Page "Sam Rivers" Paragraph 7

During the 1970s, Rivers and his wife, Bea, ran a noted jazz loft called " Studio Rivbea " in New York City's NoHo district.

It was located on Bond Street in Lower Manhattan and was originally opened as a public performance space as part of the first New York Musicians Festival in 1970.

Critic John Litweiler has written that " In New York Loft Jazz meant Free Jazz in the Seventies " and Studio Rivbea was " the most famous of the lofts ".

The loft was important in the development of jazz because it was an example of artists creating their own performance spaces and taking responsibility for presenting music to the public.

This allowed for music to be free of extra-musical concerns that would be present in a nightclub or concert hall situation.

A series of recordings made at the loft were issued under the title Wildflowers on the Douglas label.