Hot Ptah Posted June 8, 2008 Report Share Posted June 8, 2008 Sam Rivers appeared on June 7 at the Topeka Jazz Festival with his group of Orlando musicians. It was certainly good, but Sam has definitely slowed down in live performance since a time when I saw him at Milwaukee's Jazz Gallery in 1980. This time he sat in a chair throughout the two sets. He spoke at length between some songs, punctuating rather slow stories with gutteral laughing. He comped on piano for the other musicians for a greater percentage of the show than I would have liked. I wanted to hear more of Sam's soloing. He was democratic to a fault, giving his sidemen and a guest sitting in, a great deal of the solo space. Sam was very effective, I thought, in some brief flute solos. There was not nearly enough of the Rivers saxophone playing to suit me. His daughter spoke at the beginning and end of the sets, in an open, almost naive way, giving us an enthusiastic hard sell about buying Sam's CDs, T shirts and other paraphenalia for sale at a table to the side of the stage. The good part was that she said that the sales were going to be used to finance the production of Sam's recordings of all of his compositions. They are up to Volume 8, and these CDs will go on sale at a later time, she said. She also said that Sam has filled a garage with printed and other materials, from every gig he has ever played, and that they are going to sell it all online. Sam signed autographs after the show, and I had him sign his Horo double album. His daughter asked Sam if they had a copy of that one, and he said that he didn't know if they did. Since Sam has not played in the Kansas City/Western Missouri/Kansas area for a really long time, if ever, the show had taken on mythic proportions in my mind ahead of time. It was not quite as mindblowing as I had hoped. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clifford_thornton Posted June 8, 2008 Report Share Posted June 8, 2008 I grew up in Topeka. Would've been sweet to see him play there - I was in the area a couple of weeks ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spontooneous Posted June 9, 2008 Report Share Posted June 9, 2008 Found this photo on the Topeka Capital Journal's Web site. That's Chris Charles in the background. It was good to see you there, HP. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parkertown Posted June 9, 2008 Report Share Posted June 9, 2008 He played "Body and Soul"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hot Ptah Posted June 9, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 9, 2008 Sam began the second set by announcing that as the festival is dedicated to Coleman Hawkins (it is called the Coleman Hawkins Legacy Jazz Festival), they would play "Body and Soul". Sam comped on piano as the festival's founder, Dan Kozak, a Topeka saxophonist, played the song. During the first set, Sam told a long story between songs about a time when he saw Coleman Hawkins live in Chicago. The story morphed into a longer story about how a munitions facility in Chicago blew up that night and the windows of the jewelry stores downtown were blown out. Sam laughed, in a deep, gutteral laugh, and said that he should have been downtown at the time so that he could have retired. So Sam tried consciously to mix the Coleman Hawkins connection into his sets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morganized Posted June 14, 2008 Report Share Posted June 14, 2008 Sam is what, 85 now? I just hope I can construct a cogent sentence at that age, much less a live performance. Realistic expectations in order here. What a fabulous opportunity to see one of the greats. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parkertown Posted June 14, 2008 Report Share Posted June 14, 2008 (edited) Ah...that makes sense now. I do rather enjoy his "A New Conception" album. Edited June 14, 2008 by Parkertown Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hot Ptah Posted June 14, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 14, 2008 Sam is what, 85 now? I just hope I can construct a cogent sentence at that age, much less a live performance. Realistic expectations in order here. What a fabulous opportunity to see one of the greats. I agree with that. Still, it's jarring to see one of your idols losing it somewhat before your eyes. That happened to me with Dizzy Gillespie too--after 1978 he wasn't the same in live performance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoppy T. Frog Posted June 15, 2008 Report Share Posted June 15, 2008 Sam is what, 85 now? I just hope I can construct a cogent sentence at that age, much less a live performance. Realistic expectations in order here. What a fabulous opportunity to see one of the greats. I agree with that. Still, it's jarring to see one of your idols losing it somewhat before your eyes. That happened to me with Dizzy Gillespie too--after 1978 he wasn't the same in live performance. I saw him at the Dave Holland/Barry Altschul reunion show at Columbia University (last year?), and while yeah, he did a rambling spoken introduction to the show, he then went on and did a near-90 minutes of magnificent playing, almost all on his wind instruments. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidewinder Posted June 15, 2008 Report Share Posted June 15, 2008 (edited) Sam was excellent in his UK tour 2 or 3 years ago (a few of the UK-based board members caught this tour, I think). He seemed a bit short of breath on occasions but his enthusiasm for the music and imaginative improvising on tenor, flute, spoprano and piano (!) impressed many people, I think. It's just incredible that he's been playing at this level in his 80s. Particularly interesting to watch him cleaning all his instruments on stage after the gig. Great care and time taken - I noticed a similar thing with Yusef Lateef. Edited June 15, 2008 by sidewinder Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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