― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Sunday, 10 September 2006 23:25 (seventeen years ago) link
― curmudgeon (DC Steve), Monday, 11 September 2006 13:07 (seventeen years ago) link
― o. nate (onate), Monday, 11 September 2006 13:52 (seventeen years ago) link
― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Monday, 11 September 2006 14:07 (seventeen years ago) link
― Roy Kasten (Roy Kasten), Monday, 11 September 2006 14:14 (seventeen years ago) link
― Ward Fowler (Ward Fowler), Monday, 11 September 2006 16:40 (seventeen years ago) link
― Roy Kasten (Roy Kasten), Monday, 11 September 2006 17:17 (seventeen years ago) link
― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Monday, 11 September 2006 17:38 (seventeen years ago) link
My only times seeing him live was in the 80's; I ended up disappointed because I was hoping for something more like the Village Vanguard trio recordings from '57. The 80's quintet I saw had electric piano and electric bass and was too laid back compared to the Vanguard stuff. One good thing about the Wyntonization of jazz was that it made it OK (nay, even mandatory) to ditch the electric instruments.
I've now seen about five or six of the videos so far. You get to see all the faces of Sonny; all that's missing is a video with his late-50's be-mohawked visage.
My least favorite video so far: "52nd Street Theme", with the Our Man in Jazz quartet, featuring two Ornette alumni plus Henry Grimes, a bassist at home in any context (to this day). I wonder if he regards that quartet as a failed experiment, because I don't think he's tried anything as conceptually adventurous since then. Which is fine, since he seems free-er when he's firmly planted in the sound-world of the 18-year-old bebopper that he was when he first recorded "52nd Street Theme" with Bud Powell; an example here is the cadenza in the "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" video, but his mastery is just one continuous example.
I'm going to try to catch him live one more time at least. And now I'm off to youtube...
― mark 0 (mark 0), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 16:11 (seventeen years ago) link
― Monty Von Byonga (Monty Von Byonga), Wednesday, 13 September 2006 08:25 (seventeen years ago) link
I don't have any problem with electric instruments per se, it's how they're used. I like lots of jazz with electric bass and electric piano. Easy Living has electric instruments on some tracks and acoustic instruments on other, and it seems like the instruments chosen are well-suited to each track.
― o. nate (onate), Wednesday, 13 September 2006 13:43 (seventeen years ago) link
He's got a new (self-released I think) album out, and I read somewhere that he met up with a tape trader who has been collecting and trading (but not selling) live concerts of his for years, so he may decide to release some of those shows himself.
he actually told K. Leander Williams in Time Out New York that release of those tapes "isn't a possibility. It's a probability."
― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Wednesday, 13 September 2006 14:26 (seventeen years ago) link
― tylerw, Monday, 7 May 2007 18:09 (sixteen years ago) link
― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 05:21 (sixteen years ago) link
― outdoor_miner, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 05:34 (sixteen years ago) link
Recently got this thing on Bluebird called Sonny Rollins & Co. 1964, which seems to feature various combinations of herbie hanccock, ron carter, bob cranshaw, mickey roker, jim hall and roy mccurdy. I have a feeling it's material that was originally issued under other release names - anyone know?
― hills like white people (Hurting 2), Sunday, 16 May 2010 05:15 (thirteen years ago) link
bumping this for ilxor to read (he's at work)
― Algerian Goalkeeper, Tuesday, 22 February 2011 21:24 (thirteen years ago) link
grrrrr (bookmarked!)
― Damn this thread seems so....different without ilxor (ilxor), Tuesday, 22 February 2011 21:25 (thirteen years ago) link
The Cutting Edge from '75 with Rufus Harley and a savage swinging version of Swing Low, Sweet Chariot is not to be passed on.
― sonofstan, Tuesday, 22 February 2011 21:29 (thirteen years ago) link
I was in Paris a couple of weeks ago and there were up and coming concert posters everywhere with this awesome photo.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_qoqrkp25A60/TJq801jX_zI/AAAAAAAACZE/uuR7uAdbz9w/s1600/sonny_rollins.jpg
― Run Westy Run Megatorrent (MaresNest), Wednesday, 23 February 2011 00:05 (thirteen years ago) link
Just saw him at Kennedy Center in Washington DC last night. Now, 81-year old Rollins has a huge gray-white haired 'fro and beard. He walked out there all hunched over and moving slowly, but when he was playing he suddenly straightened up his back at times. Longtime bassist Cranshaw, plus guitar, drums and a percussionist(I left the playbill somewhere that had their names). The set was only an hour and 10 to 15 minutes long but plenty enjoyable.
