Sonny Rollins, October 1st

[Lazaro Vega]

Sonny Rollins, tenor saxophone

Clifton Anderson, trombone

Bobby Broom, guitar

Bob Cranshaw, bass

Kimati Dinizulu, percussion

Al Foster, drums

Saturday, October 1, 8 p.m.

Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor

University Musical Society of Ann Arbor

www.ums.org

[Saint Vitus]

All RIGHT!!!!

Do you have info on ticket sales? It appears it's not on sale yet.

(Never mind. I found it. Thanks for the notice.)

Edited September 22, 2005 by Saint Vitus

[GregK]

they've been on sale for about 2 months now. From www.ums.org.

[Saint Vitus]

Really? Then it's strange that they have so many tickets left available. It's Sonny Rollins! It should have been sold out by now!

[GregK]

any board members going to this?

[Lazaro Vega]

I'm hoping to. Oh yeah.

[GregN]

I am planning on it.

[sheldonm]

I just got an email from Bobby Broom a few minutes ago asking me if I was going to make the show; anyone know if there are any tickets available?

We were chatting about Sonny's playing at this past weeks Monterey Jazz Festival (which was great) and he told me Sonny played for two straight hours a night of two late at Villa Montalvo in Saratoga; said he was just smokin'!!! Should be a great show in Ann Arbor!!!

Mark

[micha]

I'll be heading up from Cleveland for this, I can't wait.

I think tickets are still available. (Click into http://purchase.tickets.com/buy/TicketPurc...rrent_year=2005 and click on "October 2005" and there should be a link to purchase tickets.

[Saint Vitus]

I'll be there, having been able to unload the ticket to the White Stripes concert I was supposed to go with my friends. They're not that happy with me, but it's Sonny Rollins.

[Big Deal]

Anybody know about the sound in this place? I just put myself on a restricted spending program and do the cheap seats sound as good as any other? I mean I have to go! Its Sonny Rollins!

[Saint Vitus]

This is the main classical hall at U of M. The sound carries very well in there but I don't have enough experience to comment on the various parts of the hall.

[Big Deal]

Thanks! I'll have to figure this one out.

[Saint Vitus]

Hey, it's Sonny Rollins. Wherever you seat his big sound will get you.

[Jim Alfredson]

I'm hoping to go as well. I'm actually not playing that night, which is amazing in and of itself. I think it's a good sign!

[Big Deal]

Where will we all meet for dinner and drinks?

[Jim Alfredson]

Well, there's a lot of great restaurants in Ann Arbor, so we'll have plenty of options!

Thankfully, the big Michigan State / U of M football game is in E. Lansing this year, so we won't have to fight that crowd.

[GregN]

Well, there's a lot of great restaurants in Ann Arbor, so we'll have plenty of options!

Thankfully, the big Michigan State / U of M football game is in E. Lansing this year, so we won't have to fight that crowd.

←

Plus who wants to be around a bunch of depress MSU fans post game?

GO BLUE!!

[Big Deal]

Its Friday, anybody have a suggestion for meeting before the show?

I only know of a few places by name but can find my way around just fine.

The Arbor Brewing Co. on Washington just east of Main has pretty good pub food and some great beer. Its a little north and west of Hill auditorium though.

Any other suggestions?

Don

[Lazaro Vega]

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 the apex of Saturday’s performance came during a nearly fifteen minute tenor saxophone 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 the superior spontaneous melodic improviser he’s always been.

Lazaro Vega is jazz director at Blue Lake Public Radio, www.bluelake.org

Edited October 5, 2005 by Lazaro Vega

[GregK]

Anybody know about the sound in this place? I just put myself on a restricted spending program and do the cheap seats sound as good as any other? I mean I have to go! Its Sonny Rollins!

←

I've been to a few concerts there, in the balcony and down on the floor, and the sound was excellent all over. Its even better now after the renovations

[Lazaro Vega]

Attendance at Sonny Rollins Hill Auditorium concert as reported by Mark Jacobson, Programming Manager, University Musical Society, Ann Arbor, “Right around 3450 or so.... That's about 1000 more people than a Carnegie Hall sellout....."

Mark Jacobson

Programming Manager

UMS

Burton Memorial Tower

881 North University Avenue

Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1011

www.ums.org