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"Opening Night Concert"Sonny RollinsFriday, October 20 • 8pm“[Rollins] seems immense, summoning the entire history of jazz, capable of blowing a hole through a wall” —The New Yorker
Program NotesSonny Rollins is, by any measure, the quintessence of a jazz legend. A powerful tenor saxophonist, composer of jazz standards like “Oleo” and “St. Thomas,” and jaw-droppingly inventive improviser, the “Saxophone Colossus” has been a major force in jazz since his recording debut in 1949.
Rollins’ raw talent propelled the Harlem native into the New York scene. He cut sides with Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk in the early ‘50s before setting out as a bandleader on such classic albums as Saxophone Colossus, Way Out West, and A Night at the Village Vanguard. A restless spirit and ardent perfectionist, Rollins was never content with past achievements. Frustrated by what he felt were his limitations on the saxophone, he took a hiatus in 1959, practicing his horn on the Williamsburg Bridge between Manhattan and Brooklyn. He returned in 1962 with another classic album, appropriately entitled The Bridge, took another hiatus in the late sixties, and has been recording and touring since coming back on the scene in 1972. Rollins explained the importance of stepping away from the jazz world in a PopMatters interview: “During my life in music I’ve always sought a private place. I find that when I’m out playing in the country by myself there’s something there that’s very spiritual or meditative.”
An N.E.A. Jazz Master and annual winner of countless awards (most recently he won “Jazz Musician of the Year” from the Jazz Journalists Association and topped the DownBeat Critics Poll in the “Tenor Saxophonist” and “Jazz Artist”categories), Rollins still is not content to let his awe-inspiring career achievements define him. His latest album, Sonny, Please, is a powerful reminder of Rollins’ searching creativity and dedication to jazz. His performance this evening is a perfect inauguration of the 24th season of the San Francisco Jazz Festival. As the Boston Globe noted: “Any concert by Sonny Rollins stands as living history.” Personnel:
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