A Portrait of Sonny Rollins

Today is Sonny Rollins' 80th birthday. In addition to his much-anticipated concert at New York's Beacon Theater this Friday night, a new coffee-table book has just arrived that features lush color photographs by John Abbott and engaging text by Bob Blumenthal. Saxophone Colossus: A Portrait of Sonny Rollins (Abrams) is about as close as you will get to Sonny short of actually meeting or spending time with him. Through the nearly 100 images and probing text, you wind up with a fine sense of who Sonny is as a jazz superstar and as a person. Though Sonny didn't authorize the book, he also didn't stand in its way or hold anything against the authors for proceeding. [All photos of Sonny Rollins in this post by John Abbott]

As a musician, Sonny continues to dominate jazz 61 years after his first recording. Off stage, Sonny is as graceful and as kind as can be. This hardly means he's a soft touch. He isn't. Sonny is about as dainty as a lion tearing across a field. His voice booms with power, energy and excitement, and his thought process is equally vivid and dynamic. When Sonny talks, he develops a point out loud, searching and circling an idea for just the right articulation. When he finds the words that best sum up his view, he goes right in for the kill.

But Sonny also is a gentleman whose manner is as regal as his jazz-world status. This book captures all of these qualities along with his artistic commitment and rich sense of humor—and the book's images and content treat him with enormous respect.

Few photographers have had John Abbott's behind-the-scenes access over the past 15 years. John's jazz images have appeared on the covers of more than 250 albums and magazines, most notably JazzTimes. The pages of this book are filled with close-ups and candids of Sonny, leaving you with a fine feel for the subject. [Photo of John Abbott by Graham Morrison]

Like jazz photographers of the 1940s and 1950s, John comes at Sonny from two directions. His camera is fully aware that Sonny is a legend who needs to be celebrated in a grand way. But John also clearly is a patient photographer, waiting and watching for just the right moments that will reveal something new about Sonny, something previously unsaid. And he succeeds, page after page. No two photos of Sonny capture the same mood or expression.

Bob Blumenthal [pictured] has won two Grammy awards for jazz album liner notes and is a former contributor to the Boston Globe and Boston Phoenix. He has interviewed Sonny multiple times, and his writing here is first rate, never dwelling on worn-thin history or overdoing adulation. Instead, Blumenthal puts Sonny in perspective, explaining tersely and carefully why he's special and essential.

One of my favorite images in the book is of Sonny at a rehearsal in September 1998. Dressed all in black, he's sitting in a folding chair with his saxophone off to the side, wearing dark glasses, with his right leg stretched out while his left is bent slightly. Everyone in the band is watching him intently. The juxtaposition of Sonny in another zone while everyone else is in the here and now is fascinating. This is Sonny at work—naturally cool, completely in control and thoroughly magical.

Of course, it's impossible to pick a true favorite image, since each photo individually is a fragment of the larger portrait expressed by the entire book. Only when these images are absorbed collectively do you have a firm sense of who Sonny is, what makes him tick and how hard he works to create music that's new and exciting.

Going through the book for the first time, I stopped after the third page, realizing that something was missing: Sonny's music. So I pulled three albums that I thought would go best with Abbott's images and Blumenthal's appraisal. The albums I chose were The Sonny Rollins Quartet with Thelonious Monk (1954), Newk's Time (1957) and Alfie: Original Music From the Score (1966). You may have albums you prefer over mine. My point here is this book requires Sonny's music to fully enhance and appreciate the words and images. 

Sonny never ceases to amaze, and Saxophone Colossus brings all of his many qualities into fine relief.

JazzWax pages: John Abbott and Bob Blumenthal's Saxophone Colossus: A Portrait of Sonny Rollins (Abrams) can be found here.

Comments

[Marla]

Hi Marc,

Thanks once again for this posting and for directing us to your fascinating article in the Wall Street Journal. Like you, I'm a huge fan of jazz history, especially when it comes to the most famous NYC jazz venues throughout the years and the history of musicians' lives and how the two intertwine. I felt as if I was in the car with you and Sonny!

I had the opportunity/good fortune (lucky girl) to meet Sonny briefly after his concert at Symphony Hall in Boston and in the 2 minutes or so of Sonny holding my hand and speaking with me, I felt both the warmth and the power of one of the greatest musicians of our time.

I'm looking forward to the book you describe, too, and I will be celebrating Sonny's birthday, too, up here in New England.

Thank you!
Marla

[Doug Zielke]

The book is a gem! The vivid color and black and white images by Mr. Abbott, complimented by the excellent lithography, just grab your eyes. And is there a more photogenic subject than Sonny? If you have never seen Mr. Rollins in live performance, the pictures will take you part way there.

Bob Blumenthal has taken a somewhat unusual course with the text. He treats each cut of the historic Saxophone Colossus album as an individual chapter. I found it very interesting to read a chapter, and then play the cut from my well-worn LP. His observations shed a new light on my understanding and enjoyment of the music.

I have to take friendly issue with Marc Myers who called this work a "coffee table" book. It's far too wonderful and informative to lay around gathering dust and stains! Indeed, it's become one of the most prized jazz books in my personal library.

[Richard Mitnick]

On the DVD "Saxophone Colossus" is most of Sonny's composition "Concerto for Tenor Saxophone and Orchestra". I wanted to buy the music, it was very nice. I cannot find that it was ever recorded in its entirety. Anybody know of a recording?

[I Witness]

Colossus of Roads and Man of Bronze, whose face indeed is as the Son, holding aloft his mighty axe, the solo warrior challenging the very heavens while outlasting mere musical mortals. To disturb his hegemonic reign would require an earthquake at least...

Okay, so I wax foolishly poetic, reaching for imaginary parallels. The Saxophone Colossus deserves nothing less. Long may he guard the harbor of Jazz.

[Brew]

Happy Birthday, Sonny Rollins!

You've inspired all of us, with your melody & rhythm, your inimitable sound, and phrasing, your wit, and your humor (the cover to "Way Out West"), and your great compositions which all became standards: Oleo, Pent-Up-House, St. Thomas, Airegin; your "approach" to freedom in (jazz) music (and life!) like "Sonny Meets Hawk", or "East Broadway Run Down", or "Our Man In Jazz" -- timeless music, inspiring sounds which made the world a better place … At least for us musicians.

Your talent of digging up odd material, songs the (jazz) world had almost forgotten until you interpreted them freshly, as if they were brand new melodies, even as if they were *yours* at all:

I'm An Old Cowhand, Just In Time (simply beautiful!), My Reverie, The Last Time I Saw Paris, I've Told Every Little Star etc. etc. -- You made them your own, just like Bird did it with My Old Flame, or This Time The Dream's On Me … As soon as we play it, we're influenced by your versions. This happens quasi automatically.

I've heard you in person in Cologne's Philharmonie. Your sonorous, biting, ever present sound filled the air, and gave us so much joy … And something we had to work on with our own horns.

Thank you, Sonny Rollins, for being here. Stay happy, and healthy, and as humorous as you are.

All swinging' best,

Bruno Leicht, a fellow musician from Germany