"Sonny Rollins: Live in London" on Night Lights

[ghost of miles]

This week on Night Lights it’s “Sonny Rollins: Live in London.” It’s been a long-standing paradigm in the Sonny Rollins story that his live recordings, particularly from the 1960s on, reflect a more adventurous and exciting performer than do his studio albums. As our own Jim Sangrey has written, “For years now I've read reviews of Sonny's club dates from the mid-60s, and they all go on and on about how the guy was into a stream-of-consciousness medley thing, starting and stopping at will, changing tunes in mid-stream, playing long solo interludes, walking all over the room to get different sounds from different areas, all kinds of stuff that makes it sound like the gig wasn't just a gig, but an EXPERIENCE…all those reviews have remained as triggers of tantalizing fantasies of things never to be heard. Until now.”

Harkit Records has begun to release CDs of Sonny Rollins’ performances from Ronnie Scott’s jazz club in London, recorded in January 1965. Playing with a British rhythm section, emerging from the explorative years of his RCA period, Rollins was captured on tape in full, uninhibited stride. Selections from the first two volumes are featured on this edition of Night Lights, including “Blue ‘n Boogie,” “A Foggy Day,” and “Four.” “Sonny Rollins: Live in London” airs Saturday, May 20 at 11:05 p.m. EST on WFIU and at 9 p.m. Central time on WNIN-Evansville. It will be posted Monday afternoon in the Night Lights archives.

Next week: "Turn Out the Stars II." More jazz elegies for the Memorial Day weekend.

Note for western Lower Peninsula Michigan listeners: beginning Sunday, June 4, you'll be able to hear Night Lights on Blue Lake Public Radio, Sunday evenings at 10 (following Lazaro Vega's Sunday-night program).

[JSngry]

This will be a great show!

[ghost of miles]

"Sonny Rollins: Live in London" is finally archived.

[ghost of miles]

We will be re-airing this program Saturday night on WFIU. In the meantime, it's already archived for online listening under the date of May 20, 2006. Also, Rollins himself is now offering many of these tracks for purchase through his website.

Next week: "Jackie and Lee."

[sal]

Nice, thanks for reviving this thread. Missed it the first time around. I'll check it out this week.....love these Rollins dates!

[ghost of miles]

Forgot to mention that this is airing tonight on Blue Lake at 10 p.m. Yes, these are great dates--I thank Jim Sangrey for turning me on to them. A double-disc V. 3 came out shortly after this show last year... don't know if those tracks are yet available through Sonny's site or not.