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Sonny Rollins, Colossus

So I've been listening closely to Saxophone Colossus for the first time in a long time, and I'm remembering what I like about Sonny Rollins¹. His playful, yet commanding presence is gripping. It grips me from the opening notes of the opening track, "St. Thomas."

Then, after getting a hint of this from aworks, today I receive my copy of this week's New Yorker, and there's a profile written by Stanley Crouch² that traces Rollins' life through triumph, despair, rebirth, periods of artistic success, and periods of self-doubt. I realize that my only cds of Rollins as a bandleader are of his early recordings, all during the 50's. According to Crouch, some of Rollins' most innovative music occurred in his return from self-imposed exile on The Bridge, his soundtrack for the movie Alfie, and his free jazz treatment of several standards in On Impulse!, all recorded during the 60's.

Crouch has faint praise for anything Rollins has recorded since then, but he does pique my interest by praising his live performances, in which Rollins, "when he's on,...seems immense, summoning the entire history of jazz, capable of blowing a hole through the wall."

All of this has me scrambling for my mouse, ready to click on the TicketMaster link to his upcoming concert at the Rochester Jazz Fest. Which, really, there's no excuse for having waited this long.