It’s a sunny day, Sonny turns 93 today.

[Hardbopjazz]

Happy birthday and many more. WKCR will be playing his music all day. 

[JSngry]

 

[Milestones]

Sonny Rollins--living legend and living treasure.

I need to play some Sonny with Max Roach.

 

[clifford_thornton]

Wow. 93 is something.

Marion Brown, who would have turned 92 tomorrow, said this in an interview I did with him many years ago:

Quote

 

It was always in me. I tell you, when I first met Sonny Rollins, I talked to him for about fifteen minutes and I had to walk away from him because every question he asked, he had to answer right away as if he knew what I was asking. He kept looking me in the eyes with a smile on his face, and I said ‘this guy’s reading my mind. He’s an incredible person.’

I met him about ten years ago, in New York City at J&R Music World. I knew this woman who was singing and I was playing with her. I went by her house on Friday before my birthday, and she gave me a shirt that she paid $75 for and said ‘what you doing Sunday at 12:00?’ I said ‘nothing,’ so she took a piece of paper and wrote down an address and said ‘meet me here, and you’re going to meet somebody you’ll never forget. I don’t want to tell you, I want it to be a surprise.’ I got to the place about an hour before and saw a poster that said Sonny Rollins was going to be speaking there. I went inside and this white guy was setting up chairs and I said ‘I think Sonny Rollins is in the building’ and he said ‘he is, he’s upstairs and he’ll be down at twelve.’

The stage got crowded and people were talking, and suddenly it got so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Rollins walked in, he was wearing dark shades and sat on the stage and he was looking at me. They set up a table for autographs and my girlfriend put me in line, and she pinned a microphone to my lapel. When I got there, he said ‘hello, Marion.’ I said ‘you know me?’ and he said ‘man, everybody knows you!’ I said ‘I don’t have any questions, but I would like to make a statement.’ I said ‘Mr. Rollins, I’ve been listening to you all my adult life. I love you, you’re the best.’ He said ‘thanks, Marion!’ I said ‘one more thing, I want to tell you happy birthday because Monday’s your birthday.’ He said ‘I want to tell you happy birthday too, because I know Tuesday was your birthday. I know you’re a Virgo, like Charlie Parker, John Coltrane and myself.’

My girlfriend said ‘Sonny, you’re like a bottle of fine wine. You get better with age.’ She said ‘show me how you do that and tell me what part your wife plays in it.’ He said ‘I’m a very focused person. I do my homework, but my wife is the perfect partner, because I am a very difficult and crazy person. Some days I practice fifteen hours a day – on days like that I don’t even speak to my wife.’ He is very deep and very smart. He and LeRoi Jones are the smartest black men I ever met. If you ever met Amiri Baraka, you would meet a literary genius.

 

[actually, Coltrane was on the Virgo/Libra cusp]

Edited September 7, 2023 by clifford_thornton

[JSngry]

13 minutes ago, Milestones said:

I need to play some Sonny with Max Roach.

 

Two things that never happened and I still wonder why:

1. Lester & Billie never recording together on Verve

2. Max and Sonny never again playing together, on any occasion. The White House Jazz Festival would have been an ideal opportunity, they were both there. 

[Milestones]

Yes, I have often wondered why Sonny and Max did not have at least a couple of reunions.  One of jazz's greatest partnerships.  

[mjzee]

Happy birthday, Sonny!

[JSngry]

40 minutes ago, Milestones said:

Yes, I have often wondered why Sonny and Max did not have at least a couple of reunions.  One of jazz's greatest partnerships.  

A Sonny/Max duet, even as a spontaneous 10-15 minute one-off would have been possibly wonderful!

There was that trio, Graz 1963, that is wonderful, even if it is in severe need of severe pitch correction.