Tenor Man
by Gene Armstrong
azz saxophonist Sam Rivers is 81 years old and lives in Orlando, Fla., but he’s hardly your sedentary retiree basking in the well-earned glow of leisure and reliving faded glories in a lawn chair.
Rivers keeps pretty busy. In fact, it’s tough to nail him down for an interview, even if you have all his numbers. First he’s out of town, and then – when you reach him, he asks you to call back a couple nights later. When you do, he’s on his way out the door to a gig. Try to reach him the next day during your lunch hour, and he’s off to the bookstore for a guide to help him solve his current computer problem.
The man simply doesn’t seem to slow down, although he is always warm and gregarious when you speak with him. Tucsonans will have the chance to catch up to him when his group, the Sam Rivers Trio performs a Zeitgeist “Jazz at the Institute” concert on May 21 at the Mat Bevel Institute.
Although he also leads a big band, the trio line-up is incredibly versatile. It consists of Rivers on tenor and soprano sax, flute and piano; Doug Mathews on bass, clarinet and guitar; and Anthony Cole on drums, tenor sax and piano.
Born in El Reno, Oklahoma, in 1923, Rivers grew up in a family surrounded by music. His grandfather was a minister, musician and musicologist who published “A Collection of Revival Hymns and Plantation Melodies” in 1882. His father sang with the Fisk Jubilee Singers and the Silverstone Quartet. His mother played piano for the latter group.
Young Sam studied violin, piano and trombone. He played in the Navy with Jimmy Witherspoon, attended the Boston Conservatory in 1947, and later floated up and down the East Coast. During the mid-1950s in Miami, he played for Billie Holiday.
Rivers’ career has included stints with Miles Davis in the ’60s and Dizzy Gillespie in the ’80s, as well as with innovators such as Charles Mingus, Andrew Hill, McCoy Tyner and Cecil Taylor.
Rivers was a major force in the New York City “loft scene” during the 1970s, when musicians – including Lester Bowie, Julius Hemphill, Arthur Blythe, Olu Dara, Andrew Cyrille, Randy Weston and Oliver Lake – set up semi-impromptu sessions in rented, loft-based rehearsal studios.
The Soho-based Rivbea Studio, which Rivers created with his wife Beatrice, became one of the most celebrated loft spaces, with the highlight of the period being a seven-day stand, dubbed the “Wildflowers” concerts, in 1976. This series of gigs embodied the collective, creative spirit of jazz in 1970s New York, and recordings from it were re-released as a three-CD box set on Knitting Factory Classics Records.
Throughout his career, whether as a sideman, collaborator or a bandleader, Rivers has strived to establish his own style, although one can hear a little Charlie Parker here, some Sonny Rollins there, an occasional Ornette Coleman-like digression.
As evidenced on his recent album, “Purple Violets,” recorded last October in New York City, Rivers can play rich and well-polished melodies on ballads or standards. But he also has a deliciously tart and agile way with abstract improvisation. In either direction he plays with a combination of confidence, concision and propulsive energy rarely witnessed in less experienced musicians.
Of Rivers’ recordings since the dawn of the 21st century, one of the most exciting wasn’t even released under his name.
Slide trumpeter Steven Bernstein – a composer for TV and movies, a member of Sex Mob, the Lounge Lizards and Millennial Territory Orchestra, among other groups – asked Rivers to appear as a guest on his solo CD “Diaspora Blues,” a recording tracing the similarities among jazz, blues and traditional Jewish music.
According to Bernstein’s liner notes from the CD, Rivers insisted that the Sam Rivers Trio – the same line-up scheduled to appear in Tucson this month – play the whole Bernstein session.
Noted jazz critic Nat Hentoff has written often of Rivers.
About the saxophonist Hentoff has said, “Rivers is very much a complete tenor man. His technique is remarkable and the depth and fullness of his tone recall the vibrant amplitude of the older tradition of jazz tenor playing. He is, moreover, a continually adventurous improviser, but while Rivers is in context in the avant-garde, he does not experiment haphazardly. His has a disciplined inventiveness with a secure sense of form. Furthermore, like all the best of the jazz explorers, he is motivated to try new approaches by a desire to deepen and expand his emotional expressivity.”
The Sam Rivers Trio will play at 8 p.m., Saturday, May 21, at Zeitgeist’s “Jazz at the Institute” series at the Mat Bevel Institute, 530 N. Stone Ave. Advance tickets cost $15 at Antigone Books, or $18 at the door.
inger/songwriter Mark Matos has proven to be an impressive addition to the Tucson music community.
Hailing from Cali’s Central Valley, Matos has settled into the Old Pueblo nicely, clearly finding this sun-baked locale as fertile ground for musical fodder.
In the last eight months, Matos has churned out two full-length albums with his Campo Bravo collective. This month sees the release party for his second effort Songs for Messy Lovers.
Compared to the cracked, vulnerable feel of a frosh LP, Electric Jumping Horses, Matos’ new work shows a grounded strength that comes with the confidence that time brings those who hone their craft.
