• Home
  • About
    • Doug Ramsey
    • Rifftides
    • Contact
  • Purchase Doug’s Books
    • Poodie James
    • Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond
    • Jazz Matters
    • Other Works
  • AJBlogs
  • ArtsJournal
  • rss

Rifftides

Doug Ramsey on Jazz and other matters...

Sam Rivers And Barbara Lea, RIP

January 2, 2012 by Doug Ramsey

As 2011 wound down, American music lost two octogenarians who were dramatically different except for what they had in common, insistence on getting to the heart of the matter without compromise. Sam Rivers died in Orlando, Florida on December 26 at the age of 88, Barbara Lea the same day in Raleigh, North Carolina, at 82.

Rivers was a formidable saxophonist, flutist and composer. He had a university education in harmony, theory and composition, played blues with T-Bone Walker, worked with Miles Davis for a time, and became a leading figure in the avant garde. Rivers’ 1964 Fuchsia Swing Song, now a collectors item, melded experimentation with established values. His composition “Beatrice” from the album quickly joined the standard jazz repertoire. According to Rivers’ daughter Monique, he remained active as a performer and teacher until virtually the eve of his death and recorded material for dozens of albums yet to be released. Rivers was a lifelong prober beneath the surface, unsatisfied with routine, using his intellect and daring in equal measure to discover mysteries.

Here are Rivers and his quartet at the 1989 Leverkusener Jazztage in Germany, playing “Beatrice.” Rael Wesley Grant is on bass, Darryl Thompson on guitar and Steve Mcraven on drums.

Like Sam Rivers, Barbara Lea knew music inside out; she had a degree from Wellesley in music theory. Rivers was devoted to chance taking. Ms. Lea’s integrity was based in fealty to the song. She fervently believed, and said in interviews, that a singer’s business was to sing the song, not to use the song to sell herself. If it seemed to some listeners that she was too low key to be entertaining, her masterly phrasing, intonation, sense of time and understanding of the songwriter’s intentions persuaded others that her interpretations were definitive. She was sometimes described as a cabaret singer, but like Lee Wiley, whom she admired, Ms. Lea was a favorite of jazz musicians. Dick Sudhalter, Johnny Windhurst and the members of The Lawson-Haggart Jazz Band (on this album) were among her devoted fans and colleagues. There is regrettably little of Barbara Lea on video, but here’s a fine performance of “Sweet and Slow” with the trumpet obbligato and solo by Doc Cheatham. It’s from the 1984 Manassas, Virginia, jazz festival.

For The New York Times obituary of Sam Rivers, go here. For the Barbara Lea obituary, go here.

Related

Filed Under: Main

Comments

  1. Kevin Whitehead says

    January 2, 2012 at 8:00 am

    Thanks for remembering Sam Rivers, whose death inspired remarkably little comment from mainstream jazz blogs.

  2. Brew says

    January 2, 2012 at 3:44 pm

    …yep, Kevin, you are so right; and that’s because Sam Rivers was anything else but “mainstream”.

    A free human spirit in an increasingly commercialized & greedy society.

    At least at my humble “mainstream jazz” blog you can find a little, and (as usual) subjective memorial:

    R.I.P. Sam Rivers, musician.

  3. Roger Schore says

    January 2, 2012 at 8:57 pm

    Francis Davis, in one of his books, included a chapter on Barbara Lea. As to the question of whether she was a cabaret or jazz singer, her response was along the lines of, “Whatever they’re looking for.”

  4. David says

    January 2, 2012 at 10:35 pm

    In 1987 Rivers was part of a very interesting Dizzy Gillespie Quintet that never issued a recording. The other members were Ignacio Berroa, John Lee, and a guitarist whose name escapes me at the moment. It was surprising how well Rivers’ sax fit into Dizzy’s music.

    • David says

      January 3, 2012 at 9:12 am

      The guitarist mentioned in my comment above was Ed Cherry.