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 11 October 2011 12:57 (twelve years ago) link
i'd love to see him sometime! some of the more recent live recordings i've heard make it clear he's still got some things to say.
― tylerw, Tuesday, 11 October 2011 15:13 (twelve years ago) link
Just been listening to a '74 set from Dime that I grabbed after watching the stuff on BBC4 last night. This was a bio doc including footage from his 80th birthday concert where he was joined onstage by Jim Hall and later Ornette Coleman. Also included footage of him revisiting the bridge of the lp title, not sure when that was shot, much earlier since his hair was still black not the fluffy white blob it is in the more current footage.
That was followed by a set from Ronnie Scott's that was filmed for the BBC in '74 with his electric band and Rufus Harley on horns and bagpipes. That'll presumably be doing the rounds before long. There's a version up on youtube alreadyhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8SCquHKhzsit's called rescued cos only part of the footage from the gig was used by the BBC at the time and one of the engineers reintegrated the edited bits to a reel which he kept in his attic since then.
I also found this from Copenhagen in '74https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMKuaYDOkdQ
and this from Holland in '73https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPRik08kQFIthink there's more from that gig up there too
― Stevolende, Saturday, 18 February 2012 17:42 (twelve years ago) link
wife/daughter got me the live in europe 1959 3-disc set for father's day. so great! not sure of its import-y/bootleg origins, but it deserves a little more attention! all trio stuff of rollins at one of his peaks as a player.
― tylerw, Monday, 18 June 2012 22:46 (eleven years ago) link
I got a couple Sonny Rollins CDs, but he is definitely one of the titans of post bop jazz I really need to take a year or two and just listen to pretty much it all like I have with other jazz artists of his ilk.
― earlnash, Tuesday, 19 June 2012 03:32 (eleven years ago) link
yeah his career is a little bit hard to follow (at least for me) because he doesn't have one era where he had, you know, the classic band, the classic label, etc. he was always kinda bouncing around.
― tylerw, Wednesday, 20 June 2012 21:53 (eleven years ago) link
I dunno, I think a case could be made for The Freelance Years box (if there's one single classic Rollins era).
― Tarfumes The Escape Goat, Thursday, 21 June 2012 00:41 (eleven years ago) link
http://www.mensjournal.com/magazine/print-view/sony-rollins-the-colossus-20130819
Nice interview/feature. Despite some lung issues he's still working hard at 82.
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 20 August 2013 22:56 (ten years ago) link
Spoiler alert, this is a sad part from near the end of this fascinating to me article:
"I mostly stay in," Sonny said, sitting in his leather chair with his now familiar blood-orange skullcap on his head. He had a bunch of tests scheduled to check on his lungs, which he said had gotten "a little worse." He believed that the problem had been building for some time, perhaps back to 9/11. "I was living so close to the Towers, and when they fell down, we had to stay there," he said. "It was such an upsetting time, I really felt like playing. I took out my horn and took this deep breath, something I've done a million times. But I immediately felt sick, like I'd gulped down something bad. Some poison. It was just in the air."
Sonny looked wistfully at his sainted ax sitting on a brick shelf beside the fireplace. He hadn't played for months, the longest period since he returned from India in 1971.
But he wasn't feeling sorry for himself. Indeed, he appeared in good spirits, even jolly. It was difficult in the beginning, he said, not being able to practice. It was something he feared. "I really felt that would be the end of me, not being able to play. But I'm coming to terms with it. We're here for such a short time, you have to make the most of it. I've been lucky, getting to spend my life playing this horn. So how can I complain?"
Besides, Sonny said, it wasn't like the verdict was in for sure. There was every chance he'd play again. This was a good thing, Sonny said, because "I haven't really met my goals. I haven't made my full statement yet."
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 21 August 2013 01:53 (ten years ago) link
I hope he can play again. While he walked hunched over the last time I saw him, when he blew his horn he stood tall. Amazing
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 21 August 2013 14:56 (ten years ago) link
bump.
