Underrated Saxophonist Sam Rivers: Start Listening Where He Started as a Leader, on Blue Note

The Late Sam Rivers (1923-2011) might have been the most underrated saxophone player in the history of jazz. Certainly Rivers is right up there with guys like Steve Marcus and Joe Farrell for being slighted.

Rivers though, with a career that spanned 60 years seems particularly overlooked.

The pictured Fuchsia Swing Song was Sam's first record as a leader, he was 41 years of age at the time of it's release. John Coltrane was dead at age 40, Sam was a late bloomer for sure.

Sam almost became a household name when in 1964, at the urging of drummer Tony Williams, he joined the Miles Davis Quintet.

That document is on the Miles Davis album Live in Tokyo. Miles reportedly thought Sam was too avant-garde, so in the end, it wasn't a great fit, but of course it's hard to imagine "The Quintet" without Wayne Shorter in the Saxophonist's chair. Sam though, is sort of a thinking jazz fans favorite.

I mean, if you really like modern jazz, and dig deep into the avant-garde or at least post bop, you will find your way to Sam.

For me, the pictured LP and the album Contours on Blue Note do the most for me, I just love that "not too far outside" Blue Note sound circa 1965.

Those albums work so well,  Alfred Lion must have kept the reigns pretty tight as to not to fly off the track completely. To Lion's credit though, he let these guys really experiment quite a bit... see Eric Dolphy's masterpiece Out to Lunch, or any of the Jackie McLean sessions from the mid-60's.

The standard from Fuchsia Swing Song is "Beatrice". A song named after Sam's wife, and a real important post bop track and real winner to my ears. The best way to describe the album as a whole is, think Post Bop light, if the avant-garde scares you, Fuchsia is the one to get and then check out Contours.

If you end up liking the Blue Notes, do include Inventions and Dementions on the play list as well. The 70's stuff like Crystals, Waves, and Streams, might be to out there for you. His Rivbea Orchestra is what he was most known for up until his death at age 88.

The big band recordings are a real thrill, much in the style of 1974's Impulse Records release Crystals. These are all out progressive big band blow outs, that remind me of an amalgam of Stan Kenton, Charles Mingus, and Sun Ra's big bands, and lot of other stuff thrown in.  Do Start with the Blue Notes though if you have a taste for Sam Rivers.