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| Sonny Rollins at the Kimmel Center Sonny Rollins brings his legendary tenor sax talents to the Kimmel Center's Verizon Hall on Friday, December 1, 2006 as part of the Mellon Jazz Fridays Series. A pioneer in improvisational jazz, Rollins has continually sought to explore the many spiritual facets of his life through music. He has demonstrated his richly textured tenor saxophone skills alongside jazz greats such as Miles Davis and John Coltrane. A 2006 Grammy-Award winner for Best Jazz Instrumental Solo for "Why Was I Born?", Rollins was also recently inducted into the Academy of Achievement at the International Achievement Summit in Los Angeles (June 2006). Rollins will perform classic jazz selections alongside songs from his newly released CD, Sonny, Please, his first recording on his new record label, Doxy Records. Sonny, Please captures the workings of his band's recent return from a sold-out Japanese tour and the title refers to his late wife Lucille's favorite expression. Born in Harlem, New York to parents native to the Virgin Islands, Sonny Rollins, originally named Walter Theodore Rollins, gravitated to the tenor saxophone in high school, inspired in particular by Coleman Hawkins. By the time he was out of school, Rollins was already working with big-name musicians such as Bud Powell, Fats Navarro, and Roy Haynes. In 1951 he debuted as a leader on Prestige; his affiliation with that label also produced classics such as Saxophone Colossus, Worktime, and Tenor Madness (with John Coltrane). In early 1956, until he went out on his own permanently as a leader in the summer of 1957, Rollins played in the Max Roach-Clifford Brown Quintet, one of the most definitive hard-bop ensembles of its day. Often with his own pianoless trio of bass, drums and saxophone, Rollins then entered a tremendously fertile period during which he recorded major works such as A Night at the Village Vanguard, Way Out West, and Freedom Suite. In 1959, Rollins took the first of his legendary sabbaticals from music. Living on Manhattan's Lower East Side, he was often spotted on the nearby Williamsburg Bridge at night, deep in a rigorous practice regimen, wanting to study harmony without the environment of smoke, drugs and alcohol. When Rollins returned to performing in 1961, he recorded The Bridge with Jim Hall and Bob Cranshaw, led a quartet with trumpeter Don Cherry and drummer Billy Higgins, and recorded with his idol Coleman Hawkins. He also received a Grammy nomination for his score for the popular film Alfie. At decade's end he undertook one final hiatus, studying Zen Buddhism in Japan and yoga in India. While living in an ashram, he considered leaving music permanently in order to pursue spiritual studies, but a teacher persuaded him that music was his spiritual path, and an uplifting force for good. In 1972, with the support of his wife Lucille, Rollins returned to performing and recording, signing with Milestone and releasing Next Album. His 35 year association with the Berkeley-based label produced two dozen albums in various settings with working groups to all-star ensembles, from a solo recital to tour recordings with the Milestone Jazzstars. He won his first performance Grammy for This Is What I Do (2000), and his second for 2005's Without a Song (The 9/11 Concert), in the Best Jazz Instrumental Solo category (for "Why Was I Born"). In addition, Sonny received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences in 2004. In 2005, Rollins decided to establish Doxy Records, his own record label, named after a famous composition of his that had first been recorded by Miles Davis 50 years earlier. write your comments about the article :: © 2006 Jazz News :: home page |