Sonny Rollins

Sonny Rollins, born Theodore Walter Rollins on 7 September 1930 in New York, is a saxophonist tenor and composer of jazz . It is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians of the era post- bebop .

The long and prolific career of Sonny Rollins on tenor saxophone begins around the age of 16 years. Some of his compositions as St. Thomas , Oleo , Doxy andAiregin have become jazz standards . His fifty-year career today give it the status of last giant in business. Improviser, crossing genres, pushing their limits sound and phrasing, Sonny Rollins embodies the spirit of relentless pursuit of jazz. Sonny Rollins is still touring in 2013 after surviving the most of his contemporaries in whose company he recorded, including John Coltrane , Miles Davis , Max Roach and Art Blakey .

Summary
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 * 1 Biography
 * 1.1 The early years
 * 1.2 Saxophone Colossus
 * 1.3 A trio without piano
 * 1.4 1959-1971
 * 1.5 1972-2000
 * 1.6 Since 2001
 * 2 Legacy and awards
 * 3 Discography
 * 3.1 Miscellaneous
 * 4 Notes and references
 * 5 See also
 * 5.1 Sources
 * 5.2 External Links

The first years [ edit | edit the code ]
Although Sonny Rollins was born in New York, not far from the temples of the New York black music as Savoy or Apollo, his parents are from the US Virgin Islands .Sonny Rollins started playing the piano and then passes alto saxophone he receives at the age of 8 years, has it in the manner of Louis Jordan and chooses eventually the tenor saxophone in 1946 . Impressed by Charlie Parker and taken under the wing of Thelonious Monk, the young Sonny Rollins made ​​his professional classes in the school of Bebop , from the late 1940. During his years of study in high school, he played in a group with other future jazz legends, Jackie McLean andKenny Drew . His first recordings for the label Fantasy reveal an original and instantly recognizable sound, partly inherited from Coleman Hawkins, a rhythmic mastery unusual already a penchant for deconstruction / reconstruction theme.

It records in 1949 with Babs Gonzales and the same year with JJ Johnson and Bud Powell . In his recordings until 1954, he had the opportunity to play with artists such as Miles Davis, Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk. In 1950, Rollins was arrested for armed robbery and sentenced to three years imprisonment. He spent 10 months in prison Rikers Island and was released on parole. In 1952, he was arrested again for violating his parole for heroin. Sonny Rollins is assigned to the prisonFederal Medical Center, Lexington, at that time it was the only help the United States for drug addicts. There, he volunteers for an experimental treatment with methadone and is finally able to break his addiction to heroin. Sonny Rollins feared at that time that sobriety affect its musicality, but will eventually go toward greater success.

As a saxophonist, it is initially attracted by the sounds Jump and R & B artists such as Louis Jordan, and is driven in the traditional mainstream tenor saxophone. Music journalist Joachim Berendt describes this tradition as sitting between the two poles of the sharp sound of Coleman Hawkins and flexible and light phrasing of Lester Young, who did so much to inspire the wave improvisational bebop in the 1950s . Sonny Rollins made ​​them meet such a fluid improviser of post-bop, with a strong and sound like no sound from Coleman Hawkins . Still, the musical universe of Charlie Parker is ubiquitous in the construction of his music and never leave completely.

Rollins began to make a name when in 1951 he records including its composition Oleo with the Modern Jazz Quartet and Miles Davis. In 1953 and 1954 he worked with Thelonious Monk, recording the albumThelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins, which includes the songs I Wanna Be Happy and Friday the 13th. Sonny Rollins quintet then joined the Clifford Brown - Max Roach in 1955 (recordings made ​​with this group are present on albums Sonny Rollins Plus 4 and Clifford Brown and Max Roach at Basin Street; Sonny plays on half of the album More Study in Brown), and following the death of Clifford Brown in 1956 he mainly worked on his own albums. At that time, he began his career with the label Prestige, which recorded some of his best known albums, it also records in the 1950s for other labels, including Blue Note , Riverside and Los Angeles label Contemporary .

