![]() ![]() ![]() Throughout his career, Rollins has been notoriously self-critical. Rollins’ wife (and later manager) Lucille gets significant credit for building up the saxophonist’s later career, and by the time Levy tells of her death, he has shown numerous examples of how Lucille’s contributions made a difference, and why Sonny was so devastated by her passing. Levy balances this material with incisive critiques of Rollins’ many recordings, and he also offers as much information as he can regarding live performances (even those that were not taped). Pieces of new information can be found on nearly every page of this book, and there is a genuine sense of awe at the sheer number of great musicians who crossed paths with Rollins. Virtually all of the historical information in the previous paragraph is a result of Levy’s groundbreaking research. Finally, in November 1955, Rollins was invited to join the Clifford Brown- Max Roach Quintet while the band was in residency at the Bee Hive, a popular South Side jazz club. He was homeless for portions of his stay, but he eventually landed at the YMCA, where he practiced with a 17-year-old trumpeter from Memphis named Booker Little. During the 2 ½ years before their paths crossed again, Rollins would serve another short sentence at Rikers and then move to Chicago to restart his life and career. Rollins was a visitor at the session, but ironically, he did not speak to Brown. He met pianist Elmo Hope while incarcerated, and their collaborative tune “Carvin’ the Rock” was premiered on Clifford Brown’s first recording session as a leader. He picked up his drug habit soon after graduation from high school and served time at Rikers Island in New York. He led a band in high school with Jackie McLean and Art Taylor as fellow members, and he studied with Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell before making his first records in 1949. His regime of long practice sessions began when he was a boy, and he would play inside a closet to avoid disturbing the neighbors. The young Rollins learned the basics of saxophone at the New York School of Music but learned about jazz on his own through recordings and live concerts. Covering Rollins’ birth (and his family tree) through his first sabbatical, Levy’s text is loaded with fascinating details. The first half of the book is the most enlightening. From these few lines of cryptic biography, Aidan Levy has written a 700+ page book “ Saxophone Colossus” (Hachette) which fills in many essential details about Rollins’ life and career. We knew that he was born in New York to West Indian parents, that his earliest recordings were with Babs Gonzales, Bud Powell, and Miles Davis, that he kicked a drug habit and stayed straight due to the influence of Clifford Brown, that he unintentionally created the first recordings of thematic improvisation, that he pushed himself to the edge of the avant-garde before retreating on a sabbatical, during which time he practiced on the Williamsburg bridge, that he emerged from that period as a fierce improviser, that he visited India on another sabbatical, and that he embraced fusion in his final decades. Yet for all this acclaim, very little has been published about Rollins’ personal life. His albums (some dating back 70 years) still sell, and his solos are studied by jazz musicians all over the globe. In the last decade of his performing career, he was held in the highest esteem by his fellow musicians, and he commanded premium fees for concert appearances. Sonny Rollins is rightly considered “the world’s greatest living jazz improviser” even though he has been unable to play his tenor saxophone for several years. ![]()
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