Happy 81st Birthday Sonny Rollins

photo by John Abbott

Sonny Rollins, along with Wayne Shorter are the last of a generation of musicians who changed the sound of the jazz saxophone forever. Coming up at the tail end of the bebop movement, they took the rhythmic and harmonic lessons of their predecessors and wound them in to a freer, more personal statement that reflected a whole generation of upheaval and change, that mirrored and prodded changes in the very way human beings approached the world around them.

But there have been many wonderful words written about both of these iconoclastic artists elsewhere and I will not try and spin any new theories about their historical importance or the fact that both men continue to make some of the most brilliant music of their careers. Today, to celebrate Sonny’s 81^st birthday, I will briefly mention a couple of moments that resonate for me personally and my love affair with the music of this exemplary human being. And of course, a little music is in order as well.

From his early years with Miles, Monk, the Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quartet and MJQ to his incendiary rebirth in 1962 to his continuing innovation and crowd-pleasing live performances, Rollins remains at the forefront of today’s iconic jazz performers. Many of his tunes have become classics in the jazz repertoire, “Oleo”, “Doxy”, “Tenor Madness”, “Pent-up House”, “St. Thomas”, and “Airegin” to name just a handful.

First, we want to congratulate Sonny on the announcement that his career will be celebrated at the 34^th Annual Kennedy Center Honors on December 4, 2011. Fellow honorees included singer Barbara Cook, singer/songwriter Neil Diamond, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and actress Meryl Streep. Their "collective artistry has contributed significantly to the cultural life of our nation and the world," said David M. Rubenstein, chairman of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announced today. For more on the Awards see JazzTimes.com

Via his website Mr. Rollins says, “I am deeply appreciative of this great honor. In honoring me, the Kennedy Center honors jazz, America's classical music. For that, I am very grateful."

DON’T STOP THE CARNIVAL

My first Sonny Rollins LP was The Bridge. Released in 1962 on RCA Victor, the album marked Sonny’s return from his first self-imposed hiatus from the music business, which began in 1959. The album got its title from the legendary story of Sonny being discovered by a jazz writer while rehearsing alone on the Williamsburg Bridge on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. This infamous story grew Rollins’ already formidable status in the jazz world, drawing attention to his intense focus and dedication to the furthering of his art. Rollins has always been the image of the attentive jazz perfectionist, the mammoth length and scale of his improvisations investigating every possible nuance and harmonic twist of the melodies he chooses to explore. Having already elevated calypso music as a vital vehicle for jazz improvisation with his 1956 recording of “St. Thomas”, upping the ante with his great wit and melodic explorations of material not generally considered fodder for the jazz canon (his classic album Way Out West from 1957 explored left-field material such as “I’m an Old Cowhand”), Rollins returned from his “retirement” rejuvenated and firing on all cylinders. In the following years he would explore the avant-garde as it was gestating as well as bring the politics of the time into his compositions and playing with an intensity and purpose shared by his contemporary John Coltrane.

SONNY ROLLINS with JIM HALL pt. 1 “The Bridge”

Available on DVD “Jazz Casual: Sonny Rollins & Jim Hall”

From Ralph Gleason’s TV Show “Jazz Casual” circa 1962

featuring Ben Riley on drums and Bob Cranshaw on bass

After the years of innovation and intensity in the 60s, Rollins again went on sabbatical, this time to study religion. He visited Japan and India, spending time in a monastery. He returned to recording in 1972 with the album, Next Album leading to his long association with the Milestone label. Also essential to the continuing story of Rollins is the role of his manager, his late wife Lucille. Lucille handled the day-to-day rigors of dealing with the business side of the music industry which allowed Sonny the freedom to concentrate solely on his art.

But all of that was old news by the time I found my jazz jones hitting full tilt. I really didn’t get the full picture of Rollins sheer prowess until I experienced him live on the MILESTONES JAZZ STARS tour of 1978. Sonny commandeered that stage on September 17 when I caught them in San Diego at the Civic Theater. The Milestones jazz label pulled together three of their biggest stars, Rollins, bassist Ron Carter, and pianist McCoy Tyner along with the first call drummer of the day Al Foster for a tour and album of intense collaboration and sublime solo turns. Performing music from each of their songbooks and stylistic corners in the jazz pantheon, these shows were a godsend to a young jazz fan like myself newly discover how to listen to each individual improvisers unique contributions to the musical whole. No prisoners taken.

