Saxophone Colossus - The Life And Music Of Sonny Rollins

[Jack Pine]

1 hour ago, Gheorghe said:

All that yoga or zen stuff or how you call it. I don´t know nuthin´ about it, but great if he dug it, but I can´t understand that he states that it has also to do with the American Songbook, what has bein happy or sad or fallin in love or fallin out of love or selling a cottage when dreams didn´t come true, what has this to do with meditation ? Sure, he must know it, he knows everything....

I don’t recall the specific reference in the book and won’t speak to zen or meditation specifically, but to me the Great American Songbook is a highly spiritual catalog of human emotion; sort of a ‘Secular Hymnal’. I recently took a position as accompanist at a little country church and it’s been a crash course in traditional hymns. I think standards work on the same level as hymns, though to me are superior in their metaphysical effect.

[Gheorghe]

17 hours ago, Jack Pine said:

I don’t recall the specific reference in the book and won’t speak to zen or meditation specifically, but to me the Great American Songbook is a highly spiritual catalog of human emotion; sort of a ‘Secular Hymnal’. I recently took a position as accompanist at a little country church and it’s been a crash course in traditional hymns. I think standards work on the same level as hymns, though to me are superior in their metaphysical effect.

Hallo Jack, thank you for your worthful input. I had wondered where you have been. Lookin´ forward for further exchanges of thoughts and experiences again like we did before I couldn´t find you again. 

[Big Beat Steve]

On 4/6/2024 at 2:15 PM, Jack Pine said:

I don’t recall the specific reference in the book and won’t speak to zen or meditation specifically, but to me the Great American Songbook is a highly spiritual catalog of human emotion; sort of a ‘Secular Hymnal’. I recently took a position as accompanist at a little country church and it’s been a crash course in traditional hymns. I think standards work on the same level as hymns, though to me are superior in their metaphysical effect.

Just so I get a better grip on this ...

Where, by definition, would you draw a clear-cut line between "The Great American Song Book" and "Tin Pan Alley Standards"?
Aren't there fairly sizable overlaps?

 

[Jack Pine]

5 hours ago, Big Beat Steve said:

Just so I get a better grip on this ...

Where, by definition, would you draw a clear-cut line between "The Great American Song Book" and "Tin Pan Alley Standards"?
Aren't there fairly sizable overlaps?

I wouldn't personally draw much of a line there at all, to me the are almost entirely overlapping.

[Gheorghe]

Maybe I don´t know or didn´t know the difference between Song Book and Tin Pan Alley Standards. Look, I pick up those tunes that sound interesting for me to play, maybe like almost all jazz musicians. If a tune has good chords and stuff to blow on it, it can be the greatest, even if it was not originally a tune intented by the composer to be a jazz impro vehicle. Take "Lover Come Back to Me", or "The Way You Look Tonight", they were otherwise meant than jazz, but for me as a jazzer to burn on them chord progressions at a brisk tempo is heaven on earth......

[Stompin at the Savoy]

The kindle edition of this book is now $2.99 

[GA Russell]

44 minutes ago, Stompin at the Savoy said:

The kindle edition of this book is now $2.99 

Thanks!

[BFrank]

48 minutes ago, Stompin at the Savoy said:

The kindle edition of this book is now $2.99 

Excellent - thanks!

[mikeweil]

13 hours ago, Stompin at the Savoy said:

The kindle edition of this book is now $2.99 

Only in the US, it seems.

Edited November 2, 2024 by mikeweil

[T.D.]

13 hours ago, Stompin at the Savoy said:

The kindle edition of this book is now $2.99 

Thanks!

Of course I paid full hardback price when it was released, but now I can downsize and donate the physical book.

[JSngry]

I did not know that it was Paul Desmond who turned Sonny on to Pepto Bismol!!!

[GA Russell]

I started reading this Nov. 5, and have read a chapter almost every night.  Kindle says that I am only 67% through!

[JSngry]

I'm up to where Sonny takes to the bridge.

Over much appreciated the wealth detail.

[JSngry]

So, has anybody heard the Listerine commercial?

[Big Beat Steve]

On 1/6/2025 at 7:39 AM, GA Russell said:

I started reading this Nov. 5, and have read a chapter almost every night.  Kindle says that I am only 67% through!

Oy vey ... I bought me the hardcover book after it came out in late 2021 "for future reading" as and when I felt like it with enough spare time to make serious progress through the book without too many interruptions. For various reasons I haven't even started seriously on it yet. I am a fairly fast reader but I didn't imagine it might take this long once I'd get started ...

[Kevin Bresnahan]

I started reading this before Christmas but for some reason, it's not doing it for me. I read in bed prior to going to sleep and this book doesn't keep me awake for long. I'm sure I'll finish it eventually but the early parts describing his family roots in deep detail, is probably really interesting for Sonny but not for me.

[JSngry]

I've been laid up for the last six weeks with a broken ankle and I'm down to the last chapter. The book is making a lot of impressions, not the least of which is how freaking much the guy worked - not just personally, but actual gigs.

That's a world that doesn't really exist any more, not like that. Regular gigs playing for live audiences, going from one place to another, weeks at time. Months at a time. Not with "projects", but with bands.

[Big Beat Steve]

Keeping fingers crossed for a complication-free recovery ... 👍

[JSngry]

Thanks! So far so good.

[GA Russell]

On 1/17/2025 at 8:09 AM, JSngry said:

I've been laid up for the last six weeks with a broken ankle...

Sorry to hear about it, Jim.  Get well soon!

[JSngry]

Thanks!

It was time well spent, reading this book was.