      • Brew says

        January 4, 2012 at 11:28 am

        Thanks, David —

        There *is* a recording with Sam Rivers & The Dizzy Gillespie Quintet:

        • Dizzy Gillespie Quintet [Broadcast Recording]

        April 1, 1989 / Tokyo, Japan
         Radio announcement [1:15]
         announcement DG
        1. Tanga [12:55]
        2. Gee Baby, Ain’t I Good to You [9:08]
         announcement [1:07]
        3. Night in Tunisia [14:52]
        4. Oop-Bop-She-Bam (or) One More Blues [6:49]
        [46:08]

        Dizzy Gillespie (trumpet, voice)
        Sam Rivers (tenor sax, soprano sax)
        Ed Cherry (guitar)
        John Lee (electric bass)
        Ignacio Berroa (drums)

        Have found this information at Rick Lopez’s very detailed Sam Rivers Sessionography.

        • Doug Ramsey says

          January 4, 2012 at 2:52 pm

          Thanks to Herr Leicht for his efficient sleuthing.

          • Red Sullivan says

            January 4, 2012 at 9:49 pm

            And a TV programme, taken in Forida if I correctly remember. Half-hour newtork TV recording, exact same personel.
            Strange – I’d be curious to know more or hear comment on peoples’ opinion of this particular group, and why…

          • Brew says

            January 9, 2012 at 5:51 pm

            P.S. — There is footage on YT:

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3R344hB_VrE

            There is another one, but on VHS only:

  5. ellie leacock says

    January 8, 2012 at 7:54 pm

    Barbara was my aunt. When I was a child, I’d look forward to her every visit, knowing that while she was there, our home would be filled with song! She and my father would sing amazing duets. They were very close. I will forever miss my “Singin’ Aunt Barbara.” (As she was ALWAYS known, in our family.)

  6. betsy leacock says

    January 9, 2012 at 3:08 pm

    Barbara was not only a great singer and actress but to me much much more. She was a dear friend who just happened to be my sister-in-law . My children remember fondly their “singing aunt Barbara” as they called her when growing up in Algonac,Michigan. The children have special fond memories of the summer of 1965 when Barbara spent the summer with us while performing at the Port Huron Summer Theatre Festival along with John Carradine and other popular actors of that time.

    • betsy leacock says

      January 14, 2012 at 4:45 pm

      PS: This is to chear up a misunderstanding on how Barbara got her name. She did not take the name Lea as a tribute to Lee Wiley. She was Barbara Leacock, then changed her name to Barbara Lea when she became a professional singer and actress. She was born Barbara LeCocq. Her father was born Marion Lecocq but changed his name to Martin Leacock when running for public office in the thirties. He was Assistant Attorney General in Michigan for many years. Barbara also took the name Midge Barber when recordning songs she disliked so much that it embarrased her to us her real name. Barbara was my sister-in-law and dear friend whom I miss very much.

Doug Ramsey

Doug is a recipient of the lifetime achievement award of the Jazz Journalists Association. He lives in the Pacific Northwest, where he settled following a career in print and broadcast journalism in cities including New York, New Orleans, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, San Antonio, Cleveland and Washington, DC. His writing about jazz has paralleled his life in journalism... [Read More]

Rifftides

A winner of the Blog Of The Year award of the international Jazz Journalists Association. Rifftides is founded on Doug's conviction that musicians and listeners who embrace and understand jazz have interests that run deep, wide and beyond jazz. Music is its principal concern, but the blog reaches past... Read More...

Subscribe to RiffTides by Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Doug’s Books

Doug's most recent book is a novel, Poodie James. Previously, he published Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond. He is also the author of Jazz Matters: Reflections on the Music and Some of its Makers. He contributed to The Oxford Companion To Jazz and co-edited Journalism Ethics: Why Change? He is at work on another novel in which, as in Poodie James, music is incidental.

Archives

Recent Comments

  • Rob D on We’re Back: Pianist Denny Zeitlin’s New Trio Album for Sunnyside
  • W. Royal Stokes on We’re Back: Pianist Denny Zeitlin’s New Trio Album for Sunnyside
  • Larry on We’re Back: Pianist Denny Zeitlin’s New Trio Album for Sunnyside
  • Lucille Dolab on We’re Back: Pianist Denny Zeitlin’s New Trio Album for Sunnyside
  • Donna Birchard on We’re Back: Pianist Denny Zeitlin’s New Trio Album for Sunnyside

Doug’s Picks

We’re Back: Pianist Denny Zeitlin’s New Trio Album for Sunnyside

As Rifftides readers have undoubtedly noticed, it has been a long time since we posted. We are creating a new post in hopes  that it will open the way to resumption of frequent reports as part of the artsjournal.com mission to keep you up to date on jazz and other matters. Pianist Denny Zeitlin’s stunning new trio album […]