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 22 August 2013 14:42 (ten years ago) link
he's cancelled his show at the London jazz festival in November, which doesn't sound good.
― my father will guide me up the stairs to bed (anagram), Thursday, 22 August 2013 14:55 (ten years ago) link
Letter from Sonny Rollins to Coleman Hawkins.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, 3 March 2015 15:30 (nine years ago) link
ha that is great. was just listening to the sonny meets hawk album a little while ago -- lots of weird/wonderful stuff going on there. always find the end of "lover man" kind of terrifying, some kind of staring-into-the-abyss playing happening. obvious that rollins loved hawkins enough that he did not want to just let him coast through that session.
― tylerw, Tuesday, 3 March 2015 15:35 (nine years ago) link
1962...Wow
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 3 March 2015 15:36 (nine years ago) link
I had never had a proper listen to The Bridge till recently, the middle 2 (John S + title track) are incredible. He sounds like a bit of a judgemental shit in that letter to Hawkins but he was deffo on a hell of a creative high when he wrote it.
― xelab, Sunday, 7 June 2015 14:10 (eight years ago) link
http://wnpr.org/post/sonny-rollins-reflects-his-life-career-and-goals-both-musical-and-spiritual#stream/0
He got an honary degree from the University of hartford and in the interview says he's not done yet. Much of the post is an overview of his career highlights
― curmudgeon, Monday, 8 June 2015 18:11 (eight years ago) link
I have been hammering The Bridge recently, about 60% of what I love about it is Jim Hall's guitar playing. Some of the standards on it are a bit workaday, but still lovely rainy Sunday music.
― sorry, no results found for "Sekal Has To Die" (xelab), Sunday, 26 July 2015 13:11 (eight years ago) link
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/artists/jazz-great-sonny-rollins-still-not-finished-at-85/
He's hoping new medication will help him with his (post-9/11)respiratory issues, and allow him to play and record again
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 7 April 2016 17:19 (seven years ago) link
I was afraid this thread had been bumped because he'd died.
Last month I set up a phone interview between Rollins and up-and-coming tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana; here's a link for anyone who wants to read it.
― the top man in the language department (誤訳侮辱), Thursday, 7 April 2016 17:26 (seven years ago) link
happy 88th birthday, big sax colossus!
― calzino, Friday, 7 September 2018 07:32 (five years ago) link
I've been listening to a lot of 70s Sonny and find it quite interesting. Horn Culture is good start to finish, but all of them have their merits. Not quite fusion, not quite crossover jazz-funk, but interesting on their own terms.
― the public eating of beans (Sparkle Motion), Monday, 28 October 2019 19:19 (four years ago) link
i like the way i feel which has lee ritenour, billy cobham, bill summers AND patrice rushen. doesn't quite live up to the lineup but fun anyway
― adam, Monday, 28 October 2019 20:16 (four years ago) link
I had been considering doing a string of blog posts about his 70s albums for a while. I was intrigued when he tossed a version of "Disco Monk" onto one of his Road Shows live compilations.
― shared unit of analysis (unperson), Monday, 28 October 2019 20:33 (four years ago) link
do it. the mccoy tyner series was awesome
― adam, Monday, 28 October 2019 20:35 (four years ago) link
Listening to the 2CD expanded version of 1973's In Japan now. The original album was 46 minutes long; the second disc (bonus material) is 58 minutes, including a 29-minute piece. The band is Rollins, Bob Cranshaw on bass, David Lee on drums, Mtume on congas, and Yoshiaki Masuo on guitar.
― shared unit of analysis (unperson), Tuesday, 29 October 2019 12:53 (four years ago) link
a string of blog posts about his 70s albums
would read
― budo jeru, Tuesday, 29 October 2019 16:34 (four years ago) link
Masuo is great on Horn Culture- I didn't know him at all. I'll have to check out In Japan.
― the public eating of beans (Sparkle Motion), Wednesday, 30 October 2019 05:55 (four years ago) link
70s-wise, Nucleus (title thought to be a play on his nickname, which came from his looking like baseball's Don Newcombe, and he always has seemed like an athlete) was my gateway Rollins LP (dunno how the CD sound etc compares), and sounded like exemplary jazz with crossover and gateway appeal: accessibly melodic and robust and even-especially lyrical, but disciplined, and trusting the listener to have an open mind and a brain. Wiki sez:Track listingAll compositions by Sonny Rollins except as indicated.
