Sonny Cox

[jodigrind]

Sonny Cox played alto for a few albums on Cadet in the 1960's (The Wailer, and a couple albums with The Three Souls). While these albums are enjoyable, Cox basically sounds like a Hank Crawford clone to me.

Landon "Sonny" Cox was a notorious Chicago high school basketball coach at King High School (coaching many future college stars and some pros). There were always rampant rumors of corruption during his time as a coach. For example, Cox purportedly kept a price list of each of his players that would be "charged" to college coaches wishing to recruit his players.

Is it true that this is the same person? If so, it must be a very interesting story.

[Larry Kart]

Same guy. I've heard the same stories about his career as a coach at King; they were rampant. Don't know what Cox is up to these days.

[Bill Fenohr]

The Three Souls were regulars at the organ room here in Lansing. Sonny always came off as a pretty cocky individual.

As an aside, the Souls Robert Shy was about the baddest drummer who used to come through here. I think he's still active in Chicago is'nt he?

[JSngry]

Listening to Sonny Cox (with the indeed uber-baaaaaad Robert Shy) play right now (Wayne's "Armageddon"), and am feeling that sound!

As a response to Life In The Big City, it seems not only wholly appropriate in its individual necessity, but perhaps even noble in its lack of guile about its "limitations".

I've no doubt whatsoever that the guy was cocky, or that he ran a corrupt high scholl b-ball program. Life In the Big City, after all. But he makes no claims otherwise, does he, at least not in his playing, which is all I have to go by.

You go, Sonny Cox, you GO!

[Mark Stryker]

Wow, I had no idea that Landon "Sonny" Cox the basketball coach had been a jazz musician. I knew his name as a kind of Jerry Tarkanian figure of Illinois high school basketball (clearly dirty, in other words). But his musical history and those Chicago records are completely unknown to me; I'll be on the look out for them now. (On the other hand, I've heard Robert Shy live many times.) I found the following Sun-Times story in Lexis-Nexis about his 2001 resignation, which I'm posting in full because no active links exist. Note the reference to Joe Henderson in the chronology is obviously wrong, surely the reporter's error. Still, other sources suggest that Cox and Henderson were roomates for a year at Kentucky State College in the mid '50s, before Joe transfered to Wayne State University in Detroit.

King's Cox abdicates his throne;

Coach resigns, citing changes in system

BYLINE: BY TAYLOR BELL

SECTION: SPORTS; Pg. 84

LENGTH: 1165 words

Landon "Sonny" Cox, a colorful and controversial basketball coach who built one of the most successful high school programs in state history, resigned Monday.

After winning more than 500 games and three state championships in 20 years at King, Cox told the Chicago Sun-Times he made the decision because "the rules have changed" and he no longer could be competitive in a system that hasn't enrolled a freshman at the designated magnet school in four years.

"It isn't easy to step down," Cox said. "But I did it my way. 've thought about (resigning) for four years. I knew the program was dying. I felt I couldn't go any further. Getting kids is the lifeblood of any program. When they stop coming, the program dies."

In the last two decades, Cox won 86 percent of his games (503-83), one national championship (1990) and three state titles (1986, 1990, 1993) and also had one second-place finish (1987) and two thirds (1989, 1999). He produced 15 all-state players and seven All-Americans, including Illinois Players of the Year Marcus Liberty, Jamie Brandon, Rashard Griffith and Leon Smith.

"I've been to the top of the mountain," Cox said. "I don't know if anyone will do all the things I have done in so short a time."

Cox, 60, said he would consider another coaching position. He plans to continue as director of the Board of Education's academic preparatory sports program for underachieving students, a position he has held for five years.

"I'm not necessarily retiring from basketball," he said. "But I probably am unless someone makes me an offer I can't refuse. I don't see that opportunity coming because I don't want to go to a school where I have to start from scratch.

"I used to attract kids to King because it was perceived as a high-profile program and they wanted to play for a school with a chance to win. We built that reputation. But it no longer is that kind of program. I never could get used to losing."

Music was first love

Cox, also an accomplished musician, didn't want to be a basketball coach. When he was growing up in Cincinnati, he wanted to be a great baseball player, another Jackie Robinson. And he wanted to be a great jazz saxophone player, another Charlie Parker.

After graduating from Kentucky State, Cox came to Chicago with classmate Joe Henderson, the famed tenor sax player. They were en route to California to become professional musicians. But Cox never left. He found a home -- and another occupation -- on the South Side.