One of my biggest coups as a member of the Cultural Arts Board at San Diego State University was booking Sonny Rollins into Montezuma Hall on Feb. 26, 1980. We were able to give the students a glimpse at the artistry of this amazing player for just $5.50 a seat. Now that’s my kind of missionary work.

Among my favorite musical moments in life has got to be the Sonny Rollins show outdoors at Penn’s Landing on the waterfront in Philadelphia, June 16, 1989. It was a stormy afternoon but this rain-or-shine event was the first major show of that year’s Mellon Jazz Festival and would not be cancelled. Rollins' longtime sidemen Clifton Anderson on trombone, Mark Soskin on piano, Jerome Harris on guitar, Bob Cranshaw on bass guitar and Tommy Campbell on drums stood around onstage as the crew continued to sweep puddles of water from the floorboards. Lightning was slapping the water of the Delaware River on either side of the stage, the sky black from Baltimore, two hours south to Camden, directly across the river. I stood in the patient crowd soaked to the skin though my three layers of water-resistant garb but my jazz pal Ron and I were not about to leave. What are a torrential downpour and some lightning when Sonny Rollins is in the wings.

The band seemed to stand patiently out there for ages when finally from deep underneath the cement hill that made up the Great Plaza, you could hear between the raucous peals of thunder, the sound of a distant saxophone. The unmistakable sound of Sonny Rollins. Was he rehearsing beneath us? Slowly over the next ten minutes, the sound serpentines through the ambient rattle. It seemed to slip between raindrops, to pause for thunderbolts booming like Max Roach bass drum bombs. Closer it came and eventually, the sight of Sonny’s horn raised to the sky poked out from the corner of the building, he walked slowly, dressed in white as the storm reeled around him, an escort in front and behind him guiding his slow path towards the stage 30 yards away. Lightning’ reflected off of the brass of his tenor, his fingers flashing over the pearl keys as he waved his horn up and down in prayer towards the darkness above.

Finally ascending the stairs to the stage, never stopping his keening solo jabs and punches at the menacing clouds above him, he spun lyrical strings of melodic extrapolation from the meat of the familiar calypso lines coming to us through the maelstrom. In the ring, just Sonny and Mother Nature. Tenor madness, indeed. Once he approached center stage, the band picked up the rhythm of the song at Sonny’s signal. We were a good 15 minutes into his solo it seemed. Anderson took two steps towards his mic anticipating his solo spot and Sonny waved him away with a left-to-right swing of the sax and swivel of the hips. Anderson backed off and Sonny continued on, pulling the essence from the melody his mother had sung to him as a child and offering it up to the heavens in a plea for peace and calm.

On he went as slowly the lightning decreased, the brash sound of thunder set course for other destinations. The rain became but a mild mist off the water, graceful now in the ballet between the tumultuous and the languorous as the notes from the bell of the horn took on a thankful, joyous tone. For the next 90 minutes Rollins thanked the heavens with a set both invigorating and peaceful. When he had played his final lines, introduced the band and thanked the crowd, we were hardly aware of our wet-dog countenance, we had seen the walls of Jericho fall, the sea part and the majesty of a man creating moments in time tied only to that very instant itself. My memory claims the tune to have been “St. Thomas” but I’m not positive. I will search for the recording of this show since it was broadcast on WRTI that evening, I believe. Anyone with a recording of this show please let me know.

Excerpt from OLEO 1965 with NHOP on bass and Alan Dawson on drums

Another fond personal brush with Sonny occurred backstage at the 50^th Monterey Jazz Festival in 2007. There was something in the air. A palpable buzz hung around the fairgrounds, local hotels and backstage all day in anticipation of his appearance. He had performed at the original festival years before as had fellow 2007 artists Jim Hall, Ernestine Anderson, and Dave Brubeck. Ornette Coleman who had appeared in 1959 also returned. Now, moving slowly on hobbled legs the sight of a slower, older Rollins was disconcerting to many who had not seen him in recent years. But the gleam in his eye and always strident yet peaceful power in his voice disclaim any fear of a man not in control of his art.

