I spent the day listening to Sonny (and that 1954 Sonny-Miles session), and now I’m at the Bird’s Eye in Basel for Kris Davis, Wolfgang Muthspiel, and Nasheet Waits. From the liveliness of those recordings to the living experience of those carrying the tradition forward into the future.
A wonderful tribute. Sonny Rollins became known to me thanks to a homeless dude who crashed down at the warehouse where I worked. He had a record player and a stack of LPs that he would put on while he worked to earn his keep. One day, I came back from my route and heard this fantastic music. I was 27 and not heavily into jazz. He showed me the cover of Dizzy Gillespie Duets with Sonny Rollins and Sonny Stitt. He told me not to bother trying to find it, because it was out of print, but he was shocked when I returned the next day with a compact disc of the album. It was my first jazz acquisition and remains a favorite. Unlike Ted and some others, live jazz was never as important to me as playing the music at home. As I write this, I'm listening to "Bluing" featuring Sonny from the MIles Davis Complete Prestige Recordings. Sonny had a great life, a long life, a life that impacted so many people, including one rock and pop fan who just happened to hear his playing because of a vodka-guzzling guy with a rickety old turntable.
Ted, I am both envious and grateful you got to see these legends perform live. I just wanted to let you know your work has deepened my love and appreciation for Jazz music because your words and ideas bridge the gap between what I know (quite little as I have no formal training in music) and what I feel (A deep and meaningful spectrum of emotions that only music like Jazz brings out). Thank you for sharing this post, and for the work you've been doing for decades.
Going to be listening some music by Miles and Sonny this week.
I was fortunate to hear Mr. Rollins at UCLA's Royce Hall a few years back. When he came on the stage with his horn he looked stooped and aged. Then he stepped to the front of the stage, stood up straight as an arrow and blew into his horn. Chills ran up my spine: it was one of the most beautiful sounds I'd ever heard. At the end of performance, the crowd went wild. When everyone finally calmed down, Mr. Rollins stepped up to the mic and with the great sincerity said something like, "Thank you very much. You know, we're just up here trying." He was widely considered the world's greatest living improviser at the time; he had humanity and humility to match. RIP, Mr. Rollins, many thanks for giving so much to those with ears to hear.
Nice, Ted. As a pointless aside, I realize after a life in music all my best musician friends have been jazzers…the intellects, the musical athletes, and they all got the joke.
I’m 80. I live in the UK. I’m lucky to have seen Miles at the Odeon, Hammersmith, London in October 1967. I live and play in Lancaster now and have met three other people who were at that concert. I have played with one, Chas Ambler, deceased and still play with Derek Johnson. The third guy, John, not a musician but one of an amazing piece of serendipity.
I saw Sonny Rollins in his 75th (?) year in London. He was ferocious and so inventive. So I am very fortunate.
Today I feel a little bereft. All I can say today is thank you. 🙏🏼
Sonny Rollins is a big reason why I gravitated toward the saxophone, specifically the tenor. He showed me the power of what the instrument could be. I think that’s why I took to it so quickly when I finally got my hands on one in the fourth grade. I had already grown up knowing what it should sound like thanks to Sonny.
I have a spiritual connection to both these men, and with Miles, it’s also personal. My grandfather, Larry Ramirez, was the chief designer for Holton and worked closely with Miles to design and develop several of his trumpets, particularly the colorful horns he played toward the end of his life, one of which is featured prominently on the cover of Doo Bop and another of which he’s buried with. To achieve the intense colors, my grandpa layered the horns with several coats of lacquer, giving them a darker, slightly muted tone that Miles loved. My grandpa passed away about a year and a half ago after a battle with Parkinson’s.
Hopefully, all three of them are rocking out at the great jam session in the sky.
A ranch kid started college at Montana State in 1956. Someone put their hi-fi in the dorm window and played Benny Goodman's 12-minute Sing, Sing, Sing at full volume. The next summer, my aunt, mother, and sister and I attended a jazz concert in Billings. I became excited and rushed backstage at the end. At 87 I have the program signed by Satchmo Louis Armstrong in a frame on my wall. Then came others over the years, Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Al Hirt, Pete Fountain (first saw him in Navy uniform on Lawrence Welk of all places). San Francisco, Chicago, New York, The Preservation Hall in New Orleans. Still listen to the Marsalis family, and one of my all-time favorites Sidney Bechet. We celebrate their lives, music, and hope for others to follow.
