GA Russell Posted February 21, 2014 Report Posted February 21, 2014 Sonny and his Doxy label are leaving Universal for Sony, and will issue his next release in May. Sonny Rollins and Doxy Records Sign Distribution Agreement with Sony Music Masterworks/OKeh New Album, "Road Shows, vol. 3," Due for May 2014 Release February 20, 2014 Tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins has signed a distribution agreement with Sony Music Masterworks and its jazz imprint OKeh Records for the release of his new Doxy Records album, Road Shows, vol. 3. A street date of May 6 is planned. Over the span of his storied and still-unfolding 65-year career, Rollins has established himself as one of the giants of jazz -- a towering influence, a trailblazer, a powerfully creative force in the music. From his earliest masterpieces, such as Saxophone Colossus and Freedom Suite, to his Road Shows archival series of live performances for his Doxy label in the 2000s, Rollins has presented his peerless music without compromise -- and to consistent international acclaim. The new CD contains six tracks recorded between 2001 and 2012 in Saitama, Japan; Toulouse, Marseille, and Marciac, France; and St. Louis. "Patanjali," a striking new Rollins composition, is given its debut recording. A Grammy winner for his CD This Is What I Do in 2000, Rollins received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences in 2004. In 2006 he was inducted into the Academy of Achievement at the International Achievement Summit in Los Angeles, and in May 2007 was a recipient of the Polar Music Prize, presented in Stockholm. In 2009 he became the third American (after Frank Sinatra and Jessye Norman) to be awarded the Austrian Cross for Science and Art, First Class; and in 2010 he was named the Edward MacDowell Medalist, the first jazz composer to be so honored. More recently, Rollins was presented with the National Medal of Arts at a White House ceremony in March 2011, and later that year he received the Kennedy Center Honors. In the Jazz Journalists Association's 2013 Awards, Rollins was named Emeritus Jazz Artist/Beyond Voting. "Having worked with Sonny on his previous Doxy albums, I am honored and pleased that he chose the newly launched OKeh label as the partner for his future musical adventures. He is an inspiration to all of us at the label," says Wulf Müller, who oversees A&R for OKeh Records. Sony Music Masterworks comprises the Masterworks, Sony Classical, OKeh, Portrait, Masterworks Broadway, and Flying Buddha imprints. For email updates and information, please visit www.SonyMasterworks.com. Photo: John Abbott Web Site: www.sonnyrollins.comLike Sonny: Follow Sonny: Quote
JSngry Posted February 21, 2014 Report Posted February 21, 2014 Sonny Rollins on OKeh...wow...all kinds of wow... Quote
JSngry Posted February 21, 2014 Report Posted February 21, 2014 This is the second time that Sonny will be released on a label name that has also released Little Richard, third if you want to include Milestone & Specialty under the Fantasy umbrella. The first, of course, would be RCA. Quote
mjzee Posted February 21, 2014 Report Posted February 21, 2014 Trying to picture Sonny with a pompadour. Quote
JSngry Posted February 21, 2014 Report Posted February 21, 2014 Oh, The Hair Of Sonny Rollins would make for a good historical layout, it would. Quote
GA Russell Posted March 5, 2014 Author Report Posted March 5, 2014 Sonny today tweeted a confirmation of the May 6 release day. Quote
GA Russell Posted April 1, 2014 Author Report Posted April 1, 2014 There will be a new video posted each week to promote Road Shows, vol. 3. Quote
CJ Shearn Posted April 1, 2014 Report Posted April 1, 2014 Yeah, I still need vol. 2 (heard it, ad it's great) He's always trying to grow, I really admire that Quote
bluesoul Posted April 8, 2014 Report Posted April 8, 2014 Some samples from the album posted on Soundcloud. Quote
GA Russell Posted April 9, 2014 Author Report Posted April 9, 2014 Doxy Records to Release "Road Shows, vol. 3," First Sonny Rollins Album Under New Distribution Agreement with Sony Music Masterworks/OKeh, On May 6 CD Contains Six Tracks Recorded in Japan, France, and the U.S. Between 2001 and 2012Rollins to Participate in a Google+ Hangout, "Sonny Rollins Meets His Fans," May 5 at 12:00 Noon EDT April 9, 2014 Since launching his Doxy label in 2006 with the Grammy-nominated studio album Sonny, Please, the great tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins has been turning to his vast archive of his own concert recordings to compile superior performances for release in Doxy's acclaimed Road Shows series. The selections in Volume 1 (2008) spanned nearly 30 years and included a trio track from the saxophonist's 50th-anniversary Carnegie Hall concert, while Volume 2 (2011) focused primarily on his epic 80th-birthday concert at New York's Beacon Theatre. Road Shows, vol. 3, to be released May 6 as part of a distribution agreement with Sony Music Masterworks and its jazz imprint OKeh, draws its six tracks from concerts recorded between 2001 and 2012 in Saitama, Japan; Toulouse, Marseille, and Marciac, France; and St. Louis, Missouri. "Patanjali," a recent-vintage Rollins composition, is given its debut recording on the new disc. The performances, says Rollins, "present parts of me I want to have presented." On May 5 at 12:00 noon EDT, Rollins will expand his forays into social-media territory (and CD promotion) by participating in an unprecedented video conference, "Sonny Rollins Meets His Fans," broadcast live on YouTube and Google+. Ten members of Sonny's global community of listeners and fellow musicians, chosen from the winners of a video contest on his Facebook page, will interact with Sonny, one by one, in real-time video, utilizing Google's popular Hangout platform. Immediately after the live broadcast, the program will be available for viewing on demand on Sonny's web site and Facebook