If there ain't a Sonny Rollins thread yet, this could be one

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

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.

I remember that piece. The writer mentioned Zeppelin samples in hip-hop. Max said, "Hip-hop swings. I never heard Led Zeppelin swing."

some may disagree but he's right

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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!)

if it was middle-aged beethoven you'd have to notate it for him and he probably would be confused!

And Sonny Rollins could never have the harmonic & rhythmic focus and minimalism necessary to sustain the funk. Good thing we can enjoy them both!

whoa whoa, I'm not so sure about that. Sonny was capable of anything!

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.

*Rollins*, I meant, but Rolling too, always.

He had the calypso thing, but they had very different visions of infinity. Or perhaps...not so different after all?

THE NOTEBOOKS OF SONNY ROLLINS came out today from NY Review Books

at a glance, there's nothing to dispel the idea that he is a mad genius

Phew, thought we'd lost him there.

every time this thread is revived

#musingsofmiles #bouncingofbach

Just finished Saxophone Colossus and listening to his entire discography.

It’s now a challops but the Milestone run is better than its reputation and I quite enjoyed The Solo Album even if that one has not been rehabilitated.

Saxophone Colossus the book, that is

had to look up which albums are milestone

I think nucleus and global warming are pretty great but I haven't heard most of the others. I heard bad things from jazz nerds which I took too seriously when I was young and insecure about being into jazz so I'm sure there's lots to uncover

I heard the solo album maybe once as a teen and found it boring because it wasn't accessible hard bop or extreme free jazz so I didn't understand the point of it

I'll link to the three long things I wrote about Sonny in the '70s, which I'm sure are upthread somewhere:

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

More on the Notebooks of Sonny Rollins

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/18/books/review/notebooks-of-sonny-rollins.html

I'm not a huge fan tbh, but I'm listening to the 40 minute version of 'Four' and it certainly is something (mostly a monument to the rhythm section, sustaining that level of swing and energy and attention at the same tempo for that long).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KCDJtiY8sg

Also kind of amazing that it just keeps speeding up, lol

I'm not a huge fan tbh