Sam Rivers: jazz’s forgotten man
Issue: Vol 6 No. 1 (2012)
Journal: Jazz Research Journal
Subject Areas: Popular Music
DOI: 10.1558/jazz.v6i1.7
Abstract:
‘Sam Rivers: Jazz’s Forgotten Man’ examines the life and work of Sam Rivers and explores the reasons for his relative lack of renown. Though admired by fellow musicians, Rivers never received the level of recognition achieved by Miles Davis or Cecil Taylor, with whom he played and recorded. Factors unrelated to his work itself—such as where he chose to live, when he started recording as a leader, his arrangements with record labels and interactions with younger musicians—largely determined his neglect, which is reflected in music critics’ and historians’ scant discussion of him. The essay considers how a saxophonist compared to John Coltrane can go unappreciated and largely unknown.
Author: John G. Rodwan, Jr.
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