Backstage Sonny was signing a piano top being auctioned off for a good cause and as the rest of the hangers on wandered out to find a place for Sonny’s set, I had a rare moment alone with the man. As we all do I gave thanks for the years of great music. I also passed on a loving greeting Marian McPartland had asked me to forward. Sonny was very gracious and as he got up to head to the stage, he said, “Could you give me a hand, my friend,” and I reached out and took his hand escorting him from the green room to the stage area. This gentle, direct and seemingly fragile man then shook my hand and said, “Enjoy the show. I hope I can give you what you came for.” He proceeded to wow the house playing a lengthy set that closed the a historic evening at one of the premier jazz festivals in the world, the transcendent moments in Sonny’s set that evening were riveting. The sold out crowd spanning all ages and demographics sent so much love and respect back to the stage that Sonny played on and on, ageless. His distinctive sound reached into the hearts of all of those present, giving them a taste of the history of the music and allowing them a glimmer of those he calls “the gods of music” who came before him.

Since his second return to the public forum in the early 70s, Rollins has continued to astound musicians and audiences alike while continuing his humble pursuit of becoming the best musician and human being he can be. For the next 4+ decades, Rollins has produced a continuing body of work always delving deeper into his unique sound and approach to improvising that has influenced generations of saxophonists from Joe Lovano, Branford Marsalis, Michael Brecker and all of those who will follow. His live shows have thrilled millions the world over and in spite of health issues that may make traveling difficult and plague folks of his age, Rollins has yet to show any signs of calling it a day. His music remains among the most acclaimed, vibrant and emboldening that one can be graced to witness. I am proud to live in a world that includes Mr. Sonny Rollins.

There are still giants who walk this earth.

RECOMMENDED LISTENING:

Sonny Rollins & The Modern Jazz Quartet Prestige) 1953

Sonny Rollins Plus 4 (Prestige) 1956

Saxophone Colossus (Prestige) 1956

Tenor Madness (Prestige) 1956

Sonny Rollins Vol. 1 (Blue Note) 1957

Sonny Rollins Vol. 2 (Blue Note) 1957

A Night At The Village Vanguard (Blue Note) 1957

Freedom Suite (Riverside) 1958

The Bridge (RCA Victor) 1962

Don’t Stop The Carnival (Milestone) 1978

The Solo Album (Milestone) 1985

G-Man (Milestone) 1986

This Is What I Do (Milestone) 2000

Without A Song: The 9/11 Concert (Milestone) 2001

Road Shows, Vol. 1 (Doxy/Emarcy) 2008

photo by: John Abbott

Sonny Rollins own label DOXY Records has released his studio recording Sonny, Please (2006) as well as the much-acclaimed live offering, Road Shows, Vol. 1 (2008). Watch for his next release Road Shows, Vol. 2 this fall.

ESSENTIAL SONNY ROLLINS as SIDE MAN:

With Bud Powell:

The Amazing Bud Powell (1949)

With Miles Davis:

DIG (1951)

Bag’s Groove (1954)

With Thelonious Monk:

Monk (1954)

Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins (1953)

Brilliant Corners (1957)

With Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet:

At Basin Street (1956)

With McCoy Tyner, Ron Carter and Al Foster:

Milestone Jazz Stars in Concert (1978)

For you rock n rollers just getting into Sonny, you might be surprised that you may already have some Sonny Rollins in your music collection. Yes, that is the jazz great playing the sax on three tracks of the Rolling Stones hit album Tattoo You (1980), including the gorgeous riffing on the single “Waiting on a Friend”.

For more Sonny Rollins discography try Sonny Rollins Discography Project

Be sure to look at the Sonny Rollins podcasts and videos from JazzVideoGuy

who has been documenting Rollins on vid since 2006.

Special thanks to Bret Primack, Terri Hinte, John Abbott and SonnyRollins.com for keeping the legacy of Sonny Rollins alive.

Unfathomable thanks to Mr. Sonny Rollins for his art, his humanity and his graciousness.

SONNY ROLLINS & COLEMAN HAWKINS “Lover Man”