Jazz was so popular in clubs along Cottage Grove Avenue that he and Henderson played gigs seven nights a week and two matinees. "The money was so good that we played jazz all summer," said Cox, who recorded six albums and later owned two nightclubs.

He picked up the nickname "Sonny" because friends said he played like Sonny Stitt, the great tenor sax player. When Stitt came to Chicago, they played together. He was offered a record contract as "Sonny and the Three Souls." He still plays occasionally. "But my name is Landon," Cox said. "I have outgrown 'Sonny.' "

When his late friend Howard Amos got a teaching job, school officials asked Cox if he had a degree. He didn't want to teach, but he realized he could make money playing jazz at night and cash a check for teaching in the daytime. So he began another career.

He taught at John Foster Dulles elementary school for 10 years, moved to Wendell Smith elementary school, then to Robeson High School as frosh-soph coach before landing at King as head coach for the 1981-82 season. He earned master's degrees in ethnic studies and guidance counseling and human relations and also became an assistant principal at King.

"People really don't know me," said Cox, who was drafted out of college by the Cincinnati Reds as a shortstop. "I will always be a musician and a basketball coach. It may sound self-serving, but I really think there is nobody who can teach the big man better than I can."

Controversy followed him

Cox seemed to thrive on controversy. On several occasions, he was accused of illegally recruiting players who transferred to King. He even was cited in a highly publicized book, Raw Recruits. They all made for big headlines and good reading, but the allegations were unproven.

In 1982, he wasn't stained when investigations by the Sun-Times and Board of Education revealed and confirmed that all-stater Efrem Winters' grades were changed to allow him to qualify for a scholarship to Illinois.

In 1990, when all-stater Johnny Selvie was indicted twice for possession of drugs, Cox hired an attorney who got the youngster acquitted of all charges. Selvie went on to play at New Mexico State and is head coach at Lindblom.

Cox battled the Illinois High School Association over the eligibility of Reggie Woodward, fought street agents over the residency of Smith and feuded with Griffith and his mother and with Imari Sawyer and his father.

But he never budged or compromised his principles. To the end, he remained unrepentant, fiercely loyal to his players and enormously proud that no other boys coach in state history recorded a higher winning percentage and only two coaches won more state titles: Lawrenceville's Ron Felling and East St. Louis Lincoln's Bennie Lewis with four each.

"What I really would like to do for the rest of my career," Cox said, "is teach coaches how to run a program, advise principals how to run a program and make administrators understand that high school sports is an important part of the total educational process."

No NBA standouts

Critics argue that, for all of Cox's success, none of his products has succeeded in the NBA. While he claims to have sent all but a handful of his players to college, he admits that fewer than 50 graduated. But he points out that most of them, including Selvie and Larry Allaway, a star on his 1994 team who will graduate next week from Texas Christian, never dreamed they would have an opportunity to go to college.

"The rap on me always has been that my kids go to college but they don't stay," Cox said. "But college isn't for everyone, and not all of them stay. I can't control their lives after high school. They got a college experience and went on from there."

Regrets? He has a few. He thought he could win state championships in 1987 (with Liberty), 1989 (with Brandon and Selvie) and 1999 (with Smith and Sawyer). But he felt those teams underachieved.

He believes it is "disgraceful" that coaches in the Chicago Public League, arguably the most competitive basketball conference in the country, are so underpaid. According to one study, they earn less than half as much as most suburban coaches.

"Despite all of the problems, I have enjoyed coaching," Cox said. "The key to building a winning program is having an administration that supports you and gives you the tools to be successful. I had some wonderful principals who supported my program . . . up until now."

He might have been controversial. But he never was dull.

[JSngry]

I wonder what kind of a coach Sonny Stitt would have made.

[John L]

I recently "found" a bit of Sonny Cox on the web. I had never heard him before. I downloaded it out of interest, not expecting much. I was quite surprised and impressed. His timing and phrasing are quite individual, and his blues roots are deep. I like him.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

What an interesting article! I had no idea!

I've loved Sonny's music since 1970, when I found "The wailer" in Dobells. He has a sound like no one else; on some tunes, almost strangulated. I wish he'd recorded more than 3 albums.

MG

[flat5]

That makes nine in my trivia list of sax players who's first name is Sonny.

Hidden answers. Run the mouse over (copy) to see them.

