Saxophone Colossus

by Gary Phillips

“I am convinced that all art has the desire to leave the ordinary.” Sonny Rollins

A tall man, age and I suppose arthritis and who knows what else has made it hard for him to walk and he stoops as he stalked about the stage, seemingly about to teeter over. I’ve seen David “Fathead” Newman (who’s played with the Rolling Stones), Archie Shepp, hell even Big Jay McNeely, but in all these years this was the first time I’ve seen the 80-year-old Sonny Rollins live. Hunched over as he walked, once he stopped he stood straight and wailed on that tenor sax of his living up to the title of the documentary about him, Saxophone Colossus. It was also my first time inside Disney Hall this past Sunday evening, and do have to hand it to Frank Gehry; the joint is quite striking in its layout and acoustics.

Early on after a couple of initial numbers in his hour and a half set that included a drummer, conga player and bass and lead guitar players, he gave the name of the first song he played and joked he couldn’t remember the name of the second one he’d just played the hell out of. It didn’t matter - that cat must have more music memory seeping out of him that sweat. No wonder he’s earned two grammys, been inducted into the Academy of Achievement (which sounds like one of those secret organizations shaping out world behind the scenes in a Marvel Comics storyline), and been awarded the Austrian Cross of Honor.

The late jazz critic and KBCA DJ, for those of you old enough to remember the once jazz radio station here in L.A., once wrote of Theodore Walter Rollins in some liner notes, “The tenor saxophone, perhaps more than any other instrument, has given birth to several generations of styles, all varying widely in their approach to the niceties of tone, phrasing, dynamics. [Sonny] is one tenor saxophonist who illustrates all the above observations.”

Dig.

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