Sam Rivers

Sam Rivers (1923-2011) was an American saxophonist, flautist and composer, born in El Reno, Oklahoma. He played mainly tenor and soprano saxophone, along with flute, bass clarinet and piano, and his playing leaned toward the avant-garde from the 1960s on. He is best known for his Blue Note albums of that decade and for Studio Rivbea, the loft he ran with his wife Beatrice in New York during the 1970s. Rivers was briefly in the Miles Davis Quintet in 1964 (heard on Miles in Tokyo) before Wayne Shorter replaced him.