Jazz Saxophonist Sam Rivers Dies in Orlando
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
By: Tom Parkinson

Dec.28, 2011 | WMFE - Jazz saxophonist and composer Sam Rivers has died in Orlando. As 90.7's Tom Parkinson reports, Rivers was one of the architects of avant-garde jazz in the 1960s and '70s.

 

Sam Rivers worked with many of the greats of jazz:  Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie and Quincy Jones during the 1950’s and 60’s.
In the 1970’s his Manhattan loft became the hub of the post-bop experimental jazz scene in New York.
In the early 1990s, he was lured to Orlando by the offer of steady work at Walt Disney World and quickly became a fixture on the central Florida jazz scene leading his big band at clubs and festivals throughout the region.
In a 2009 interview, he told WMFE that it didn’t matter to him if listeners understood his challenging music, only that they enjoyed it. “You want the audience to feel what you’re doing.” Rivers said. “They don’t know what the notes are all they do is feel. I want to reach the audience. I want them to appreciate it.”
Sam Rivers died Monday of complications from pneumonia. He was 88 years old. His family and fellow musicians are planning a memorial concert in his honor.