Sonny Rollins on "St. Thomas" (Live)
For Halloween this year, I don't have anything particularly spooky to share with you all, unless the following counts: one of Sonny Rollins's last recorded solos prior to his 3-year recording sabbatical (the "Bridge period"). As the Guardian wrote about these 1959 live recordings from Stockholm, we hear Sonny at a crossroads in his career. He is heavyweight champion of the tenor saxophone, but Trane, Ornette, and several other saxophonists have emerged to contest his singular position in the international jazz spotlight. With Henry Grimes on bass and Pete LaRoca on drums, this is some of the most rhythmically driving, loose-sounding Sonny—even considering all of the incredible pre-Bridge material.
I'd heard some of this material before: there are some videos of Sonny from around this time (including a blazing "It Don't Mean a Thing" with Grimes and Joe Harris on drums), and Donny McCaslin had showed me the "There Will Never Be a Never You" from the album where Sonny memorably plays parts of the head up a half-step to great effect, but I finally followed up on checking out this record after Miguel asked me to transcribe this solo at the beginning of the semester. Maybe it's the ghost of post-Bridge Sonny, of the exploratory Sonny Meets Hawk!, Our Man in Jazz, and so on, that looms in the background of these tracks from our historical vantage point. There's something frightening listening to these amazing tracks and knowing that there's so much more to come in the years afterwards:
.png "Sonny Rollins \"St. Thomas\" Live in Stockholm 1959 — Transcription (1)")
%2B9.png "Sonny Rollins \"St. Thomas\" Live in Stockholm 1959 — Transcription (9)")
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I'm sitting on a whole lot of transcriptions right now, both new and various stages of old. I've been doing some in-depth transcribing of "Dizzy Atmosphere" from Dean Benedetti's March 31, 1948 recordings at the 3 Deuces; more on that soon.
In other news, the new chordless quartet, Earprint, made its live début earlier this week at The Harvard Advocate. GOP also reconvened for the occasion, and I was more than pleased with how the music unfolded. I'm hoping to book more shows in the near future, but in case you missed it, here are some snapshots from both sets.
I'd heard some of this material before: there are some videos of Sonny from around this time (including a blazing "It Don't Mean a Thing" with Grimes and Joe Harris on drums), and Donny McCaslin had showed me the "There Will Never Be a Never You" from the album where Sonny memorably plays parts of the head up a half-step to great effect, but I finally followed up on checking out this record after Miguel asked me to transcribe this solo at the beginning of the semester. Maybe it's the ghost of post-Bridge Sonny, of the exploratory Sonny Meets Hawk!, Our Man in Jazz, and so on, that looms in the background of these tracks from our historical vantage point. There's something frightening listening to these amazing tracks and knowing that there's so much more to come in the years afterwards:
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C
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In other news, the new chordless quartet, Earprint, made its live début earlier this week at The Harvard Advocate. GOP also reconvened for the occasion, and I was more than pleased with how the music unfolded. I'm hoping to book more shows in the near future, but in case you missed it, here are some snapshots from both sets.
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