Sam Rivers, who died late last year, was one of jazz's most creative musicians, not just in his playing, but in his thinking about the genre and the scene surrounding it. Along with his wife, he opened Studio Rivbea, a Manhattan space that hosted a large series of collaborations, famously cataloged in the Wildflowers series. His trio, with Barry Altschul on drums and Dave Holland on bass, was inaugurated in the ’70s and produced rich and raw music, a natural outgrowth of Rivers' history with Blue Note. This fully improvised record, recorded live in 2007, sounds fresh and lively, as well as surprisingly cohesive for a band that had not played together for 25 years. Listen below to the first set from the document, Reunion: Live in New York, for Rivers' rich tone, a fitting send off to a real legend. The record is out today on PI Recordings.
Stream: Sam Rivers Trio, Reunion: Live in New York