Doyen of the New York jazz avant garde in the 1970s saxophonist, flautist, composer and loft scene motivator Sam Rivers passed away yesterday at the age of 88, according to reports. Rivers played with Miles Davis in the 1960s and for Blue Note Records recorded some milestone avant garde albums that have more recently been reissued. Rivers was born on 25 September 1923 in Oklahoma. His mother was a pianist and his father sang with the Fisk Jubilee Singers.

Studying piano as a young child, while still a pre-teen Rivers picked up soprano saxophone playing in a marching band, later moving on to tenor sax the instrument (along with flute) he was principally known for, influenced initially by Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins.

Rivers would later study composition and viola at the Boston Conservatory of Music, performing on saxophone at night in the Boston area during the 1950s. He also spent time working with singers including touring with Billie Holiday.

Becoming interested in the avant garde and the music of Cecil Taylor, Rivers’ brief six-month tenure with the Miles Davis Quintet beginning in 1964 was a small stylistic detour although with the benefit of the unearthing recently of some of the lesser known performances he made with Miles in Japan, our knowledge of the contribution he made during this period is now much deeper.

Rivers’ time with Miles was soon eclipsed, however, by his long time associations with the avant garde and the loft scene. With his wife Bea Rivers established one of the main hubs of the burgeoning early-1970s NYC underground jazz scene at what they called Studio Rivbea, located in New York’s SoHo district, a beacon for the burgeoning loft scene where Rivers himself played and where he hosted performances by artists such as Dewey Redman and Sonny Fortune.

Rivers would become a composer-in-residence for the Harlem Opera Society and lectured on African American music history during the 1970s. He performed a major concert at Carnegie Hall in 1978 and also collaborated extensively with bassist and composer Dave Holland in duo and as part of a highly regarded trio with Holland and drummer Barry Altschul, touring widely. His sideman work also included important stints with Herbie Hancock, Freddie Hubbard, Jaki Byard, and Andrew Hill.

Rivers’ extensive discography includes the fairly recently reissued Fuchsia Swing Song and Dimensions And Extensions for Blue Note records; Contrasts for ECM and for the same label with Dave Holland the widely admired album Conference of the Birds. Rivers continued to play regularly until recently and kept in touch with new emerging players such as Jason Moran whose album Black Stars he appeared on.

— Stephen Graham