I'm the guy who went to the clubs to watch the band play; to see how they were playing tunes I knew but didn't know how to play. Live music is its own experience. And much as I like and admire great recording production, there's nothing like seeing the music performed by artists that know how to inhabit their music, whether they wrote it or not. I'm old enough to have experienced a fair number of these artists (thank you HS jazz band) in person, feeling their energy, seeing their approach to performing and interacting-good or bad-with the audience. I'd always be bouncing home afterward.
I really am crying as I read this. I never saw Davis or Rollins, but my life is so much richer because of them and their peers.
I'm not crying because they're both dead. I'm crying because I'm 64, and I can see how debased our common artistic and media cultures have become.
Yes, it's hard to believe that this music was presented on the same technology that presents the vile Kardashians, the insipid Bachelor/Bachelorette shows, Honey Boo Boo and so much more that's even far worse than these examples.
I know what's happened to us, but I'll never understand it!
"Just jazz, plain and simple"--well how can I avoid thinking about Ed Beach--the great WRVR jazz broadcaster, his program titled simply, "Just Jazz." The man's voice resounded like a brass bass, and his selections set the tone. I don't know of another like him.
It's also worth remembering that in early New Orleans, no one thought of the new sound as "Jazz": It was "just music." It was the delivery that changed. PG
Yes - it WAS on TV ,along with SO much more. I was lucky & got to see a lot of it when much of it aired. Alas ... Satchmo ,Miles ,The Beatles ... BTS & EVEN ... wait for it - Taylor Swift. Yes ,even Her. Will be mostly forgotten in 100 /200 years. Barely remembered by most. Although a few will probably live on in unusual ways (if profitable for whomever Steals them).
Heck ,the way it is going nowadays in the never ending pursuit of "New & Better" - most so-called great artistes will be forgotten - pushed out by "New & Improved". Too bad.
My late father in law knew and played with Rollins. Pianist Errol Parker. Playing on somewhere
I was proud to process your father-in-law's scores. https://archives.nypl.org/mus/22769
Cool. Thanks for the note and link. Cheers
Pour one out for Rollins - knock one back for Davis.
Listening to this on repeat all day today.
And to whom may I light up my bong to?
Satchmo
I spent the day listening to Sonny (and that 1954 Sonny-Miles session), and now I’m at the Bird’s Eye in Basel for Kris Davis, Wolfgang Muthspiel, and Nasheet Waits. From the liveliness of those recordings to the living experience of those carrying the tradition forward into the future.
A wonderful tribute. Sonny Rollins became known to me thanks to a homeless dude who crashed down at the warehouse where I worked. He had a record player and a stack of LPs that he would put on while he worked to earn his keep. One day, I came back from my route and heard this fantastic music. I was 27 and not heavily into jazz. He showed me the cover of Dizzy Gillespie Duets with Sonny Rollins and Sonny Stitt. He told me not to bother trying to find it, because it was out of print, but he was shocked when I returned the next day with a compact disc of the album. It was my first jazz acquisition and remains a favorite. Unlike Ted and some others, live jazz was never as important to me as playing the music at home. As I write this, I'm listening to "Bluing" featuring Sonny from the MIles Davis Complete Prestige Recordings. Sonny had a great life, a long life, a life that impacted so many people, including one rock and pop fan who just happened to hear his playing because of a vodka-guzzling guy with a rickety old turntable.
Got to know the news from this post.
Ted, I am both envious and grateful you got to see these legends perform live. I just wanted to let you know your work has deepened my love and appreciation for Jazz music because your words and ideas bridge the gap between what I know (quite little as I have no formal training in music) and what I feel (A deep and meaningful spectrum of emotions that only music like Jazz brings out). Thank you for sharing this post, and for the work you've been doing for decades.
Going to be listening some music by Miles and Sonny this week.
I was fortunate to hear Mr. Rollins at UCLA's Royce Hall a few years back. When he came on the stage with his horn he looked stooped and aged. Then he stepped to the front of the stage, stood up straight as an arrow and blew into his horn. Chills ran up my spine: it was one of the most beautiful sounds I'd ever heard. At the end of performance, the crowd went wild. When everyone finally calmed down, Mr. Rollins stepped up to the mic and with the great sincerity said something like, "Thank you very much. You know, we're just up here trying." He was widely considered the world's greatest living improviser at the time; he had humanity and humility to match. RIP, Mr. Rollins, many thanks for giving so much to those with ears to hear.