"Lucille" - 6:08"Gwaligo" - 5:58"Are You Ready?" - 4:08"Azalea" - 4:46"Newkleus" (James Mtume) - 5:17"Cosmet" - 7:20"My Reverie" (Larry Clinton, based on Claude Debussy's "Reverie") - 7:39PersonnelSonny Rollins: tenor saxophone, soprano saxophoneGeorge Duke: piano, electric piano & synthesizer (track 1,3,5-7)Raul de Souza: trombone (tracks 1-4,6,7)Bennie Maupin: tenor saxophone (all), tenor saxophone soloist on 4, bass clarinet (track 7), saxello (track 6), lyricon (track 5)Black Bird McNight: guitar (tracks: 1-3,5,6); soloist on 2,3David Amaro: guitar; soloist on 1Chuck Rainey: electric bass (tracks 1-3,6)Bob Cranshaw: electric bass (tracks 4,5,7)Eddie Moore: drums (tracks 1-3,6)Roy McCurdy: drums (tracks 4,5,7)Mtume: congas & percussion (1-4,6), lead guitar (track 5)
― dow, Friday, 1 November 2019 00:53 (four years ago) link
Also enjoyed the live, Caribbean-tending Don't Stop The Carnival, with Tony Williams---and There Will Be Another You, an electrifying, immersive concert from the mid-60s, with Billy Higgins, unreleased 'til the late-ish 70s, and totally relevant to the latter era's still-ongoing evolution of progressive and free jazz---also relevant to, for instance, this year's belated releases of Coltrane's Blue World, Art Pepper's Promise Kept: The Complete Artist House Masters, and fuckin' finally Getz at the Gate. Rollins sued or pressured ABC about releasing this show, and the LP disappeared pretty quickly, though may have eventually come out on CD.
― dow, Friday, 1 November 2019 01:03 (four years ago) link
He's supposedly not super into studio recording, so the uneasy feeling of a session seems to color his feelings about the end result, regardless of how great it is. But yeah, he's always been fairly self-critical. There's a story that someone taped a set of his in a club, transcribed a few solos, and showed the transcriptions to Sonny the next night. Sonny looked them over and said, "Oh no, man, I can't play that."
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 12 January 2023 15:31 (one year ago) link
His discography is tricky since he changed bands so much back then — if he had one or two "classic" groups that stayed together for an extended period (like Miles or Coltrane), there would be an era to focus in on. But that was definitely not his MO.
― tylerw, Thursday, 12 January 2023 15:42 (one year ago) link
I have the vague memory of some academic doing an effusive analysis of his solo on three little words from on impulse as like the best solo ever or something but I can't find it (schuller or someone like that? I know he did something similar for blue 7)
it's a shame he seems so self critical* (but maybe it's partly why he became so good) - does he consider his semi-engagement with the avant garde a failure? it clearly wasn't it from my pov, it gave a real frisson to his playing afterwards even on smoother work (tenor madness on road shows vol. 1 is just mindblowing, the rest of the band kind of stays on the ground as a launching/landing pad while he's off in space a lot of the time)
*in london I remember him telling himself out loud to get it together in the middle of a solo - I couldn't hear what it was about his playing on that number that wasn't good enough but clearly he did
― your original display name is still visible (Left), Thursday, 12 January 2023 15:43 (one year ago) link
I love the stuff he recorded after his self-exile period, like The Bridge and What's New, can never get bored of them
― calzino, Thursday, 12 January 2023 15:49 (one year ago) link
yeah, that's what I reach for the most — Jim Hall sounds so good on those records.
― tylerw, Thursday, 12 January 2023 15:54 (one year ago) link
FWIW, the quintet with Clifford Brown was amazing - I loved that group, even before Rollins joined. Brown was one of the most immeasurable losses in jazz - as great as he was, given his age and abilities, he seemed like someone who could develop even further as a player.
― birdistheword, Thursday, 12 January 2023 15:58 (one year ago) link
yeah that Brown / Roach band is fantastic. What's crazy is that Rollins was in that band for less than a year (though he continued playing with Roach after Brown and Powell died).