Recent Listening: The New David Friesen Trio CD

David Friesen Circle 3 Trio: Interaction (Origin) Among the dozens of recent releases that deserve serious attention, a few will get it. Among those those receiving it here is bassist David Friesen’s new album.  From the Portland, Oregon, sinecure in which he thrives when he’s not touring the world, bassist Friesen has been performing at […]

Monday Recommendation: Dominic Miller

Dominic Miller Absinthe (ECM) Guitarist and composer Miller delivers power and subtlety in equal measure. Abetted by producer Manfred Eicher’s canny guidance and ECM’s flawless sound and studio presence, Miller draws on inspiration from painters of France’s impressionist period. His liner essay emphasizes the importance to his musical conception of works by Cezanne, Renoir, Lautrec, […]

Recent Listening: Dave Young And Friends

Dave Young, Lotus Blossom (Modica Music) Young, the bassist praised by Oscar Peterson for his “harmonic simpatico and unerring sense of time” when he was a member of Peterson’s trio, leads seven gifted fellow Canadians. His beautifully recorded bass is the underpinning of a relaxed session in which his swing is a force even during […]

Recent Listening: Jazz Is Of The World

Paolo Fresu, Richard Galliano, Jan Lundgren, Mare Nostrum III (ACT) This third outing by Mare Nostrum continues the international trio’s close collaboration in a series of albums that has enjoyed considerable success. With three exceptions, the compositions in this installment are by the members of Mare Nostrum. It opens with one the French accordionist Galliano […]

Monday Recommendation: Thelonious Monk’s Works In Full

Kimbrough, Robinson, Reid, Drummond: Monk’s Dreams(Sunnyside) The subtitle of this invaluable 6-CD set is The Complete Compositions Of Thelonious Sphere Monk. By complete, Sunnyside means that the box contains six CDs with 70 tunes that Monk wrote beginning in the early years when his music was generally assumed to be an eccentric offshoot of bebop, […]

More Doug's Picks

Blogroll

All About Jazz
JerryJazzMusician
Carol Sloane: SloaneView
Jazz Beyond Jazz: Howard Mandel
The Gig: Nate Chinen
Wonderful World of Louis Armstrong
Don Heckman: The International Review Of Music
Ted Panken: Today is The Question
George Colligan: jazztruth
Brilliant Corners
Jazz Music Blog: Tom Reney
Brubeck Institute
Darcy James Argue
Jazz Profiles: Steve Cerra
Notes On Jazz: Ralph Miriello
Bob Porter: Jazz Etc.
be.jazz
Marc Myers: Jazz Wax
Night Lights
Jason Crane:The Jazz Session
JazzCorner
I Witness
ArtistShare
Jazzportraits
John Robert Brown
Night After Night
Do The Math/The Bad Plus
Prague Jazz
Russian Jazz
Jazz Quotes
Jazz History Online
Lubricity

Personal Jazz Sites
Chris Albertson: Stomp Off
Armin Buettner: Crownpropeller’s Blog
Cyber Jazz Today, John Birchard
Dick Carr’s Big Bands, Ballads & Blues
Donald Clarke’s Music Box
Noal Cohen’s Jazz History
Bill Crow
Easy Does It: Fernando Ortiz de Urbana
Bill Evans Web Pages
Dave Frishberg
Ronan Guilfoyle: Mostly Music
Bill Kirchner
Mike Longo
Jan Lundgren (Friends of)
Willard Jenkins/The Independent Ear
Ken Joslin: Jazz Paintings
Bruno Leicht
Earl MacDonald
Books and CDs: Bill Reed
Marvin Stamm

Tarik Townsend: It’s A Raggy Waltz
Steve Wallace: Jazz, Baseball, Life and Other Ephemera
Jim Wilke’s Jazz Northwest
Jessica Williams

Other Culture Blogs
Terry Teachout
DevraDoWrite
Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise
On An Overgrown Path

Journalism
PressThink: Jay Rosen
Second Draft, Tim Porter
Poynter Online

Related

Return to top of page

an ArtsJournal blog

This blog published under a Creative Commons license

Copyright © 2021 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in