Samuel Carthorne Rivers, although tested in the great jazz crucible by the late 1940s, remained largely unknown to many even twenty years later. His fame exploded at the Montreux Festival in 1973. In a trio with Cecil McBee on double bass and Norman Connors on drums, the African-American saxophonist took the scene by storm.
The hunger for leading figures pointed to him as a new star, capable of achieving that synthesis between music and politics that contemporary jazz theorists had long pursued. However, the key to understanding the man lies in his heritage as the son of artists. With a pianist father and a singer mother, his rich life and musical experiences speak volumes about the Rivers of today.
From studying saxophones, piano, and composition to stimulating collaborations with bluesmen like T-Bone Walker and B.B. King, and teaching at the Berklee School of Music: these are stages that have left deep marks. Then came the experiences of free jazz in the early 1960s with Miles Davis, Cecil Taylor, and the avant-garde jazz scene that Rivers helped to nurture. And then, after twenty years, fame finally lifted him from the anonymity of a sideman, with the risk of overwhelming him—more due to others' expectations than his own shortcomings.
Rivers' jazz has always been characterized by its openness on two fronts: to the future and new experiences, but also to the past and the rich Afro-American folk material, and not only that, absorbed along the blues road. His creative commitment, the ability to skillfully blend sound sources, and a complex style that acknowledges free jazz but goes beyond it: these are the traits that distinguish this composer-creator with an artistic trajectory open to any development.
