Mark Rivera

Mark Rivera ( born 1952 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American music director, event manager and rock musician who was best known as the longtime saxophonist and keyboardist Billy Joel.

Career

Rivera attended the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in Manhattan. In addition to saxophone and keyboards, he learned also guitar, percussion and vocals. In 1972, Rivera with the soul duo Sam & Dave on tour. His first recordings had Rivera mid-1970s with the band tycoon. In this project, the musician met the producer Robert Lange know who had, among other Mick Jones and Lou Gramm of Foreigner the band under contract. From 1980, Rivera finally worked with Foreigner, 1982, he joined the backing band of Billy Joel in which he is a member since then.

In addition, Rivera worked over the years as a studio musician for Hall & Oates, Simon and Garfunkel, John Lennon, Billy Ocean, Joe Walsh, Kurtis Blow and Peter Gabriel, whose seminal album So, where he arranged the horn parts for Sledgehammer and Big Time and also starred himself. 1995 Ringo Starr's All Starr Rivera joined band tour. In the same year, he was named music director of Ringo Starr, and later by Billy Joel and Elton John. His company, the Mark Rivera Entertainment Group also organizes events for companies such as HBO, IBM, Merrill Lynch, AT & T or Northwest Airlines.