Happy birthday to the great Sonny Rollins who was born on this day in 1930. Known as the “Saxophone Colossus,” Rollins is among the finest improvisers on the tenor saxophone to appear on the instrument since the mid-1950s.
Rollins is a master of intelligent and provocative spontaneity combined with an excellent technique. He displayed an interest in unaccompanied saxophone improvisation and manipulations of tone color long before such techniques became common in modern jazz.
In a seven-decade career, he has recorded over sixty albums as a leader. A number of his compositions, including “St. Thomas”, “Oleo”, “Doxy”, and “Airegin”, have become jazz standards.
Here, he is performing live at Opus 40, a sculpture park in New York, 1986. This concert was remembered for a dramatic incident that involved Rollins misguiding a mid-solo jump from the rock stage and landing heavily on the stone surface six feet below. After a brief and tense pause Rollins continued to play while lying on is back even though it was later learned that he’d broken his heel in the fall.
This footage is from the documentary “Saxophone Colossus” by Robert Mugge. You can watch it from the link in our bio.
"If we put 1/4 of the time into trying to understand our spirituality that we put into wanting to grow more wealthy, we would find some of the incredible things occurring in our universe that we need to be aware of."
Happy heavenly birthday to:
Alice Coltrane
I re-listened to the full EP the other night and took the long way home to experience it in its totality. No skips. Not one bad song on this beautiful piece of work frrrrrr
Yooo shout out to all the musicians of the world! The ones who can read music or the ones who play by ear..all with passion and from the heart, with so much relentless dedication! I really am obsessed! Just LOVE YALL!!!!😭🥹🤎😭🤎🥹