Sonny Rollins -

[Soulstation1]

Tucson Newspaper Article For Upcoming Concert

[Lazaro Vega]

"...fans and musicians alike began to agree free jazz was a dead-end."

Really? There's quite a bit of Sonny's 60's aesthetic in his playing today -- it isn't as if he eshewed everything he's done up until now except bebop.

[JSngry]

"...fans and musicians alike began to agree free jazz was a dead-end."

Really? There's quite a bit of Sonny's 60's aesthetic in his playing today -- it isn't as if he eshewed everything he's done up until now except bebop.

The article in full (just remember your mom's warnings about not making too many funny faces, lest one of them gets stuck...):

Sonny Rollins still bebopping to his own beat

CHUCK GRAHAM

Published: 11.09.2006

The same people who thronged to rock 'n' roll in the 1960s - who trampled over jazz, America's only original musical art form, in their rush to embrace the electric guitar - are older now and looking for music that's more substantial. It's happening just when the CD is becoming a perfect reason to reissue all those great jazz albums originally recorded on vinyl in the 1950s. The digital age is bringing the golden age of jazz to a whole new audience.

Foremost among these golden jazzers is 76-year-old Sonny Rollins, a Harlem-born bebop pioneer famous for his robust and aggressive playing. In the early 1950s, when he was barely 20 years old, people were comparing Rollins to Charlie "Bird" Parker, bebop's inventor. Every time the lanky Rollins climbed onstage, jazz advanced a little further. As the psychedelic '60s bubbled up, jazz nearly dissolved. So did Rollins' career. But now he's back and bigger than ever, with Grammy wins in 2000 and 2004, finally getting the large audience he has always deserved.

"I'm fortunate to have a lot of young fans who've never even bought a CD," says Rollins, on the phone from his farm in upstate New York. "They download all my music off the Internet. These days there's a lot of ways to get the music out there."

Yes, the same guy who has been called a "saxophone colossus" since his youth is now a high-tech colossus on the Internet, using all the new forms of digital technology to reach a brand-new generation. Yet, Rollins would be the first to admit he's no computer expert. He does know a computer expert, Bret Primack, with a Web site business right here in Tucson.

"I create Web sites and video for musicians," said the gregarious Primack, who moved to the Baked Apple five years ago. "Sonny's been a friend for 30 years. I met him back in 1978 when I did a cover story on him for Downbeat."

Primack is also a pal of Rollins' longtime trombonist, Clifton Anderson.

"When Clifton saw that Sonny needed a Web site, Clifton contacted me and we set it up," Primack remembered. That was about two years ago.

Now Rollins has his new album, "Sonny, Please," available only at his concerts and through his Web site, www.sonnyrollins.com. The Web site is loaded with performance videos and music extras Primack designed to provide a full Sonny Rollins experience. You can download the new album, too. Or order a copy the old-fashioned way - on a CD through the mail.

"There's no jazz on radio anymore," said Primack, his voice filled with the disgust of a guy who made his living as a jazz writer for 20 years before the Internet came along.

"The Internet is where all the young listeners are discovering Sonny. You have to go to the gathering places, that's where 90 percent of the young listeners are - Wikipedia, YouTube and MySpace," Primack said. "Sonny has a big presence on all three."

The unavoidable irony today is that in the mid-1950s everyone thought Rollins would be the young jazz lion of tenor saxophone who would take bebop to the next generation. But that guy turned out to be John Coltrane. Rollins was left out in the cold, blowing riffs by himself in the middle of the night on the Williamsburg bridge on Manhattan's Lower East Side.

While Rollins was pouring more intensity into his hard bop improvisations, winding his figures tighter and tighter, Coltrane had started using the more controversial music theory concept of modal jazz. To the casual listener, this sound had an atonal cacophony that seemed to fit the icon-smashing 1960s.

"I remember sitting around talking to (tenor player) Dexter Gordon about how it didn't seem fair Coltrane was attracting so much attention doing all that modal stuff," said Artt Frank, a bebop drummer on the scene, now retired to Green Valley. "With Sonny, you could see his heart when he played.

"When he first came out, when he was playing with Max Roach, he was smoking. He was a monster, it was unbelievable. He made my ears pop up."

Frank wanted to show his appreciation by writing a bop song for Rollins, "Sonnyside Up." He also wrote a second song, for Rollins and his late wife Lucille. It was a samba, appropriately titled "Sonny and Lucille."

"This is a true story. The inspiration for 'Sonnyside Up' was a bird singing outside the window. It was chirping in triplets. Bebop is played in triplets, so I kept repeating the bird's triplets and it became the song," said Frank. "Maybe it was really Bird (Charlie Parker) talking to me. It could be."

