Saxophone Colossus - The Life And Music Of Sonny Rollins

[gmonahan]

A couple of fun stories as I approach the end of the book about how Sonny intimidated other players:

Terrence Blanchard was going to play with him at Carnegie Hall. "I called Branford. I said, 'Man, Sonny called me to do a gig with him at Carnegie Hall.' Branford said, 'Go ahead and get your ass kicked like all the rest of us. This is your time."

Jackie McLean was also going to play with him. He "went to Boston to give his horn a checkup with legendary saxophone technician Emilio Lyons. 'He said, Emilio, chick my instrument, 'cause I got to go in the ring with Sonny Rollins'.:"

I love stories like that!

[BillF]

At the beginning of January I was being quoted prices like £42 for the book, so I asked Manchester Public Libraries to buy a copy. In fact, they bought two and one was delivered to me today.

Now all I have to do is read it! 🎷

[mjazzg]

1 minute ago, BillF said:

At the beginning of January I was being quoted prices like £42 for the book, so I asked Manchester Public Libraries to buy a copy. In fact, they bought two and one was delivered to me today.

Now all I have to do is read it! 🎷

I hope they don't expect you to read the second copy too!  

It's reassuring to hear positive stories about public libraries still producing the goods given everything they've been through. I spent too many years working in them not to care

[AllenLowe]

On 1/6/2023 at 10:56 PM, T.D. said:

I saw the book in a shop this week, wanted to start right away, so bought it and cancelled the library hold.

Getting near the end, having trouble putting the book down.

I have found one funny gaffe...no disrespect to Mr. Levy and some slips are unavoidable in such a long book.

pp. 453-454: May 5, 1965, Sonny plays at the Vanguard with Miles's rhythm section of Herbie, Tony Williams and Richard Davis (who sometimes subbed for Ron Carter). It doesn't work out, and only lasts one night.

pp. 569-570: Jan. 10, 1977, Carnegie Hall. "It was Sonny's first meeting with Tony Williams. 'I have a strong sense of rhythm, so his playing complemented me perfectly,' Sonny said."

Wasn't looking for errors, but saw the "first meeting", thought "WTF?", had to go back and check. [Added] Looks like the first account was taken from an interview with Herbie. A later Sonny interview contradicted it.

this is very interesting to read - I have seen Richard Davis only twice in my life in person, and both times he got lost on tunes with chord changes. You gotta figure Sonny would notice this.

[BillF]

I have now reached Chapter 6 and have just read through the comments in this thread.

Very early on, before the book was available, someone questions whether the author has "any serious prior knowledge of jazz", someone uses the word "infuriating" and someone makes a comparison with Robin D Kelley's Monk biography.

What I am finding infuriating  is that the author (in, for example, giving an elementary explanation of who Charlie Parker and Monk are) appears to be addressing a reader without "any serious prior knowledge of jazz", something I certainly couldn't accuse Robin D Kelley of.

Other aspects of the book so far (e.g issues of race in mid-20th-century America) are very well managed IMHO.

[mjzee]

I'm now up to 1980.  While the book sometimes seems like a laundry list of every concert Sonny played, I was gratified to see the concert I booked at SUNY-Binghamton in March 1975 mentioned on page 563.

[mjzee]

One thing I've found interesting is I had thought that Sonny consistently used Bob Cranshaw.  Turns out he only used Cranshaw sporadically through the years (at least through 1980).

[John Tapscott]

26 minutes ago, mjzee said:

One thing I've found interesting is I had thought that Sonny consistently used Bob Cranshaw.  Turns out he only used Cranshaw sporadically through the years (at least through 1980).

I'm surprised at how many different musicians Sonny used in his groups and how often he changed personnel. There never seemed to be a consistent group for any length of time.  

[T.D.]

3 minutes ago, John Tapscott said:

I'm surprised at how many different musicians Sonny used in his groups and how often he changed personnel. There never seemed to be a consistent group for any length of time.  

I was also extremely surprised by that. One of the most striking things about the book IMO.

[gmonahan]

On 5/2/2023 at 3:00 PM, T.D. said:

I was also extremely surprised by that. One of the most striking things about the book IMO.

The author makes pretty clear, I think, that Sonny's constant dissatisfaction with his own playing often extended to the playing of others in his various groups. Getting fired by Sonny became something of a badge of honor!

 

[Face of the Bass]

I finally started reading this a week ago. This might be the best jazz book I've ever read. It's up there with Szwed's Space is the Place. The reason is that it flows very smoothly and offers an incredibly detailed portrait of the jazz world in the 1950s. It's much more than a Rollins biography; in fact, I don't know of another jazz book that does a better job chronicling the hard bop scene and particularly the drug scourge. Incredible stuff. 

[mjzee]

Just finished the book.  I enjoyed it; worthwhile reading.  

Page 694 reveals there may be an unreleased studio date from 2004.  Per the book, "Sonny hired his current working band: Cranshaw, Anderson, Jordan, and Dinizulu.  The recording took place at Clinton Studios in New York over two six-hour sessions at the end of September 2004...Lucille and engineer Troy Halderson spent two six-hour days mixing as planned, and by early October the album was (finished)."  But Lucille passed away November 27, 2004, and Sonny shelved the record.  Note that this is not the record "Sonny Please," which was recorded December 2005 and February 2006 at Carriage House Studios in Stamford, CT.

[danasgoodstuff]

20 hours ago, mjzee said:

Just finished the book.  I enjoyed it; worthwhile reading.  

