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.
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.
"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 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.
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.
I so appreciate your hard work. A Sunday concert and one tonight both of the music of Miles with a film at Vancouver VIFF. Saw Sonny play at NO Jazz Fest long ago. So brilliant that my teeth felt the music. I have just forwarded your remembrance of both to Vancouver Coastal Jazz with a suggestion that they circulate it. As with too many of the arts they struggle especially in the face of local World Cup funding. Again thanx.
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.
It's days like today I wish radio was what it was when I was a kid. I'd anticipate Chuck Niles’ show; all the calls to the station; all the writers and musicians giving their tributes; the announcement of a day dedicated to his music. I hope you touch on this aspect of the culture that we've lost. I know for sure if I was back in NYC, and Leonard Lopate was alive and still had his show, a lot of NYC would be tuned in.
In the spirit of your piece on Sonny's passing as a representation of the Jazz of a bygone era, I was reminded of this lead-in quotation to a recent post to my Substack blog: “... you don’t learn jazz in school. You don’t learn it; you have to do it. You have to go out and learn jazz by playing. Jazz is a way of life, and you have to learn about it on the street, so to speak. But the training comes in by giving you the tools to work with.” - Paul Horn, alto sax, flute and clarinet
You have reminded me of Paul Horn. In 1972 I moved to Victoria following graduation from university in Montreal. Victoria is a small island city in British Columbia. The adjustment was a shock. One of the killer whales penned for view in a public marina had stopped eating for long periods. Paul Horn began to arrive each morning and play to her. I sat on the hill and listened and watched on the hill above them. Both the whale and me too recovered.
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!
My late father in law knew and played with Rollins. Pianist Errol Parker. Playing on somewhere
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.
Pour one out for Rollins - knock one back for Davis.
Listening to this on repeat all day today.
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.
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.
"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 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.
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.
I so appreciate your hard work. A Sunday concert and one tonight both of the music of Miles with a film at Vancouver VIFF. Saw Sonny play at NO Jazz Fest long ago. So brilliant that my teeth felt the music. I have just forwarded your remembrance of both to Vancouver Coastal Jazz with a suggestion that they circulate it. As with too many of the arts they struggle especially in the face of local World Cup funding. Again thanx.
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.
It's days like today I wish radio was what it was when I was a kid. I'd anticipate Chuck Niles’ show; all the calls to the station; all the writers and musicians giving their tributes; the announcement of a day dedicated to his music. I hope you touch on this aspect of the culture that we've lost. I know for sure if I was back in NYC, and Leonard Lopate was alive and still had his show, a lot of NYC would be tuned in.
RIP Newk.
In the spirit of your piece on Sonny's passing as a representation of the Jazz of a bygone era, I was reminded of this lead-in quotation to a recent post to my Substack blog: “... you don’t learn jazz in school. You don’t learn it; you have to do it. You have to go out and learn jazz by playing. Jazz is a way of life, and you have to learn about it on the street, so to speak. But the training comes in by giving you the tools to work with.” - Paul Horn, alto sax, flute and clarinet
You have reminded me of Paul Horn. In 1972 I moved to Victoria following graduation from university in Montreal. Victoria is a small island city in British Columbia. The adjustment was a shock. One of the killer whales penned for view in a public marina had stopped eating for long periods. Paul Horn began to arrive each morning and play to her. I sat on the hill and listened and watched on the hill above them. Both the whale and me too recovered.
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!
Beautifully said and indeed a strange turning of the page today.