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It's Newk's Time


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Don't Ask is actually one of the better Milestone albums as far as those things go. Larry Coryell's presence is unnecessary and distracting, maybe that's why the album is called what it is.

OTOH, Harlem Boys, weirdass production, amazing playing. Hello Milestone Sonny Rollins records.

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"Dont Ask" is from 1979 about the time I saw Rollins live at the Velden Jazzfestival (Austria). It´s a nice album, maybe the track "Disco Monk" is not just my kind of stuff, but generally a good album.

Larry Corryell was also on schedule at that Festival and played solo and trio (with Art Farmer´s Cousin Julius Farmer). But they (Rollins and Corryell) didn´t perform together.

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April 2016 Vol 4 of Road Shows will be released.

From Sonny's Facebook page.

It's official! "Sonny Rollins is presently completing work on a new album in his Road Shows series of live performances for release by his label, Doxy Records. Holding the Stage: Road Shows, vol. 4 will be released on April 8, 2016 under a distribution agreement with Sony Music Masterworks and its jazz imprint OKeh Records.

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I received this press release today.

Sonny Rollins to Receive
Lifetime Achievement Award
At the Jazz Foundation of America's
14th Annual
"A Great Night in Harlem"
 
Thursday, October 22, 8:30 PM
At the Apollo Theater, New York City
 
 

 

October 15, 2015

 

 
Sonny Rollins Tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins will be presented with the Jazz Foundation of America's Lifetime Achievement Award on Thursday, October 22, at the Apollo Theater during the foundation's 14th Annual "A Great Night in Harlem" gala concert.
 
The concert segment honoring Rollins will feature performances by Donald Fagen (of Steely Dan), Jimmy Heath, Jack DeJohnette, Gary Bartz, Billy Harper, Randy Brecker, Clifton Anderson, Kenny Garrett, Ravi Coltrane, Al Foster, James Carter, Wallace Roney, the Cecil Bridgewater Big Band, and more.
 
"What a privilege it is to have Sonny Rollins grace the stage," says Wendy Oxenhorn, Jazz Foundation of America's Executive Director. "[Musical director] Steve Jordan has gone above and beyond to make this a fitting tribute worthy of Sonny's genius in return for all the decades of the music he has given to the world. For us and the Great Legends who are coming out for Sonny, this is our humble attempt to say 'thank you.'"
 
For 26 years, the Jazz Foundation of America has been keeping jazz and blues alive by helping musicians who played with everyone from Duke Ellington and Billie Holiday to Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones. The organization now assists in more than 5000 cases a year nationwide -- preventing homelessness and eviction by paying rents and mortgages; providing free medical care and operations; maintaining a Musicians' Emergency Fund to address a wide range of crises.
 
"What a necessary, wonderful organization!" says Rollins. "I've been aware of the Jazz Foundation's work for many years now, including the assistance they've given to so many of my colleagues. I'm honored to receive this award from them and to lend them whatever support I can now and in the future."
 
Rollins is presently completing work on a new album in his Road Shows series of live performances for release by his label, Doxy Records. Holding the Stage: Road Shows, vol. 4 will be released on April 8, 2016 under a distribution agreement with Sony Music Masterworks and its jazz imprint OKeh Records.
 
For further information about the Jazz Foundation and the Great Night in Harlem gala, please visit jazzfoundation.org.
 
 
Photo: John Abbott
 
 
Web Sitesonnyrollins.com
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What a lineup for the concert.

http://jazzfoundation.org/apollo2015

 

INDIVIDUAL TICKETS

$1,500 – Includes VIP Reception and Gala Dinner, Preferred Concert Seating, and After-Party
$500 – Preferred Balcony Seating plus After-Party Admission
$250 – Concert Only, Preferred Balcony Seating
$125 – Concert Only, Balcony Seating
$75 – Concert Only, Upper Balcony Seating
 

Edited by Hardbopjazz
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The greatest of them all

For Sonny's 87th birthday, I created a 15-song playlist of some favorite live material and posted it on Facecbook and Twitter. Figured I'd put it hear too. Not everything I wanted to include was available via YouTube -- particularly the quartet version of "Remember" taped at Newport in 1963 -- but what's here is choice. May he go forever.

