Sam Rivers Rivbea Orchestra
Noble Thin Man Watts Jazz Fest
Saturday, October 22nd, 7:30 pm
Athens Theater, 124 N. Florida Ave., Deland, Fl
$20 advanced sale, $25 day of concert

Sam Rivers’ appearance with the Rivbea Orchestra at the July Wildlife Foundation Of Florida benefit was the first chance to hear the band in 2011. The audience and the Orchestra members seemed to know the inherent value of what was an increasingly rare chance to hear what had become a Central Floridian’s geographic right to a blast of Sam Rivers live. Longtime Rivbea trumpeter Mike Iapichino set the tone right away with a solo that seemed to compress his witness of Sam’s music and direction into a brief solo that stretched from 1928 Ellington to the Loft scene in sixteen bars. Every subsequent solo seemed to similarly draft that opportunity to interpret the moment for Sam and the assembled. Mere months later and Central Floridians have another shot by setting their GPS to the mid-twentieth century-channelling, on-the-bubble town leaning towards city of Deland, Florida. Like Winter Garden, Deland has, for reasons of nostalgia and economics, held on to their august city center theater, one pre-dating rock and roll (boogie-woogie, even) and integrated audiences. This is where you can take your next crack at Sam’s music, new and old, as the Rivbea Orchestra takes part in the Noble Thin Man Watts Jazz Fest. Nostalgia and the temporal will square off, vying for attention. cm5 recommended for all of the above reasons.