“I am convinced that all art has the
desire to leave the ordinary” -Sonny Rollins.
 Sonny Rollins
One of the true jazz giants is on tour. If there were
a Mount Rushmore of tenor saxophonists, Sonny Rollins' face would be on
it. To say he was influential is a gross understatement. Here is a man
who influenced Coltrane and was in turn influenced by him. In his sixth
decade as a professional musician, Sonny Rollins remains a vital force
in the jazz world. Rollins has just released his first new studio
recording in five years on his own Doxy label called Sonny, Please. This year he won a
Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Solo, as well as top awards (Artist
of the Year and Tenor Saxophonist) from the Jazz Journalists
Association and in the Down Beat Critics Poll. Just two years ago
Sonny received a Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Rollins' performances this fall include: 9/19 - Krannert Center, Champaign, IL; 9/23 -
Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH; 10/20 - Masonic Auditorium, San
Francisco,CA; 10/22 - Campball Hall , Santa Barbara, CA;
10/31 - Ted Mann Concert Hall,
Minneapolis, MN;
11/17 -
Centennial Hall, Univ. of AZ, Tucson, AZ; 11/19 - Scottsdale Center for
the Arts, Scottsdale, AZ; and 12/1 - Kimmel Center, Philadelphia, PA.
His touring band includes: Clifton Anderson, trombone; Bobby Broom,
guitar; Bob Cranshaw, bass; Kimati Dinizulu, percussion; and Victor
Lewis, drums (most are long-time Rollins collaborators. His birthday tribute web
page has videos of Sonny playing with Broom in Prague in '82
and also with Cranshaw in Montreal in '82).
The Colossus
of Rhodes,
one of the Seven Wonders of the World stood for only 56 years. On
September
7th, the Saxophone Colossus celebrated his 76th birthday and still
stands tall. To mark the occasion he has put several video clips of
nine classic performances from 1957 to 2006 up on his website to
document the 'nine musical lives' of Sonny Rollins. You can view
them
at www.sonnyrollins.com/birthday.php.
The new CD, Sonny, Please,
captures his working band “at a good pitch,” as Rollins puts it,
shortly after they returned from a sold-out Japanese tour in November
2005. “Any time you do a string of performances, it tightens up the
ensemble, and the band was playing well – very high-powered, if I may
use that expression. Toward the end of the tour, the group really began
to come together, and as a result I began to be able to play much more
fluently. My mind was getting clear, and the whole thing was beginning
to happen.”
Rollins had begun to make a name for himself as he recorded with Miles
Davis in 1951 and Thelonious Monk in 1953. Sonny joined the Clifford
Brown–Max Roach quintet in 1955, but after 1956 worked mainly as a
leader. Rollins' most widely acclaimed album, Saxophone Colossus, was recorded on
June 22, 1956, featuring Tommy Flanagan on piano, former Jazz
Messengers bassist Doug Watkins and top-bop drummer Max Roach. This
record remains a favorite and constantly appears on many 'top jazz
album' lists.
Rollins pioneered the trio format using just bass and drums and
saxophone. Two of the first recordings using this configuration are Way Out West (Contemporary, 1957)
and A Night at the Village Vanguard
(Blue Note, 1957) - both highly recommended. Throughout his career,
Rollins frequently returned to this format.
In 1959 however, Rollins was frustrated with what he perceived as his
own musical limitations and took his famous musical sabbatical. Rollins
ventured to the Williamsburg Bridge at night, deep in a rigorous
practice regimen. “I wanted to work on my horn, I wanted to study more
harmony, I wanted to better myself,” he told Stanley Crouch in The New
Yorker, “and I wanted to get out of the environment of all that smoke
and alcohol and drugs.” Upon his return to the jazz scene in 1961 he
named his "comeback" album The Bridge.
Throughout the '60s Rollins remained one of the most adventurous
musicians around. Each album he recorded differed radically from the
previous one. Rollins explored Latin rhythms on What's New, tackled the avant-garde
on Our Man in Jazz, and
re-examined standards on Now's the
Time.
Then Rollins took another sabbatical to study yoga, meditation, and
Eastern philosophies. When he returned in 1972, his bands featured
electric guitar, electric bass, and usually more pop- or funk-oriented
drummers. It was during this period that Rollins' notoriety for
unaccompanied saxophone solos came to the forefront. Rollins has
continued to tour and record and innovate ever since. He won his
first performance Grammy for This Is
What I Do (2000), and his second for 2005’s Without a Song (The 9/11 Concert),
in the Best Jazz Instrumental Solo category (for “Why Was I Born”).
 Bobby Broom © Don Berryman
Trombonist Clifton Anderson
attended the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with
Metropolitan Opera trombonist John Clark. There he also met and
befriended talented musicians like Angela Bofill and the late Kenny
Kirkland. Clifton graduated from Manhattan School of Music in 1978 with
a Bachelor of Music degree. Upon graduation from college Clifton became
more active in the New York City music scene, freelancing, playing
clubs, and doing many recording sessions. Clifton joined Sonny
Rollins group in 1983, and from that time to present has participated
in numerous worldwide tours with him, visiting Europe, Japan, South
America, Canada and of course concerts throughout the United States.
Clifton has also appeared on eight of Sonny's' recordings, most
recently the Grammy award winner, "This Is What I Do"(Best Jazz Record
2001).
Bassist Bob Cranshaw has
worked steadily with several top jazz musicians. Cranshaw's timing,
musical knowledge, and versatility have been featured in an impressive
array of recording sessions and tours since the late '50s. Cranshaw was
a founding member of Walter Perkins' MJT +3 band in 1957. Cranshaw went
to New York with the MJT +3 in 1960 and joined Sonny Rollins when they
disbanded in 1962. He also worked with Duke Pearson's small groups and
big band. Cranshaw has frequently worked with Rollins since the
'80s.
Victor Lewis was born in
1950 and began playing drums professionally on the local scene at the
age of 15. He began exploring Tony Williams' sound and the styles
of other great small group drummers like Art Blakey, Kenny Clarke, Max
Roach and Philly Joe Jones. His first job with a nationally known jazz
musician was accompanying Hank Crawford in Omaha. Lewis now co-leads
the celebrated group, Horizon, with Bobby Watson.
Tour Dates 2006:
- September 19 - Krannert Center, Champaign, IL
- September 23 - Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
- October 20 - Masonic Auditorium, San Francisco,CA
- October 22 - Campball Hall , Santa Barbara, CA
- October 31 (RESCHEDULED) - Ted Mann Concert Hall, University of Minnesota,
Minneapolis, Minnesota
- November 17 - Centennial Hall, Univ. of AZ, Tucson, AZ
- November 19 - Scottsdale Center for the Arts, Scottsdale, AZ
- December 1 - Kimmel Center, Philadelphia, PA
“ I
am convinced that all art has the desire to leave the ordinary,”
Rollins said in a recent interview for the Catalan magazine Jaç,
“and to say it one way, at a spiritual level, a state of the
exaltation at existence. All art has this in common. But jazz, the
world of improvisation, is perhaps the highest, because we do not
have the opportunity to make changes. It’s as if we were painting
before the public, and the following morning we cannot go back and
correct that blue color or change that red. We have to have the blues
and reds very well placed before going out to play. So for me, jazz
is probably the most demanding art.”
www.sonnyrollins.com |
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Tuesday, 02 December 2008
