EDITORIAL REVIEWS
On Hints on Light and Shadow, maestros Julian Priester and Sam Rivers mesh their free-spirited instincts with electronics that enlarge the palette and electrify the proceedings, a brass and reed fantasy distilled to its pure, swinging, melodic essence. This unprecedented duet session blends the music of two masters of jazz and free (who have played and developed with, and contributed to, the music of everyone from T-Bone Walker and Billie Holliday to Miles, Cecil Taylor, and Herbie Hancock, and on through the distant music galaxies of Sun Ra) with the fresh, post modern, hipper-than-now electronics of Seattle's Tucker Martine. Together they achieve the highest level of improvisational feel and thought, in a manner rarely, if ever, attempted on a recording.

REVIEW
.a welcomed addition to both artists' discographies. -- JazzTimes (July-August 1997)

.an example of Rivers' free-blowing brillianceâ¦they're both such able improvisers that moments of revelation are inevitable. -- Jazziz (August 1997)

A welcomed addition to both artists' discographies. -- JazzTimes, July-August 1997

An example of Rivers' free-blowing brilliance .Priester is a fine nimble player .they're both such able improvisers that moments of revelation are inevitable. -- Jazziz, August 1997

Postcards continues to explore the possibilities of improvisation in an electro-acoustic setting . I highly recommend it for headphone listening. -- Cadence, August 1997

Postcards continues to explore the possibilities of improvisation in an electro-acoustic setting.I highly recommend it. -- Cadence (August 1997)

FROM THE LABEL
This unprecedented duet session features maestros Julian Priester and Sam Rivers meshing their free-sprited instincts with electronics that enlarge the palette and electrify the proceedings, a brass and reed fantasy distilled to its pure, swinging, melodic essence. Hints on Light and Shadow blends the music of two masters of jazz and free (who have played and developed with, and contributed to, the music of everyone from T-Bone Walker and Billie Holiday to Miles, Cecil Taylor, and Herbie Hancock, and on through the distant music galazies of Sun Ra) with the fresh, post-modern hipper-than-now electronics of Seattle's Tucker Martine. Together, they achieve the highest level of improvisational feel and thought, in a manner rarely, if ever, attempted on a recording.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
PRIESTER BIO: Priester traces his musical beginnings to his high school band instructor, Walter Henri Dyett of Chicago's DuSable High. discipline we needed. Following graduation, Priester honed his craft through study groups with other Chicago musicans (Charles Davis among them), through listening, and, most influentially, through participation in jam sessions, a tradition that was then alive and well in Chicago clubs. "These were very inspirational," he says. "Giants of jazz like Clifford Brown and Max Roach would come to town and visit the clubs where local artists were playing, so we had the opportunity to play with them -- I was on the bandstand with Sonny Stitt when I was only 17 years old -- and this really played a large role in developing my improvisational skills."

This kind of experience prepared Priester to join Sun Ra's orchestra at an early age, before leaving Chicago in 1956 to tour with Lionel Hampton. From then on, Priester has played with a virtual who's who of jazz geniuses, including significant associations with Max Roach, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, Herbie Hancock, Dave Holland, Sun Ra (again, in the late '80s), Jerry Granelli, and Reggie Workman. He has also performed and/or recorded with countless others, including Dinah Washington, Johnny Griffin, Ray Charles, Mel Lewis Orchestra, McCoy Tyner, Donald Byrd, Stanley Turrentine, the Duke Ellington Orchestra, for Postcards, he has performed not only on the Reggie Workman CDs but also on Ralph Simon's Music for the Millennium.

Since 1979, Priester has been on the music faculty of Cornish College for the Arts in Seattle, where he teaches jazz composition, improvisation, skills (such as sight-reading), performance, and history. He continues to actively play, record, and compose.

RIVERS BIO:

Sam Rivers describes himself as having been "born on tour" in Oklahoma, since both his parents were musicians. After growing up in Chicago, he moved to Boston for formal study at the Boston Conservatory of Music, where he studied composition with Alan Hovaness, and at Boston University.

As with Priester, the list of musicians with whom Rivers has played includes almost everybody of significance in jazz. Some of the longer associations included those with T-Bone Walker, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Cecil Taylor, Tony Williams, and Herbie Hancock. His numerous recordings as a sideman include Miles in Tokyo (Columbia) with Miles Davis and Spring (Blue Note) with Tony Williams, as well as the Postcards recordings with Reggie Workman and with Bruce Ditmas (What If- 1995).

Rivers has been playing with his own groups since the '40s -- mostly quartets and big bands. These groups included such musicians as Dave Holland, Chico Freeman, Steve Coleman, Kevin and Robin Eubanks, and Cecil McBee.).

From the late '60s through the late '70s, Rivers ran Studio RivBea in New York. Originally intended for teaching and rehearsals, Studio RivBea evolved into a vibrant performance space for avant-garde music when musicians such as Oliver Lake and the Art Ensemble began giving concerts there because there were few other places in New York that welcomed their performances. According to Rivers, the studio filled such an obvious vacuum that the New York State Council on the Arts, on its own initiative, provided funding to support its activities.















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