This is a book that belongs on the shelf of not just jazz aficionados, but any music lover. The main focus, - as would be the main focus of Sonny Rollins- is the music itself. While Levy touches on these topics-with clear explanations, the book itself does not fall into a treatise on social justice or political will, it merely points out the issues at hand that informed the jazz of the day, and how it encouraged or detracted from the music. I grew up in a household that loved jazz- and early on knew who Monk, Coletrane and Ornette were, but I have to say the name Sonny Rollins was often tossed around as if he was kind of an afterthought, "Of course Sonny Rollins was there." The book expanded my knowledge about Rollins and the development of modern jazz and also my knowledge of the political/racial climate through Sonny's personal experiences. I am not quite sure how he did it, but he seems to review almost every performance (clearly he couldn't have) sharing all sorts of small details that make the scene come alive for the reader.Īs I read, I found myself going to look up different performers, and actual performances on youtube just to see exactly what the author was writing about. Part jazz oral history told in the musicians’ own words, part chronicle of one man’s quest for social justice and spiritual enlightenment, this is the definitive biography of one of the most enduring and influential artists in jazz and American history.Įxcellent read! Excellent overview of the music of Sonny Rollins!Īiden Levy has done a very thorough review of the life and music of Sonny Rollins. The story of Sonny Rollins-innovative, unpredictable, larger than life-is the story of jazz itself, and Sonny’s own narrative is as timeless and timely as the art form he represents. He returned to performing from 1971 until his retirement in 2012. In 1968, he left again to study at an ashram in India. In 1959, Rollins took a two-year sabbatical from recording and performing, practicing up to 16 hours a day on the Williamsburg Bridge. He served two sentences on Rikers Island and won his battle with heroin addiction. Yet his meteoric rise to fame was not without its challenges. An icon in his own right, he recorded Tenor Madness, featuring John Coltrane Way Out West Freedom Suite, the first civil rights-themed album of the hard bop era A Night at the Village Vanguard and the 1956 classic Saxophone Colossus. A child of the Harlem Renaissance, Rollins’ precocious talent landed him on the bandstand and in the recording studio with Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie, or playing opposite Billie Holiday. His seven-decade career has been well documented, but the backstage life of the man once called “the only jazz recluse” has gone largely untold-until now.īased on more than 200 interviews with Rollins himself, family members, friends, and collaborators, as well as Rollins’ extensive personal archive, Saxophone Colossus is the comprehensive portrait of this legendary saxophonist and composer, civil rights activist and environmentalist. A bridge from bebop to the avant-garde, he is a lasting link to the golden age of jazz, pictured in the iconic “Great Day in Harlem” portrait. Known as the “Saxophone Colossus,” he is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest jazz improvisers of all time, winning Grammys, the Austrian Cross of Honor, Sweden’s Polar Music Prize and a National Medal of Arts. The long-awaited first full biography of legendary jazz saxophonist and composer Sonny Rollins Sonny Rollins has long been considered an enigma.
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