For those unaware, Sam Rivers 100 a celebration of Sam Rivers music for his 100th birthday by the Mark Masters Ensemble featuring Billy Harper (out June 6th, 2025 via Capri Records), and where Masters has arranged 11 tracks from Rivers classic Blue Note sessions.

Sam Rivers 100 grew out of a series of performances in late 2023 to celebrate what would have been Rivers’ 100th birthday on September 25th. Masters was drawn to Rivers’ earlier, mid-’60s work for Blue Note Records, in particular the saxophonist’s classic 1964 debut, Fuchsia Swing Song.

He arranged all six of the album’s tracks for Sam Rivers 100, which comprise more than half of its 11 pieces. I’ve been a fan of Sam Rivers for many years, Masters says. The idea for arranging his music was born almost 20 years ago, when Masters brought Rivers, then in his early 80s, and his trio to Claremont McKenna College as part of a series produced by the American Jazz Institute.

I was intrigued by how different Sam’s approach to music was at different times of his career. I was attracted to his music and was determined to do something with it eventually.

In thinking about a guest soloist to join the Ensemble for the tribute, Masters quickly decided on Billy Harper. Though he is 20 years Rivers’ junior, Harper’s career and wide-ranging approach to the instrument overlapped inspiringly with the elder tenor master. He was the building blocks of jazz music, Harper told Orlando Weekly in a preview of the concerts. He’s the stepping stone to go to the next place.

1. Fuchsia Swing Song
2. Cyclic Episode
3. Helix
4. Parts Of Speech
5. Point Of Many Returns
6. Beatrice
7. Downstairs Blues Upstairs
8. Calls Of The Wild
9. Paean
10. Ellipsis
11. Luminous Monolith

This beautifully crafted new recording opens on the swingingly impassioned Fuchsia Swing Song and the richly textured Cyclic Episode and then we get the sumptuously embroidered Helix, a rather defined Parts Of Speech, with a breathtakingly heartfelt Point Of Many Returns up next.

We are then brought forth the graciously-sculpted Beatrice and the melodious Downstairs Blues Upstairs and they are in turn backed by some gloriously rhythmic denotations within Calls Of The Wild, the all-embracing Paean, the set rounding out on the gloriously indulgent Ellipsis, closing on the simply heavenly Luminous Monolith.

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