Sonny Rollins: G-Man

[Late]

G-Man has always been a perplexing album to me. On some levels it's deeply flawed:

• Cranshaw's out of tune and sometimes wildly off tempo.

• Smith seems to overplay a lot.

• Soskin and Anderson are ... expendable?

And on another level it's an album of epic and heroic proportions:

• Unyielding and repeatedly rewarding tenor saxophone solos.

I can't enough of Rollins' solo on the title track. I can't even exactly explain why I think it's great, e.g. as far as musical devices or thematic content. It was a live gig, 1986. Rollins broke his heal jumping off the bandstand and kept going despite the pain. Fudge. Anyone here feel the same enthusiasm? If so, maybe you can explain what that something is about the album's monstrous tenor soloing.

On the other hand, I suppose some might be unmoved by this record, and it'd be interesting to hear those thoughts too.

[JSngry]

Love it. It's a live Sonny gig doing what a live Sonny gig does (all of which you describe). If you "get" that, you gotta love it. If you don't, hey. And if you're ambivalent, hey some more. It's all good like that. But me, I love it.

I will say this though - stick w/the LP if you got it, because the CD "bonus cut" really isn't worth it, and because Side One is best heard over and over and over and over and over and over and over.

And this - check out the documentary Saxophone Colossus, which has the footage of this gig.

[Late]

And this - check out the documentary Saxophone Colossus, which has the footage of this gig.

A good documentary for sure. I think Rollins' compulsive strolling on the bandstand accounts for some of Cranshaw's off-tempo-ness. I'm not sure how well the musicians could actually hear each other. One way the doc enhances the actual performance is that one gets to "see" what circular breathing looks like. I understand how circular breathing works physically, but I was never able to even come close to doing it.

A side note: "jazz" and working out don't initially seem to go together, but the track "G-Man" is almost perfect for the (home) gym.

[JSngry]

And this - check out the documentary Saxophone Colossus, which has the footage of this gig.

A side note: "jazz" and working out don't initially seem to go together, but the track "G-Man" is almost perfect for the (home) gym.

Dude - check out Sonny's biceps on the back cover of Nucleus. Imposing, to say the least...

Besides that, though, Sonny's 70s & beyond music has always had this upfront, unambiguous...energy to it (actualized or attempted, the studio sessions being what they were for a loooooooong time) that I think fits right in with his reputation as a fitness geek. Strength, cleanliness and clarity, that's what it comes down to as the "aim" of this music, I think, and if the love of the shadows is gone, oh well. Sonny's earned the right to "walk in the sunshine", as have many. If many of those others choose not to, that's their business, just as if Sonny does choose to, it's his.

He's a big man, this Sonny Rollins is.

[BruceH]

And this - check out the documentary Saxophone Colossus, which has the footage of this gig.

I watched it several times on the big screen back in Boston. Love it.