― tylerw, Thursday, 12 January 2023 16:18 (one year ago) link
The Brown & Roach band were amazing, but (and I know this is sort of sacrilegious to say) I'm not actually sure how much farther Brown would have developed as a player. Like, he was virtuosic in a bebop/hard bop context, but I can't think of a single moment on any of those albums that shows that he had the capacity to break out of that. I don't know if he could have had a career like Freddie Hubbard, who did the virtuosic-hard-bopper thing but was also the only musician to appear on both John Coltrane's Ascension and Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz, and then made his slick fusion move with CTI in the early 70s...I feel like Brown would have stayed traditional, to his detriment.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Thursday, 12 January 2023 16:30 (one year ago) link
I think I agree — though if Miles Davis had died in 1956, I don't know if we'd be able to really predict, say, Agharta.
― tylerw, Thursday, 12 January 2023 16:42 (one year ago) link
but I can't think of a single moment on any of those albums that shows that he had the capacity to break out of that.
I can think of many, including (but not limited to) his phrasing in general, but especially his repeated stabs at a phrase in his solo on "What Is This Thing Called Love" (at 2:00 in the song) -- in its way, it's a foreshadowing of Coltrane's use of repeated figures some years later, really digging in and working certain phrases into the ground. And anyway, people said the same about Coltrane up to, and including, Giant Steps -- where could he even go after all that? That's just it -- we don't know what Brown would have done, and what he was doing wasn't seen or thought of as "traditional" when he was doing it.
Freddie Hubbard, who did the virtuosic-hard-bopper thing but was also the only musician to appear on both John Coltrane's Ascension and Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz, and then made his slick fusion move with CTI in the early 70s...
Except Freddie sounded hapless and out-of-his-depth on Free Jazz, and exponentially moreso on Ascension -- he adds nothing to those records (though he works well enough on Ole). If Freddie hadn't appeared on either of those records his career (and the overall curve of the music) would be unaltered.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 12 January 2023 16:45 (one year ago) link
seems as though Brown and Max Roach were pretty well-aligned and Roach ended up having a fairly adventurous career over the years ... but again, who knows? He was just 25 when he died!
― tylerw, Thursday, 12 January 2023 16:51 (one year ago) link
Yeah, Roach never stopped taking risks. Can you imagine? -- Brown and Braxton! Brown with Cecil Taylor! (As it happened, Brown and Eric Dolphy played together informally in the mid-'50s.)
But also, while we don't know what he might have done, we similarly don't know the effect he would have continued to have on the music. Would Miles have risen to prominence the way he did if Brown had lived? Would Brown being straight-edge (though it obviously wasn't called that at the time) have inspired more musicians to get clean?
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 12 January 2023 17:02 (one year ago) link
is the story about roach punching / otherwise assaulting ornette coleman true? if so did he have a change of heart about the avant garde later on or was it something specific about ornette's approach or personality that pissed him off?
― your original display name is still visible (Left), Thursday, 12 January 2023 17:34 (one year ago) link
I think Roach had an anger/ violence problem in his younger years. I remember reading he abused Abbey Lincoln when they were together.
― Lord Pickles (Boring, Maryland), Thursday, 12 January 2023 17:49 (one year ago) link
I never heard that story, and I knew a couple of musicians who were personally acquainted with both Roach and Ornette -- if it was true, I feel like I would have heard it many times by now. That said, Miles's autobiography has a story or two about how Max struggled with alcoholism after Brown's (and later, Booker Little's) death, and would act unpredictably and, in at least one instance, scary and threatening (when he tried to physically break down the door of Miles's house -- Miles was out, but Frances was home and extremely frightened). So it's not impossible, but if it did happen, I doubt it was because of Max's feelings about the new music (and Max played with Eric Dolphy -- I can't imagine he would have dislike Ornette's work much, certainly not enough to assault him).
xp
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 12 January 2023 17:50 (one year ago) link
There was a story in Spin in the 80s about Roach throwing a writer — who had shown up accompanied by Fab Five Freddy — out of his house for being insufficiently accepting of the musical relationship between jazz and hip-hop. I don't think he ever lost his temper. But he was definitely open to new sounds; he played duos with Braxton, with Shepp, with Cecil; he made albums with string quartets joining his band; he founded M'Boom; he did a whole lot of really adventurous shit that I haven't dug into nearly as deeply as I should.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Thursday, 12 January 2023 17:57 (one year ago) link
I remember that piece. The writer mentioned Zeppelin samples in hip-hop. Max said, "Hip-hop swings. I never heard Led Zeppelin swing."
