NOVEMBER 2005

Sonny's new CD, “Without A Song: The 9/11 Concert,” was released by Milestone Records the week before his 75th birthday on September 7th.

Not surprisingly, Sonny has done scores of interviews the past few months, including his first ever, Podcast.

Audio

Part One of the Extended Audio interview with Sonny where he discusses his philosophy of life and his 9/11 experience.

Video

In a clip from “Saxophone Collossus,” Sonny offers his thoughts on practicing and preparing for a performance.

Check out the new Media Gallery content

*******Lazaro Vega jazz director at Blue Lake Public Radio, review:.

Sonny Rollins at Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, October 1, 2005

Picking his spots

Sonny Rollins appearance in Ann Arbor Saturday night unfurled in a careful arc of energy, one allowing the 75 year old musician to maintain the level of quality he's exemplified in nearly 60 years of making music and still reach the heights of physicality his type of spontaneous expression demands. So while the apex of Saturday's performance came during a nearly fifteen minute solo on "Don't Stop the Carnival," the kind of high energy, overflowing blowing he used to do for 50 minutes or longer, there was no diminution in the quality of the music. His ideas are abundant, his sound supreme and his wisdom profound. The "sides" of the arc up to and falling away from that apex were highlighted by Rollins' musical interplay with guest drummer Al Foster, and long, long solos by electric guitarist Bobby Broom and the beautiful sounding trombonist Clifton Anderson.

It was clear during the opening number "Biji" as his sidemen soloed at length on the lilting original, and the on second number "I Want To Talk About You" that at this stage of his career the tenor saxophone master is picking his spots: he conserves his energy by concentrating on sound, melodic interplay and leading his band before he'll cut loose with tumultuous improvisations as in days of youth . And whenever he did step front and center his band fell into place with him -- they all rallied around his sound with a cohesion the members don't always display on their own.

With Bob Cranshaw playing minimal notes on electric bass and Al Foster playing in that free-funk bag people might recall from his time with Miles Davis the rhythm section took on a later electric Miles Davis flavor. Clifton Anderson's lion share of solo space on "Biji" showed off his warm sound, flexibility (his ability to jump the same wide intervals as Rollins is prerequisite) and good melodic sense. In fact he may have even saved the boss on the bridge the first time through "I Want To Talk About You."

The choice of "I Want to Talk About You" with it's ravishing melody, "They Say It's Wonderful" with it's tender romance, "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" with it's minor tendency and "Why Was I Born?" featuring an unaccompanied, cadenza-like section amounted to a great program from which Rollins shared his sound and free melodic concept. Just hearing how Rollins plays heads is a lesson in possibilities: of playing off the time, tossing counter melodies against the trombone, improvising within the melody (and hanging the question, "Will this phrase ultimately fit?") or joining in unison for a mellow blend with the trombone. Those great songs gave Rollins' sound and melodic abilities a sparkling showcase.

And though he didn't step up to his full capacity until the third number, the direct interplay Rollins developed with Foster on "I Want to Talk About You" was highly musical. Rollins sticking to a riff and Foster improvising around it could have devolved into a game of musical patty cake -- too cute -- but didn't. They made for an extended section of spontaneous interplay that is jazz at its musical best. Later in the concert when they revisited that direct interplay it was Foster who held the riffs and Rollins who improvised around them. Both of those moments were high points in the ensemble's contribution.

While staccato rhythms inspired by his calypso-based compositions have become the centerpiece of Rollins solo style, of his most inspired moments of improvisation, Saturday night's concert showed, too, how at 75 bebop still lurks just beneath the surface of his music -- dig the quote of "Wee" or "Allen's Alley" laying perfectly in the rhythmic motion of his "Don't Stop the Carnival" solo, or other Birdlike asides that would flit by. The great swirls of free associated sound he created in the mid-60's would race in at the conclusion of a knotty, complex high speed run, or bridge choruses; not to mention the "walking the bar" tradition of the tenor which he used to wake up the audience by pointing the bell right into the front row and blasting out dark basketball sized low notes. And quotes. Rollins even worked in "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" at one moment. Knocked everyone out.

The Hill Auditorium crowd was with him every step of the way from the opening standing ovation to greet him on stage to the end of the second encore which closed with an emotional quote of "St. Thomas."

Rollins signaled the entire concert was dedicated to the great tradition of jazz in Detroit, naming Tommy Flanagan and "the Jones brothers" specifically.

Rollins at 75 has even more to say as a musician than Rollins at 25. And though his sound may have deepened with an oboe-like darkness it is still voluminous as ever and a captivating vehicle for superior spontaneous melodic improviser he's always been.


Lazaro Vega is jazz director at Blue Lake Public Radio.