Sonny Rollins

spike · Jul 4, 2006

Not been mentioned yet, what blows me away with sonny rollins is the way he just doesn't run out of ideas, even on a simple little tune, he'll just keep on blowing and it never gets too much. I much prefer his calypso style material, the obvious being St. Thomas but he's done a lot of 'em over the years from "The everywhere calypso" to "Duke of Iron". It's just amazing what he does with a few well chosen notes without repeating himself, so playful and easy, magic stuff. luv it. "Please don't stop the carnival" Sonny.

Pete Thomas · Jul 4, 2006

Everywhere Calypso has to be my favourite of these, it got me through many a tricky moment on a pickup gig wondering what to play that isn't a blues, I got Rhythm or Summertime.- you can teach the rhythm section the changes in 10 seconds you're away.

Bobby G · Jul 5, 2006

Rollins did a good album with Sonny Stitt, another fine player, under the leadership of Dizzy Gillespie, called Sonny Side Up, featuring the tune Sunny Side of the Street (do you sense a theme here?) with singing from Dizzy, and a fairly long blues piece. Marvellous stuff.

suethesax · Jul 29, 2006

I love Sonny Rollins - a particular favourite is Valse Hot from the Plus Four album.

rhysonsax · Jul 29, 2006

I love Sonny's playing on "Everywhere Calypso" and play the transcription from Charley Gerard's book - or at least I try to.

A couple of months ago I found out about Skip Peck, a pianist in the US who will record backing tracks to order. He's just getting his website together http://www.skippeckmusic.net/ but he did me an excellent version of the "Everywhere Calypso" and I'm sure he'll be happy to sell it to others for a few $. I think he recorded it with one son on bass and his other son on drums. It's got a nice feel and lasts over 7 minutes.

Sonny is far and away my favourite tenor player, and though I like his stuff from the 80s and onwards, I always go back to his golden era in the middle and late 50s. What a huge sound and what a torrent of ideas. Although I can admire Coltrane's playing, it doesn't really grab me the way Sonny's does.

All the best

Rhys

mitaka · Aug 3, 2006

You said it right rhyson. Sonny is my personal favorite as well. Actually his playing, combined with Lester Young's, moved me to the tenor. There is a recording, one of his last before his "bridge" withdrawal, Live @ Aux de Provence, his playing there is amasing and his solo on "wouldin you" kept haunting me until I said to myself "thats it, I'm getting a tenor sax"🙂 I also cannot deny Coltrane's playing but Rollins moves me a step further. He's N. 1 in my inner world 😉

Bobby G · Oct 4, 2006

Recently, like about half an hour ago, I heard a track off Sonny's new CD, played on Courtney Pine's Jazz Crusade on BBC R2.

I'm pleased to say the lad has still got 'it', good strong tone and an endless stream of ideas. I'll have to fire up the BBC's Listen Again feature and find out more details on the CD, also listen to some of the othe tunes, Courtney plays some gooduns!

Cheers, Bob

ken · Oct 5, 2006

Bob, there are more details of the new "Sonny Please" CD with some mp3 clips on his official website. I saw it a few days ago but can't recall the url... googling SR will find it.

ken_aust · Oct 5, 2006

For simplicity Rollins, listen to " Im an old cowhand on the Rio Grande".
On the subject of mouthpieces, every photograph of Sonny Rollins that I have seen, he has been playing a different mouthpiece.

Ken Aust

Pete Thomas · Oct 5, 2006

Ken Aust wrote:

On the subject of mouthpieces, every photograph of Sonny Rollins that I have seen, he has been playing a different mouthpiece.

Aha, that's the secret: to sound like Sonny Rollins just play a different mouthpiece every time you pick up the horn

javascript:emoticon('😉')
😉 😉 😉 😉

mfox · Oct 28, 2006

sonny is one of my top 5 players..i can't think of anything hes done i don't like.. i was lucky enough to see him play. the set started off with SR on stage on his own playing a 20 minute monolouge..the guy is a true great...

lb · Nov 8, 2006

Miles Davis said somewhere (in his autobiography, possibly) that Rollins could have been the greatest tenor player of all time, if he hadn't changed direction in the 1960s under Coltrane's influence.

I have to say I prefer late-'50s Sonny at a pinch. 'Freedom Suite' is a breathtakingly beautiful album and I don't think Sonny's absolutely *huge* tone ever sounded better. Plus his improvisation over the title piece's first movement is incredible in terms of its inventiveness. The Village Vanguard Blue Note sessions are good, too; I always had his version of 'Old Devil Moon' in mind when thinking about how I wanted to play when I was starting out.

I don't know if he always benefited from the directions his playing went in during the 1970s, but the live concert released as 'G-Man' is a great bit of '80s Rollins. I suppose we should just be thankful he's had such a long career - bit of a rarity in a jazz musician of that era, sadly.