The élan of Songs lies in the scribe’s lyrical power, the top-notch cast of musicians, as well as the superb recording and production qualities.
Recorded on an eight-track at Soild Gold Headquarters, Matos was thrilled to have Golden Boots produce the album.
“They make great records. I loved working with those guys. Rick Davies, (who has been the editor of a couple technical music mags) mixed the album and spent more time on it than anyone else. When you go from the analog world to the digital world, it takes a lot of time.
“I feel good about it – there’s been a little bit of label interest. I got an email from Shut Eye Records – out of Atlanta. They heard some songs on MySpace and asked me to send out the album.”
The label should be pleased when hearing the rest of the record as Matos’ MySpace.com account only has three tracks.
Though not breaking musical ground, nor attempting to, Songs firmly plants itself in the old-school mellow rock grooves of Neil Young, Bob Dylan and Tucson’s Giant Sand. Matos is also proving to mature lyrically with those same masters.
“The Length of You” bats around fabulous word play straight away – accompanied by controlled shimmers of bass and drums by Brian Green and E. Schumeister and the jazzy guitar work of Collin Scott.
There’s a measure of attraction,
In the pleasure of distraction.
And it’s my pleasure to distract you.
And it’s your pleasures that distract you.
And if I measure the length of you –
There’s a mighty fine chance
That the truth would be exposed.
Matos attributes the song’s poetics as a nod to his musical mentor Howe Gelb as well as an acknowledgement of life’s mirages.
“Everything, on some level, is illusion. It’s kind of like the time we are in. It’s very attractive to be distracted.”
Matos is not proving to be distracted, though; rather his eyes are wide open and he is taking in life as it comes and writing about it. His growth between albums is marked. Songs informs understanding from experience when set against Electric Jumping Horses.
“I think it’s a more confident record – someone who is getting their feet underneath them. The realization that things don’t matter that much...not to be a nihilist, more of existentialism,” Matos explained.
“The Leaving,” a Beatles-esque George Harrison guitar lullaby demonstrates his pragmatic observations thusly:
I won’t be here when you wake up in the morning.
I won’t answer when you call me on the cell.
I’m sure you’ll find a new muse to amuse you.
You’ll be as soon be sure to give him hell.
Matos explained the last lines of the song – “But your tears will not be shed for my absence, just the leaving that has left you behind,” as the shallow, uninformed lover who was clinging more to the ideology of the relationship and disposed to lassitude because she wasn’t getting out of Dodge.
The genius of Songs lies in Matos’ ability to create a mood and provide rich imagery that is open-ended, allowing the listener to insert their personal narratives.
Comprised of beautiful melodies and laid-back grooves saturated by affecting, poignant poetry – Songs is a must-have for your Tucson music collection.
Listen to the album on a porch of some sort, through headphones, and look at the stars. The next thing you know, your mind’s eye turns the sky into a 8mm film projection of previous loves and life’s experiences.
Campo Bravo’s CD release party will be held at Club Congress, 311 E. Congress St., on Wednesday, May 25, as a Congress Libre show. That means it’s free. The stellar line-up also includes The Rise and Fall of Amy Rude, Judith and Holofernes, and Golden Boots. Log on for a listen at www.MySpace.com/CampoBravo. Call 622-8848 if you need anything else.
The Return of the Rialto
f you haven’t heard, the Rialto Theatre has re-opened after the doors shut last June - with the Tucson Area Music Awards celebration closing the chapter on Jeb Schoonover and Paul Bear’s nine-year ownership of the 85-year-old performance space.
The city’s Rio Nuevo District bought the building for $1.54 million and officially gained ownership last September. Rio Nuevo currently leases the theatre to Congress Street Historic Theatres Foundation for close to $4,000 a month.
In less than a year, the foundation’s Executive Director Doug Diggers has spearheaded the rehabilitation work that includes a laundry list of check marks that include: new paint, stalls and toilets for the bathrooms; a new bar in the lobby with the addition of a bar in the seating area; new hand rails for the stairs; fixing the plaster and the ceilings; replacing old light fixtures; adding lights in the balcony area; fixing the swamp coolers (that work extremely well); and new doors.
And what, pray tell, did they do to improve the sound, you ask? Well, the walls have been covered in acoustic tiles, reaching to the 40-foot ceilings—helping to deaden the once live, unwieldy room. The PAs have been taken off the stage and are hanging on the side of it via ceiling trusses.
And how does it look? The interior design is gorgeous, classy and clean - described by Program Director Curtis McCrary as a “modern adaptation of historical design tendencies”
The foundation presented a “soft” opening of the Rialto during Club Crawl, featuring local acts such as the Sand Rubies, The Drakes, and Al Perry and the Cattle.
A new marquee and blade sign will be installed in early July.
Though there are still plenty of projects on the horizon, May will see the return of the best mid-size venue in town hosting live music. Check the music listings for the line-up or visit their spiffy new website at www.RialtoTheatre.com.
