Sam Rivers’ A New Conception is set to receive a reissue courtesy of Blue Note’s legendary Tone Poet series.
The 1966 series of standards features Rivers on tenor sax, soprano sax, and flute. This stereo Tone Poet Vinyl Edition was produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI, and packaged in a deluxe gatefold tip-on jacket. The new edition will arrive July 4.
Rivers was raised in Chicago. His father was a church musician who toured with a gospel quartet and his mother taught music and sociology at Shorter College in Little Rock, Arkansas, where the family later lived. Rivers began taking piano and violin lessons at five. He soon moved on to the trombone, settling on the tenor. Rivers moved to Boston in the late 1940s, studying at the Boston Conservatory of Music and Boston University. He played in Herb Pomeroy’s little big band alongside Jaki Byard, Nat Pierce, Quincy Jones, and Serge Chaloff. By the late ’50s, Rivers had formed his own quartet with pianist Hal Galper, and played on his first Blue Note recording session with pianist/composer Tadd Dameron.
Rivers’ music grew increasingly avant-garde in the early 1960s as he developed a free improvisation group with the young drummer Tony Williams. By 1964, Rivers was now living in New York and was hired by Miles Davis on Tony Williams’ suggestion. He also played on Lifetime, Williams’ debut as a bandleader.
Rivers himself emerged as a bandleader with a pair of influential albums of original music, Fuchsia Swing Song and Contours. He went in a different direction on his follow-up, A New Conception, a set of standards interpreted by a quartet featuring Hal Galper on piano, Herbert Lewis on bass, and Steve Ellington on drums.
In 1970, Rivers and his wife, Bea, opened a dance and music studio in Harlem, later relocating to Soho. Named Studio Rivbea, the space became a well-known venue for the presentation of new jazz. Rivers’ own Rivbea Orchestra rehearsed and performed there, as did his improvisational trio and his Winds of Change woodwind ensemble. Much of this early- to mid-’70s music was documented on the Impulse! label.
Buy Sam Rivers’ A New Conception on vinyl now.