Nice, Ted. As a pointless aside, I realize after a life in music all my best musician friends have been jazzers…the intellects, the musical athletes, and they all got the joke.
I’m 80. I live in the UK. I’m lucky to have seen Miles at the Odeon, Hammersmith, London in October 1967. I live and play in Lancaster now and have met three other people who were at that concert. I have played with one, Chas Ambler, deceased and still play with Derek Johnson. The third guy, John, not a musician but one of an amazing piece of serendipity.
I saw Sonny Rollins in his 75th (?) year in London. He was ferocious and so inventive. So I am very fortunate.
Today I feel a little bereft. All I can say today is thank you. 🙏🏼
Sonny Rollins is a big reason why I gravitated toward the saxophone, specifically the tenor. He showed me the power of what the instrument could be. I think that’s why I took to it so quickly when I finally got my hands on one in the fourth grade. I had already grown up knowing what it should sound like thanks to Sonny.
I have a spiritual connection to both these men, and with Miles, it’s also personal. My grandfather, Larry Ramirez, was the chief designer for Holton and worked closely with Miles to design and develop several of his trumpets, particularly the colorful horns he played toward the end of his life, one of which is featured prominently on the cover of Doo Bop and another of which he’s buried with. To achieve the intense colors, my grandpa layered the horns with several coats of lacquer, giving them a darker, slightly muted tone that Miles loved. My grandpa passed away about a year and a half ago after a battle with Parkinson’s.
Hopefully, all three of them are rocking out at the great jam session in the sky.
But Ted! Ron Carter is still kickin’
A ranch kid started college at Montana State in 1956. Someone put their hi-fi in the dorm window and played Benny Goodman's 12-minute Sing, Sing, Sing at full volume. The next summer, my aunt, mother, and sister and I attended a jazz concert in Billings. I became excited and rushed backstage at the end. At 87 I have the program signed by Satchmo Louis Armstrong in a frame on my wall. Then came others over the years, Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Al Hirt, Pete Fountain (first saw him in Navy uniform on Lawrence Welk of all places). San Francisco, Chicago, New York, The Preservation Hall in New Orleans. Still listen to the Marsalis family, and one of my all-time favorites Sidney Bechet. We celebrate their lives, music, and hope for others to follow.
Thanks for your post.
I'm the guy who went to the clubs to watch the band play; to see how they were playing tunes I knew but didn't know how to play. Live music is its own experience. And much as I like and admire great recording production, there's nothing like seeing the music performed by artists that know how to inhabit their music, whether they wrote it or not. I'm old enough to have experienced a fair number of these artists (thank you HS jazz band) in person, feeling their energy, seeing their approach to performing and interacting-good or bad-with the audience. I'd always be bouncing home afterward.
I really am crying as I read this. I never saw Davis or Rollins, but my life is so much richer because of them and their peers.
I'm not crying because they're both dead. I'm crying because I'm 64, and I can see how debased our common artistic and media cultures have become.
Yes, it's hard to believe that this music was presented on the same technology that presents the vile Kardashians, the insipid Bachelor/Bachelorette shows, Honey Boo Boo and so much more that's even far worse than these examples.
I know what's happened to us, but I'll never understand it!
Thanks for the tears, Ted!
"Just jazz, plain and simple"--well how can I avoid thinking about Ed Beach--the great WRVR jazz broadcaster, his program titled simply, "Just Jazz." The man's voice resounded like a brass bass, and his selections set the tone. I don't know of another like him.
It's also worth remembering that in early New Orleans, no one thought of the new sound as "Jazz": It was "just music." It was the delivery that changed. PG
I saw Mr., Rollins with Brownie McGhee at North Central College in the '70s.
Yes - it WAS on TV ,along with SO much more. I was lucky & got to see a lot of it when much of it aired. Alas ... Satchmo ,Miles ,The Beatles ... BTS & EVEN ... wait for it - Taylor Swift. Yes ,even Her. Will be mostly forgotten in 100 /200 years. Barely remembered by most. Although a few will probably live on in unusual ways (if profitable for whomever Steals them).
Heck ,the way it is going nowadays in the never ending pursuit of "New & Better" - most so-called great artistes will be forgotten - pushed out by "New & Improved". Too bad.