. I agree that he should got more exposure.

R.I.P.

[ValerieB]

FROM L.A. WEEKLY WRITER, BRICK WAHL

Saxophonist Herman Riley died this weekend.

My favorite ever piece of writing I ever did in the Weekly was about Herman Riley. Thought I'd repeat it here. It was the result of an incredible half hour interview, Herman just spinning out his life story. It was so hard to boil down to its very essence. But then I thought about how he did that in his playing, and the words just rolled out. When he read it he told me that it was one of the first times he had ever seen anything in print about him. Just about him. I couldn't believe that this man, this extraordinary saxophonist, had been ignored by the jazz media who really ought to know better. This man deservred reams of coverage. But getting 200 words and a picture made him happy. He left a phone message I still treasure afterward. I don't think a writer knows what to do then. You dash off a few words about a man, a man's artistry, a man's life and more people read that than have probably ever heard this man front a quartet. A couple hundred words are absolutely nothing. Not a damn thing. They didn't even draw a crowd....Charlie O's was sparse that night. I didn't even show. This town never did realize just how extraordinary Herman Riley was. How he could move you. How you could get utterly lost in his ballad playing. His notes fade away into memory. And when we go, the memories go.

God damn I am bummed. I once I asked him when he was going to record again. He only had a single album released sometime in the '80's and impossibly to find. He said he was thinking about it, but wanted to wait until he was ready.

Oh well.

Rest in peace, Mr. Riley. I can hear you now in my head, stretching out the notes of a ballad, till nothing remained but air and a room stilled, listening, feeling your feelings in their bones .

Brick

LA Weekly

HERMAN RILEY

Lockjaw and Prez made him pick up the saxophone. This was New Orleans. There was a teenaged "Iko, IKo", the very first. By '63 he's in L.A., playing Marty's every night, and players-Sonny Rollins, everybody-dropping by, sitting in. Steady work with Basie and the Juggernaut and Blue Mitchell. Twenty years with Jimmy Smith. A million sessions for Motown and Stax, and first call for a slew of singers-that's where you refine those ballad skills, with singers. Live he slips into "In A Sentimental Mood" and everything around you dissolves. There's just his sound, rich, big, full of history, a little bitter, maybe, blowing Crescent City air. He gets inside the very essence of that tune, those melancholy ascending notes, till it fades, pads closing, in a long, drawn out sigh. You swear it's the most beautiful thing you've ever heard, that song, that sound, and you tell him so. He shrugs. "It's a lifetime of experience" he says, then calls out some Monk and is gone.

-Brick Wahl

[Adam]

That's really sad. R.I.P. Seen him quite a few times here. At Musicians tibutes, and in Big Bands.

[Soul Stream]

Nice writing. There are guys with the same life history and talent, out there playing every week to a handful of faithful. We don't really miss these guys until they're off the scene. Living jazz landmarks passed by countless times by the unknowing public at large. Marchel Ivery is another. Dallas legend and master musician...can't imagine the day I read about him passing on either.

[ValerieB]

KJZZ announced this morning that services will be held for Herman on Wed., 4/25 at the Crenshaw Christian Center at 12 noon. i believe the address is 7901 South Vermont.

[RDK]

Nice writing. There are guys with the same life history and talent, out there playing every week to a handful of faithful. We don't really miss these guys until they're off the scene. Living jazz landmarks passed by countless times by the unknowing public at large. Marchel Ivery is another. Dallas legend and master musician...can't imagine the day I read about him passing on either.

Well said. Riley's one of those guys Ive seen probably dozens of times around town, at various gigs, but we tend to take our local heroes lightly. Now, of curse, I wish I'd paid more attention. RIP

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I have his JAM LP, "Herman". I'll get it on tomorrow. Good player. RIP.

MG