After the cutting-edge musicians spent a couple of decades working up a sweat blowing atonal dissonance, fans and musicians alike began to agree free jazz was a dead-end. By then, we were deep into the 1980s. Rollins, meanwhile, had kept the faith with his own artistic vision. He tried free jazz, too. He recorded some R&B and calypso material. He even played on the Rolling Stones' album "Tattoo You."

Coltrane died of a liver disease in 1967. As time went by, Rollins kept practicing. The jazz movement led by Wynton Marsalis and a few others returned to its bebop roots and started over. Jazz got its swing back. Rollins kept on practicing.

"I still practice every day," Rollins affirmed. "If you want to be a serious musician, you have to practice." Yes, this veteran jazz colossus, who played such an important role in the early years of bop, is still looking for new ways to move jazz forward.

"I'm a bridge between the tonal and the atonal," he said of his present role, which he fully embraces. In fact, it sounds like one bridge Rollins doesn't think he will ever leave.

[Lazaro Vega]

Hey, I missed the last sentance in the article when I read it on-line.

[GA Russell]

I've listened to Sonny, Please quite a bit over the past ten days.

Sonny plays forcefully, as he has done for the past 35 years, but not as much as he did ten years ago. I suppose it is a matter of age starting to catch up with him.

The key to this album is guitarist Bobby Broom. He has a consistently cool, quiet and introspective style that reminds me of Jim Hall from the early '60s. He's good, but by himself not brilliant.

However, the combination of Broom with Sonny makes this album worth listening to. Their sounds don't blend, but rather coexist. Very interesting.

Of course, Sonny played with Jim Hall in the early '60s. But Sonny doesn't sound like he did then, so Sonny, Please doesn't sound like a rehash of The Bridge.

Of the seven songs, one stands out. I agree with Doug Ramsey's opinion posted above that Remembering Tommy (written by Sonny) has what it takes to become a jazz standard.

On the other hand, I don't like the title track, which is the first cut. I skip over it when I play the disc, and find that I enjoy the album much more without it.

Although Sonny, Please would not be called a relaxed date, it is more so than what Sonny has done for more than ten years at least.

I don't consider it as good as Without a Song (the 9/11 Concert), but it is different from that and any other album I can recall due to the sweet & sour nature of the combination of Sonny with Broom. For that reason I would recommend it not only to Sonny fans but also to those looking for something different to add to their collection.

[Peter Friedman]

I have tickets to see Sonny Rollins this evening here in Tucson. The newspaper indictated that his new CD would be for sale at the concert. Unfortunately, he is performing in a venue at The University Of Arizona that is generally a lousy place to hear jazz. It is way too large, and if you don't have especially good seats the sound is poor and it may be hard to see the performers very well.

I usually avoid going to this auditorium, but am making an exception for Sonny Rollins. Our seats should be reasonably good ones which will help a lot.

[GA Russell]

OK, eMusicheads! Sonny, Please should be available at eMusic today. Have at it!

[Soulstation1]

http://www.emusic.com/artist/10557/10557530.html

i don't see and i've been keepin' a close eye for this one.....

[GA Russell]

I see that CD Universe now has Sonny, Please available for pre-order.

List price $16.98; Their Price $13.29; Pre-Order Price $11.89.

Street Date: January 23.

[Kyo]

I see that CD Universe now has Sonny, Please available for pre-order.

List price $16.98; Their Price $13.29; Pre-Order Price $11.89.

Street Date: January 23.

Just saw that Universal will be releasing this in Germany (and probably most of Europe) on January 26. Cool!

[Shawn]

Been listening to this one non-stop for about a week, LOVE it! I agree that Rollins & Broom are a wonderful combination.

[Soulstation1]

is this cd finally in the stores?

i hope so

[brownie]

Originally due out in Europe last November 26.

Should be really out next week!

Got an advance copy. Like it but it does not knock me out. The last Rollins that really did it for me was 'This Is What I Do'!

Will get back to that 'Sonny, Please'...

[Soulstation1]

paid about $6.50 out of pocket for this today @ borders

rewards cash and a 20% coupon

[danasgoodstuff]

Have, like, and will post more when I've had a chance to listen more! Talked to a record store owner I know tonight who said there's a chance Sonny will play Portland next winter. I sure hope so, haven't seen him in about 15yr.

[bluesbro]

I got this for 10 bucks at retail an I am extremely happy with it. I really enjoyed 'This is what I do' and this one didnt let me down.