Page 694 reveals there may be an unreleased studio date from 2004.  Per the book, "Sonny hired his current working band: Cranshaw, Anderson, Jordan, and Dinizulu.  The recording took place at Clinton Studios in New York over two six-hour sessions at the end of September 2004...Lucille and engineer Troy Halderson spent two six-hour days mixing as planned, and by early October the album was (finished)."  But Lucille passed away November 27, 2004, and Sonny shelved the record.  Note that this is not the record "Sonny Please," which was recorded December 2005 and February 2006 at Carriage House Studios in Stamford, CT.

That's certainly interesting.

[Dan Gould]

Interesting piece on Sonny Rollins, the writer, by the author of the bio:

https://tidal.com/magazine/article/sonny-rollins-writer/1-90549?mibextid=Zxz2cZ&fbclid=IwAR2ZRs8UfM6nL_LsoR5y30mnzhNs3jY-DWVl89VKNk4xXkolYJX2m47_m3s

 

 

[mjzee]

Thanks for posting that.

[Dub Modal]

Interesting on Rollins’ writings. Sounds like a forthcoming collection maybe? Would be nice…and why the Rosicrucian seal I wonder? 

[T.D.]

22 minutes ago, Dub Modal said:

Interesting on Rollins’ writings. Sounds like a forthcoming collection maybe? Would be nice…and why the Rosicrucian seal I wonder? 

The Rosicrucian thing is treated in Levy's book, pp. 347-8 (maybe elsewhere as well).

p. 347: Sonny and Trane "swapped books on Sufism, Buddhism and Rosicrucianism".

p. 348 (top): "Sonny joined the Rosicrucians..." followed by a full-page discussion.

Footnotes 64 and 66 respectively. I'm too lazy to look those (underlying sources) up.

 

[Added] I can't find the footnotes (which are omitted from the physical book) online! Book gives a link https://hach.co/saxcolossus but I see no footnotes there.

Edited June 13, 2023 by T.D.

[Dub Modal]

33 minutes ago, T.D. said:

The Rosicrucian thing is treated in Levy's book, pp. 347-8 (maybe elsewhere as well).

p. 347: Sonny and Trane "swapped books on Sufism, Buddhism and Rosicrucianism".

p. 348 (top): "Sonny joined the Rosicrucians..." followed by a full-page discussion.

Footnotes 64 and 66 respectively. I'm too lazy to look those (underlying sources) up.

 

[Added] I can't find the footnotes (which are omitted from the physical book) online! Book gives a link https://hach.co/saxcolossus but I see no footnotes there.

Interesting. Thank you. 

[JSngry]

The Rosicrucian thing was mentioned as far back as Joe Goldberg's Jazz Masters Of The 50s!!! 

[Daniel A]

6 hours ago, T.D. said:

The Rosicrucian thing is treated in Levy's book, pp. 347-8 (maybe elsewhere as well).

p. 347: Sonny and Trane "swapped books on Sufism, Buddhism and Rosicrucianism".

p. 348 (top): "Sonny joined the Rosicrucians..." followed by a full-page discussion.

Footnotes 64 and 66 respectively. I'm too lazy to look those (underlying sources) up.

 

[Added] I can't find the footnotes (which are omitted from the physical book) online! Book gives a link https://hach.co/saxcolossus but I see no footnotes there.

There's a link to a PDF:

 

64. Rollins, oral history by Appelbaum.

66. "Music is music,” Sonny said. "There's only good music—and I'm saying good to me—or bad music, bad to me." Rollins, interview by Bendian, 39.

[Dub Modal]

More impetus to get a copy of this book along with the Oral History by Applebaum that’s cited. They say Rosicrucian membership is by invite only, and that you don’t just walk up somewhere and sign on the dotted line. Would be interesting to see what info is shared on Sonny’s going into that. 

[T.D.]

Google summons up some more info:

https://ethnomusicologyreview.ucla.edu/content/interview-sonny-rollins-musical-and-spiritual-autodidact

(Rosicrucianism was a big influence at one stage, apparently no longer so)

[Edit: the above link is actually the source referenced in footnote 66...in the meantime I located the .pdf of footnotes, which btw is at  https://www.dropbox.com/s/c81oc536t1g6p8m/SaxophoneColos_HCnotesF1.pdf?dl=0 ]

 

Edited June 13, 2023 by T.D.

[JSngry]

Right. In Goldberg's book (1963?), it was mentioned in the past tense. 

[T.D.]

2 hours ago, Daniel A said:

There's a link to a PDF:

 

64. Rollins, oral history by Appelbaum.

66. "Music is music,” Sonny said. "There's only good music—and I'm saying good to me—or bad music, bad to me." Rollins, interview by Bendian, 39.

Those footnotes are from a  different chapter. I was referring to the ones from Chapter 23, The Bridge.

The references in footnote 64 are Stanley Crouch, "The Colossus", New Yorker, May 9, 2005, pp. 64-71, and George W. Goodman, "Sonny Rollins at Sixty-Eight", Atlantic, July 1999.

The reference in footnote 66 is basically the UCLA link (with material by Alex W. Rodriguez) I posted above.

Edited June 13, 2023 by T.D.

[Gheorghe]

Great book I have read it in February-March and it brings memories back to great evenings I witnessed. 

Strange that even in the 90´s and later there still was so many folks who bemoaned that he doesn´t play like in the 50´s . Really scary, I mean I genius makes and creates music all his live long and people stick to "the 50´s". 

But one thing I also didn´t understand. 

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....