1. “Bye, Bye Blackbird” w/Miles Davis Quintet, Café Bohemia, NY, 7/57. Fun to hear the band with Sonny rather than Trane. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TwQwy8Hdmk

2. "Old Devil Moon,” Village Vanguard, NY, 11/57 Wilbur Ware, Elvin Jones. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4t1g2esXbU. My favorite track from my favorite LP bar none ("Live at the Village Vanguard"). Dazzling flow of spontaneous and witty melodic and rhythmic rhyme from greatest standards player ever. The trio has the flexibility of a rubber band.

3. "Striver’s Row,” Village Vanguard, NY, 11/57 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RULNDD42MEA. "Confirmation" changes. Almost as good as "Old Devil Moon." Sometimes I think it might be better.

4. “Woody ‘N You,” Aix-en-Provence, France, 3/59 Henry Grimes, Kenny Clarke. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuwXoBIHCD8 Sonny's sound, intensity and stamina foreshadow his work in the '60s.

5.“St. Thomas,” Nalen, Stockholm, Sweden 3/59 Henry Grimes, Pete La Roca. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgAd9PWNW0k A crackling performance full of surprising twists.

6. “Love Letters,” Stockholm, Sweden. Henry Grimes, Joe Harris. 3/59 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3lKjVygptU Sonny has Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherazade" on the brain, but the virtuoso and varied articulation as his improvisation unfolds is the real stunner.

7. “If Ever I Would Leave You,” Ralph J. Gleason's "Jazz Casual" (television). 4/62 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iPMqJuGQes Sonny stretches out. Thematic improvisation, ecstatic rhythm and a bellowing tone.

8. “Lover,” Village Gate, NY, 7/62. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-TnYJh7TRw RCA issued one heavily edited LP from the Gate, but more than 400 minutes of Sonny's most abstract band (Cherry/Cranshaw/Higgins) was captured, including this blazing 18-minute "Lover" -- all Sonny from start to finish. Anchored to the tune, but loose..

9. “Oleo/Sonnymoon For Two/Darn That Dream,” Tivoli Concert Hall, Copenhagen, 10/65 https://youtu.be/SPlRHwhlvDQ?t=1502 The three minutes of improvisation starting at 26:48 amount to the most remarkable playing over "I Got Rhythm" that I know. Ever.

10. “I Can’t Get Started/Three Little Words/Interlude (St. Thomas)/There Will Never Be Another You,” Salle de la Mutualite, Paris 11/65. Gilber Rovere, Art Taylor. http://saxonthetube.blogspot.com/…/sonny-rollins-live-in-pa… If I had to pick the most inspired Sonny on film, it's this concert, Olympian authority understands the case. Almost everyone else in jazz sounds like child after this..

11. “Four,” Copenhagen, Denmark, 9/68, Kenny Drew, Niels-Henning Orsted Pederson, Tootie Heath. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fY9OHEFk5Pk Sonny plays more than 23 minutes straight, before ceding the floor, then comes back later to spar with Heath for another 13.

12. Untitled solo, Tonight Show, 1979. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPCBqSy3lwk. Still can't believe that Sonny played a 6-1/2 minute a cappella solo on national TV. Heard about this not long after it happened and then waited 35 years to actually see it.

13. “Best Wishes,” Kosei Nenkin Hall", Tokyo, Japan. 5/86
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oM2DxNlq5J8 Paced by Al Foster's driving drums, Sonny turns in what for me is his most exciting and inspired playing on the four recent "Road Shows" discs.

14. "G-Man,” Saugerties, NY, 8/86 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfa9NPHNhPM Another track where Sonny never gives up the ball. Fifteen minutes of G dominant 7. Glorious.

15. “Long Ago and Far Away,” Jazz à Vienne, France. 7/94 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-g89Hqo-og. Sonny and drummer Billy Drummond go at each other for about 12 minutes of trading eights and fours (more or less).. Punch and counter-punch.

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I traveled to New York to see the great Roy Haynes on Wednesday.  On my way home the next day, I stopped by a record store and found Sonny's Prestige box (which, coincidentally, Haynes appears on) for $29.99.  It is a set that I had wanted to hear for years, so it is pretty incredible that I happened to finally buy it on Sonny's 87th birthday.  I hope Sonny had a happy birthday.

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