page. In addition to the ten guests (each of whom will receive a copy of Road Shows, vol. 3), moderator Bret Primack will be choosing questions from Google+ viewers. "As one of the few jazz musicians able to fashion a career exclusively as a concert artist," writes Bob Blumenthal in his CD notes, "[Rollins] has made his appearances events that blend the soul-baring seriousness of a 'classical' recital with the participatory release of a music that has always drawn on various kinds of call and response. At his best, which Rollins presents to us here and in the previous Road Shows, he rides the spontaneity of the moment into unique collections of moods, grooves, and feelings." Road Shows' material reflects an artist who has become as enthralled by narrative lines as melodic. Noel Coward's "Someday I'll Find You" -- which he first recorded on 1958's Freedom Suite and then on Sonny, Please -- takes him back to his boyhood days, when it was the theme for the long-running radio show, Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons. The infectious "Biji," introduced on the 1995 album, Sonny +3, was written "back in the days when guys had nicknames like Rahsaan and Famoudou. I adopted Brung Biji as mine. It was sort of African style." "Patanjali" is named after the sage whose Yoga Sutras, he says, "lay down everything you need to know" about a discipline and philosophy that "has helped me get through life and kept me trying to be a better human being." The nearly 24-minute rendering of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's masterwork, "Why Was I Born," is as moving as it is breathtaking -- a monument to Rollins's emotional powers. He won a 2006 Grammy for his version of it on Without a Song: The 9/11 Concert, performing it in Boston five days after the terrorist attack on New York, which forced him to evacuate his apartment. "I've played it a lot," he says. "So I was wondering whether I should put it out again. I decided to because it captured me going in certain directions I felt needed to be put on record. I actually had two versions to choose from. On one of them, everything was quite clean. On this one, I played something I might be the only one who likes. But I liked the groove and a lot of other things. It represents Sonny Rollins at a certain point of creation." Rounding out the program, there's an eight-minute, stand-alone cadenza taken from a 2009 St. Louis show and a brief, album-closing dose of his perennial crowd-pleaser, "Don't Stop the Carnival." Road Shows, vol. 3 was produced by Rollins and his longtime engineer, Richard Corsello. Trombonist Clifton Anderson and bassist Bob Cranshaw are heard throughout, joined on selected tracks by pianist Stephen Scott; guitarists Bobby Broom and Peter Bernstein; drummers Kobie Watkins, Perry Wilson, Steve Jordan, and Victor Lewis; and percussionists Kimati Dinizulu and Sammy Figueroa. "All of these people in my bands are top of the line in their own right," says Rollins. "It's a privilege and pleasure to play with them." Sony Music Masterworks comprises the Masterworks, Sony Classical, OKeh, Portrait, Masterworks Broadway, and Flying Buddha imprints. For email updates and information, please visit www.SonyMasterworks.com. Photography: John Abbott Web Site: www.sonnyrollins.comLike Sonny: Follow Sonny: Quote
Lazaro Vega Posted May 5, 2014 Report Posted May 5, 2014 "Solo Sonny" is just a ball, as he freely associates through his voluminous mental songbook -- who's going to write down all the tunes and identify all the sources for those riffs he sews together? If this were a drinking game, we'd be drunk in 90 seconds! Quote
jlhoots Posted May 5, 2014 Report Posted May 5, 2014 Peter Bernstein, Victor Lewis & (I guess)Cranshaw give me some hope for this.Anyone care to "review" in its entirety? Quote
mjzee Posted May 5, 2014 Report Posted May 5, 2014 Wow, we've been talking about this for so long, hard to believe it's coming out tomorrow! Just preordered it. Quote
GA Russell Posted May 6, 2014 Author Report Posted May 6, 2014 I love this album! However, a word to the wise. Many here have everything Sonny has put out for the past twenty years. The oldest of the recordings on this record is from 2001. So most of us are already quite familiar with the songs. Quote
Lazaro Vega Posted May 6, 2014 Report Posted May 6, 2014 Wonder if Sonny was thinking about his wife on "Solo Sonny" as he strings together "Dearly Beloved," "The Nearness of You," "Someone To Watch Over Me," "The Song Is You," "Old Suzannah," "It Never Entered My Mind.".... Quote
Tom 1960 Posted May 17, 2014 Report Posted May 17, 2014 I just read the review for Road Shows, Volume 3 in the latest issue of Down Beat and the reviewer gave it 5 stars! Quote
CJ Shearn Posted May 19, 2014 Report Posted May 19, 2014 From what I've heard, it's great stuff. Looking forward to picking it up in the future! Quote
GA Russell Posted May 20, 2014 Author Report Posted May 20, 2014 (edited) I see that this and the other two Road Shows volumes are now up on Spotify. In addition, there are some Concord-owned items on Spotify. I hadn't noticed Concord-owned recordings on Spotify before. Edited May 20, 2014 by GA Russell Quote
mjzee Posted May 21, 2014 Report Posted May 21, 2014 Just finished listening to it. Pure pleasure. Just sink into it and enjoy. The program is structured like a concert: before the first track, you hear the band coming onstage, it builds to a climax with Why Was I Born?, and there's a short encore of Don't Stop the Carnival. I liked that the audience was miked up in the mix - it's exciting to hear how they react to Sonny. I liked the bands: Clifton Anderson was fine, and I loved Steve Jordan's contributions - he's really a great, unsung drummer. Peter Bernstein's really good too, there just isn't enough of him on here. All in all, another great release - buy with confidence. Quote
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