I saw Sonny Rollins last night

[skeith]

At the Cuny Graduate center in Manhattan.

Very interesting, and done as sort of a historical overview of his career with a focus on records and a few musical examples played including a stunning unreleased solo performance from the late 80s.

Interestingly when Giddins played a couple of minutes of his solo on the studio recording"there's no business like show business" - the audience applauded but Rollins was looking unccomfortable and was sweating, mopping his brow.

Rollins said he was glad the audience liked it, but he found it "excruciating" - was the term I believe he used. Giddins asked why and Rollins replied more or less "because I think I could have done so much better" a persistent theme in the discussion.

The discussion was good at times pegged way below what most Rollins fans would expect and at times above what the novice would really understand.

No signs of Chris A. or Clem (a big Giddins fan! ) not that I would recognize him.

Interestingly enough, most of the people sitting around me seemed relatively ignorant about Rollins - so much for sophisticated New Yorkers.