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 12 January 2023 18:07 (one year ago) link
some may disagree but he's right
― your original display name is still visible (Left), Thursday, 12 January 2023 18:10 (one year ago) link
Found it -- not sure if the link will work, but it's on page 60 of the October, 1988 issue of Spin:
https://books.google.com/books?id=ozV_Wa_c470C&lpg=PA60&dq=%22Max%20Roach%22&pg=PA60#v=onepage&q=%22Max%20Roach%22&f=false
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 12 January 2023 18:11 (one year ago) link
xps I really appreciate rollins' respect for the avant garde without diving in with both feet - I'm sure a lot of people in the jazz world wanted to use him as a weapon like they did with others of his generation who were much less open minded
re: Hubbard I agree he sounds a bit lost on those records (it was nice of him to show up) but he's a great ingredient in the "inside out" semi-free post-bop recordings with Dolphy, Hill, Hutcherson, etc I can imagine Brown filling a similar niche
― your original display name is still visible (Left), Thursday, 12 January 2023 18:22 (one year ago) link
I didn't realize this was the only footage of Brown known to survive - it's from Soupy Sales's variety show:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iuP3CfFZDQ
And check out the comments - five years ago, one of Brown's nephews wrote that this YouTube upload was the first time he ever heard his uncle speak (when he talks with Sales at the very end). It's even more sad given that Brown talks about the birth of his son.
― birdistheword, Thursday, 12 January 2023 20:58 (one year ago) link
Damn, I didn't know that, crazy. Maybe because he didn't get a chance to tour Europe? It seems like that's where most of the well-recorded video footage of earlier jazz comes from, Euro tv shows and filmed concerts.
― change display name (Jordan), Thursday, 12 January 2023 21:04 (one year ago) link
Quick plug in for The Sounds of Sonny, 1957 on Riverside: it's not as essential as Way Out West, but has a similar funky sound, a pianoless track, and a solo track.
― structural ambiguity, Monday, 16 January 2023 18:54 (one year ago) link
When my dad interviewed James Brown. (Downbeat 1968) pic.twitter.com/cHQet19P4e— Fitz Gitler (@techdef) January 16, 2023
an amusing little snippet of The Godfather having very wrong opinions on Rollins
― calzino, Monday, 16 January 2023 19:06 (one year ago) link
Maybe James changed his tune a few years later, because on “Super Bad, part 2” JB exhorted saxophonist Robert McCollough to “Blow me some Trane!” which McCollough duly did, not exactly adhering to the chords.At 4:00 here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XV9a3tUPqTo
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Monday, 16 January 2023 20:10 (one year ago) link
i'm not reading that extract as being particularly anti-rollins -- JB says he doesn't play melodies, which, well, definitions, and he says others can't follow him all the way bcz he's weird, and he says he JB dug that other stuff but beethoven couldn't have figured out the changes (which tbf is probably true!)
― mark s, Monday, 16 January 2023 20:16 (one year ago) link
if it was middle-aged beethoven you'd have to notate it for him and he probably would be confused!
― calzino, Monday, 16 January 2023 20:26 (one year ago) link
And Sonny Rollins could never have the harmonic & rhythmic focus and minimalism necessary to sustain the funk. Good thing we can enjoy them both!
― change display name (Jordan), Monday, 16 January 2023 21:06 (one year ago) link
whoa whoa, I'm not so sure about that. Sonny was capable of anything!
― Paul Ponzi, Monday, 16 January 2023 22:27 (one year ago) link
I thought things could get pretty funky (in a *Rolling* way),along with R&B & Caribbean, on some of his 70s-80s albums, esp. Nucleus (incl. Darryl Blackbird McKnight and Chuck Rainey), also Sunny Days, Starry Nights.
― dow, Monday, 16 January 2023 22:32 (one year ago) link
*Rollins*, I meant, but Rolling too, always.
― dow, Monday, 16 January 2023 22:33 (one year ago) link
He had the calypso thing, but they had very different visions of infinity. Or perhaps...not so different after all?
― change display name (Jordan), Monday, 16 January 2023 23:01 (one year ago) link