James Rivers was born in 1938 in New Orleans. In the late 1950s he was a member of Huey Smith’s band the Clowns, and went on to play in numerous sessions including hits by Al Johnson and Earl King. He recorded under his own name a lot in the 1960s and 70s on a variety of small labels in a soul/funk style. In the 1980s he was a regular at an important Modern Jazz venue – Tyler’s Beer Garden. In 1985 he recorded an album with a band which included three members of Astral Project. Peter Cho has been with him since 1990. In the last couple of decades he has concentrated on playing upscale hotels (for a long time the Hilton and now the Roosevelt), and not recorded. His set is a crowd-grabbing one clearly honed in this context.He recent;y appeared on the terrific Let It Burn cd by Ruthie Foster.
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