Saxophone Colossus [ edit | edit the code ]
In May 1956, recorded the album Sonny Rollins Tenor Madness . The pianist Red Garland, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Philly Joe Jones of the group of Miles Davis, who also recorded in the studio, participate in this album. The song that gives title to the album is the only record of Sonny Rollins with John Coltrane, who also played in the group of Miles Davis .

Especially the album Saxophone Colossus recorded a month later, June 22, 1956 which is widely acclaimed. The records are held at the studio of Rudy Van Gelder in New Jersey, with Tommy Flanagan on piano,Doug Watkins a former bassist of the group Jazz Messengers and his favorite drummer Max Roach . This is the sixth album by Sonny Rollins as a leader and it includes one of his most famous compositions, St.Thomas, a calypso Caribbean based on a melody sung by his mother as a child. The album also includes the title Strode Rode, a remarkable piece of hard bop fast paced and Moritat a composition of Kurt Weillalso known as Mack the Knife .

At the end of Sonny Rollins recorded a suite for Blue Note with Donald Byrd on trumpet, Wynton Kelly on piano, Gene Ramey on bass and Max Roach on drums a longtime collaborator Sonny. These recordings are published the following year on the album Sonny Rollins Volume One .

A piano trio without [ edit | edit the code ]
In 1957 he was one of the first to use the bass and drums without piano. The artist says that this formula was originally a trial due to his repeated absences or pianists. This characteristic comes to be known as the"strolling". That year, he uses the tenor-bass-drums trio albums on Way Out West and A Night at the Village Vanguard . Sonny Rollins uses this trio intermittently throughout his career, sometimes making the unusual choice of using his saxophone as an instrument in the rhythm section on bass solos and drum. Way Out West is so named because it was recorded for a label based in California (with faithful drummer Shelly Manne) and because the album contains songs country music such as Wagon Wheels and I'm an Old Cowhand. The recording of the album A Night at the Village Vanguard is made ​​in two parts, one morning with bassistDonald Bailey and drummer Pete La Roca and in the evening with bassist Wilbur Ware, and drummer Elvin Jones .

In this period, Sonny Rollins became famous for choosing relatively banal or unconventional pieces and turn them into a vehicle for improvisation as There's No Business Like Show Business Album Work Time(1955), I'm an Old cowhand and later Sweet Leilani Album This Is What I Do (2000) awarded a Grammy. The album Newk's Time in 1957 is working again with a piano, this time with Wynton Kelly, but one of the most notable titles is the saxophone duo - the standard battery Surrey with the Fringe on Top with Philly Joe Jones. That same year, he recorded for Blue Note with prestigious musicians, JJ Johnson on trombone,Horace Silver, Thelonious Monk on piano and drummer Art Blakey which is published on the album Sonny Rollins Volume 2.

In 1958, Sonny Rollins recorded with saxophone trio, bass and drums another landmark album: Freedom Suite . A piece of music that also reveals a form of protest as indicated by the notes of Sonny Rollins on the original cover: "America is deeply rooted in the Negro culture expressions, his humor, his music. As ironic is the Negro, who more than anyone else can claim the culture of America like his, is being persecuted and repressed; the Negro who has exemplified the humanities in their very existence, is rewarded with a lack of humanity. " , . The title track is a quasi-collective improvisation 19 minutes, made largely of free trade between the three musicians. The album is not entirely political - the second side consisting essentially of jazz standards. Version 33 towers was little time available in its original form since Riverside Records was a new edition of this album under a different name, Shadow Waltz.

Sonny Rollins performs end of 1958 another studio album named Sonny Rollins and the Contemporary Leaders before a break of three years. This is a session records for the Contemporary label where Sonny Rollins recorded an esoteric mix of music including Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody with the West Coast group of pianist Hampton Hawes, guitarist Barney Kessel , the bassist Leroy Vinnegar and drummer Shelly Manne.

