how much would you give to see this gig?

[J Larsen]

during sam's interview from thursday, he mentioned being on oxygen the last couple months because of bouts with pneumonia, and noted forgoing the oxygen without his doctor's consent. for mr. rivers to perform the concert you mentioned is more than remarkable.

That is sad, but doesn't surprise me. He really didn't seem like he was in great health to me - in the back of my mind I kept wondering "man, should he really be doing this?" - but in retrospect, the answer to that question is probably "yes" for him.

[J Larsen]

it's a pretty bleak food scene up there J., what'd you get? next time i'll send you down into Harlem for some excellent Senegalese, say

Tell me about it - I lived on 110th for quite a while. I got Two Boots and ate it until I was full enough to be able to tell that it sucked, then went home and cooked dinner.

What is your Senegalese place in Harlem? Aren't there a bunch of them up there?

[Guy Berger]

Tell me about it - I lived on 110th for quite a while. I got Two Boots and ate it until I was full enough to be able to tell that it sucked, then went home and cooked dinner.

I've only had their Bayou Beast, but it's delicious.

No worries about not meeting up after the performance -- as soon as it was over, I jetted back to New Haven for a friend's going-away party.

Guy

[sidewinder]

He was a bit short of breath after tunes during his last tour of the UK (especially after bursts on the tenor) but it didn't affect the music one iota. A phenomenon and a man on a mission !

Hopefully people got the chance to meet Sam. He's a very cool character.

Any sign of another European tour?

Not that I've heard of - unfortunately.

Really glad I got to meet him during the last tour. In addition to signing a few things he gave his thoughts on some of the Blue Note LPs I was holding. 'That won a design prize, you know' was the comment about the 'A New Conception' Liberty sleeve. There was great pride expressed concerning his Blue Note sessions (and the set that Mosaic put out), but expressed in a real nice low-key way. A gent !

Edited May 26, 2007 by sidewinder

[Guy Berger]

By the way, for those who missed the concert, someone recorded it and it is available at the site-which-must-not-be-named.

Guy

[brownie]

The New York Times review in today's edition:

HONORING AN AVANT GARDE EMINENCE OF THE SAXOPHONE

By NATE CHINEN

Published: May 28, 2007

“I didn’t expect to blossom like I did,” the saxophonist Sam Rivers said at the Miller Theater on Friday, reflecting on his 60-year career. His quip sent ripples of appreciative laughter through the crowd, which was generously stocked with musicians, and generally skewed toward extreme jazz erudition.

Richard Termine for The New York Times

The Sam Rivers Trio reunited at the Miller Theater, with Mr. Rivers on saxophone,

Dave Holland on bass and Barry Altschul on drums.

The occasion was suitably exceptional: a reunion of the 1970s-era Sam Rivers Trio, with Dave Holland on bass and Barry Altschul on drums. It culminated a weeklong tribute organized by WKCR, the student-run radio station of Columbia University. More generally it celebrated the 83-year-old Mr. Rivers, a genial and indefatigable eminence in the jazz avant-garde. And it confirmed the expressive power of collective improvisation, not that the audience needed convincing.

In a pair of roughly hourlong performances Mr. Rivers and his rhythm partners created a jubilant strain of free jazz. Tempos and tonal centers moved in a restless swirl, frequently dissolving into textural abstraction. But there were discernable roots in bebop and blues, and the musicians often followed a traditional arrangement of roles. Mr. Rivers, playing tenor and soprano saxophones as well as flute and piano, mostly occupied center stage.

His playing was characteristic: effusive but not abrasive, with a stream-of-consciousness cadence. His style was perceptibly different on each instrument: on tenor saxophone he had a burred and slightly bleary tone; on soprano he sounded silvery and precise; during his forays on flute he balanced dartlike flurries against a multiphonic humming; and his brief piano interlude was disarmingly sumptuous, with a sweeping romanticism that felt transplanted from another show.

The shape and direction of the music fell to his band mates, who made the most of their freedom. Mr. Holland was an especially commanding presence: The physicality and proficiency of his playing often dazzled. So did his manner of implying chord progressions in open space through the shape of his lines and the occasional double-stopped chord. His insistent undercurrent gave the impression of momentum even when the music was harmonically static.

Rhythm helped of course. Mr. Holland and Mr. Altschul often spontaneously tumbled into a groove — above all they favored a brisk and bustling swing — with remarkable synchronization. At one point they shifted from breakneck bebop into a loose-limbed medium tempo, which then faded into silence. Later there were flashes of calypso, Middle Eastern drones and a modal ostinato borrowed from the John Coltrane Quartet. In every instance bass and drums established a context for Mr. Rivers’s peregrinations.

At times there was a mild disconnect between Mr. Rivers and the other musicians, a sense of separation not evident during their original tenure as a band. But that is to be expected after all this time. In recent years Mr. Rivers has been living in Florida, where he leads an excellent newer trio, stylistically descended from the old one. (One member, the bassist Doug Mathews, sat in the audience on Friday.)

It would be fascinating to hear both bands on the same program, and not just because that would provide Mr. Rivers, Mr. Holland and Mr. Altschul with another excuse to get together. Though even that would be a pretty good thing.