Rollins, Stitt, Lewis, Simmons, Fortune,

King, Redd or Red, Criss, Cox

Edited March 7, 2010 by flat5

[JSngry]

I wish he'd recorded more than 3 albums.

MG

Looks like he did....

[DMP]

Cox actually came to my home here in Pittsburgh once - maybe the mid-'80's - he was here for a player's recruiting visit. Anyway, he listened to music for several hours, was very personable - and knowledgable about the music. He wanted me to make him a tape of the Eddie Davis/Johnny Griffin "Minton's" material, which was spread over several albums.

[sheldonm]

The Three Souls were regulars at the organ room here in Lansing. Sonny always came off as a pretty cocky individual.

As an aside, the Souls Robert Shy was about the baddest drummer who used to come through here. I think he's still active in Chicago is'nt he?

Robert still is a bad ass drummer in Chicago...great guy!!!

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I wish he'd recorded more than 3 albums.

MG

Looks like he did....

Never heard of this 45. Doubt if Bell would have issued an LP. Just checked their album list - they didn't.

Very interesting, though. Dunwich was the firm for which Jackie Ivory recorded his classic album "Soul discovery" which was issued on Atco in 1966. It was Detroit firm, not a Chicago firm. But I see the arranger was Richard Evans, so a Chicago date organised by a Detroit firm?

MG

[JSngry]

'twas indeed a Chicago firm!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunwich_Records

[Chuck Nessa]

Yup, I used to know Bill Traut. He later started Wooden Nickle, so you can blame him for Styx.

[JSngry]

The Wiki article lists Eddie Higgins as an original partner. The Eddie Higgins?

[Chuck Nessa]

Probably - they ran in the same circles.

[Dan Gould]

That's true - Eddie told me that Richard Evans was his best man "at three of my weddings".

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

'twas indeed a Chicago firm!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunwich_Records

Ah! So what, I wonder, were they doing in Detroit?

I always wondered if there was an H P Lovecraft connection. Thanks for doing my research, Jim

MG

[Mark Stryker]

Listening to Sonny Cox (with the indeed uber-baaaaaad Robert Shy) play right now (Wayne's "Armageddon"), and am feeling that sound!

As a response to Life In The Big City, it seems not only wholly appropriate in its individual necessity, but perhaps even noble in its lack of guile about its "limitations".

I've no doubt whatsoever that the guy was cocky, or that he ran a corrupt high scholl b-ball program. Life In the Big City, after all. But he makes no claims otherwise, does he, at least not in his playing, which is all I have to go by.

You go, Sonny Cox, you GO!

I came upon a copy of "Soul Sounds" yesterday but didn't bite because of the price. I was intrigued by the presence of both Wayne Shorter's "Black Nile" and "Armeggedon." However, while "Black Nile" was listed on the jacket, when I took the LP out of the sleeve to check the condition and give a fast listen on the in-store turnatable, "Black Nile" did not seem to be on the record. I can't remember if the tune is actually listed on the inner liner, but, unless I simply missed it or I dropped in an a passage whose arrangment fooled me, my drop-the-needle check did not reveal "Black Nile" on the LP. Can anybody shed some light on this?

Coda: Those tunes are pretty fascinating cover choices for a grits 'n' gravy organ trio, though I've often found it curious how organ bands will take modal tunes or those with progressive harmonic ideas and simply put a groove on it and streamline out some of the complexities. Another interesting thing to think about is that both those tunes were recorded on "Night Dreamer" on April 29, 1964. I'm not exactly sure when the release date was, but it was probably mid fall, because the Down Beat reaview seems to have appeared the first week of December. Now, the Three Souls record was taped on Feb. 12, 1965. That's a fast assimilation of Wayne's music into the currency of another working band. "Night Dreamer" obviously made an impact on those musicians, who would have had to transcibe these songs to play them, unless they happened to have a connection to Wayne to have gotten lead sheets, which is doubtful.

Edited November 4, 2012 by Mark Stryker

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I wouldn't know a Wayne Shorter composition if it bit me in the ankle so, although I've got the Japanese Universal Victor CD issue of 'Soul sounds', I can't swear to the presence of 'Black Nile' on the album. But that's what it sez.

You're right about hard bop and bop tunes being a regular feature of the soul jazz canon; bebop and hard bop were peceived as being part of black entertainment and formed a part of pretty well every band's book.

MG