1959 - 1971 [ edit | edit the code ]
The Williamsburg Bridge in New York, a source of inspiration for the album The Bridge

In 1959, Rollins is frustrated by what he perceives as his own musical boundaries and takes the first - and most famous - musical sabbatical break. Two years of doubt, made by the free jazz storm, hungry for new land to clear. A trip to India and hours playing alone under the bridge Williamsburg Bridge in New York. Upon her return to the jazz scene in 1962, he signed a contract with RCA Records and appoints his new album The Bridge constitutes a turning point. Floating tempos, less classical sound, Rollins finally breaks the chains of hard bop and adapts to his liking audacity of free jazz. The album was recorded in quartet without piano, with guitarist Jim Hall and the rhythm section Ben Riley on drums and Bob Cranshaw on bass guitar. It has become one of the best selling albums of Sonny Rollins. Each album he recorded differed radically from the previous one. Sonny Rollins explored Latin rhythms on What's new in 1962, addresses the forefront of Our Man in Jazz (1962), following a musical encounter with Coleman Hawkins (Sonny Meets Hawk in 1963) reinterprets standards on Now's the Time (1964) and a collaboration with Elvin Jones (East Broadway Rundown in 1966), so fresh off the group of John Coltrane. Sonny Rollins signed in 1966 the original soundtrack of the film Alfie with Michael Caine in the lead role.

1972 - 2000 [ edit | edit the code ]
During his sabbatical Sonny Rollins studied yoga, meditation and Eastern philosophy. When he returned in 1972, he is steeped in R & B rhythms, pop , funk . Its groups in the 1970s and 1980s include electric guitar, electric bass, and generally more oriented pop and funk drummers. During this period, he recorded mainly for Milestone Records and Silver City compilation: A Celebration of 25 Years on Milestone contains a selection of these years. Yet it is in these years marked by disco Sonny Rollins is interested in saxophone solos without accompaniment. In 1985, he released The Solo Album. In 1986, the documentary filmmakerRobert Mugge released a film titled Saxophone Colossus. It includes two performances of Sonny Rollins: a quintet in upstate New York and his Concerto for saxophone and Symphony in Japan.

Since 2001 [ edit | edit the code ]
Sonny Rollins concert

At Jazz à Juan in 2005 (balance)

Rollins won a Grammy in 2001 for best instrumental jazz album This Is What I Do (2000) . On 11 September 2001, Sonny Rollins to 71 lives a few blocks of buildings of World Trade Center collapse and he hears is forced to evacuate her apartment with only his saxophone in hand. Although shaken, he moved to Boston five days later to give a concert at the Berklee College of Music . Live recording of this representation is then released on CD in 2005, Without a Song: The 9/11 Concert, and won the Grammy in 2006 in the category of Jazz Instrumental Solo for the interpretation of Sonny Why Was I Born?

After a tour in Japan, Sonny Rollins returns to the recording studio for the first time in five years to record his album Sonny, Please(2006). The album was released for the first time on his own label, Doxy Records, following his departure from Milestone Records, with whom he has collaborated for many years. The album is produced by his nephew Clifton Anderson, the band Rollins at that time.

Sonny Rollins gives a performance at Carnegie Hall September 18, 2007, to celebrate the  anniversary of its first performance in this place. He is accompanied by Clifton Anderson on trombone, Bobby Broom on guitar, Bob Cranshaw on bass, Kimati Dinizulu on percussion, Roy Haynes on drums and Christian McBride on bass .

Heritage and rewards [ edit | edit the code ]
Rollins is known for the longevity and quality of his career, rarely seen in the world of jazz and other genres. Its melodic sensibilities, playing style, and solos have also influenced generations of musicians .

Sonny Rollins is rewarded at the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame in 1973.

In 2007 he received the prestigious Polar Music Prize award to Stockholm in Sweden, with Steve Reich, while Colby College assigns Sonny Rollins the title of Doctor of Music honoris causa, for his contributions to jazz music.

In 1983, the National Endowment for the Arts - NEA Jazz Master award of a Sonny Rollins Jazz Master .

Discography [ edit | edit the code ]
Main article: Discography Sonny Rollins .

Miscellaneous [ edit | edit the code ]
The credits of the show broth culture of Bernard Pivot 's song The Night: has a Thousand Eyes, Album What's New? (1962) Sonny Rollins. St. Thomas is part of the soundtrack of the film Working Girl directed byMike Nichols and released in 1988 . The piece Tenor Madness is present on the soundtrack of the film The Talented Mr. Ripley by Anthony Minghella released in 1999 . Alfie was the music of the generic emission of France-Inter devoted to jazz in the 1970s.