The man is the hardest swinging jazz tenor of all times, I think.
Only if you don't have a musical personality to add your own take. Not trying to be contentious, but that clip is all about musical personality.. Sonny personality. It's great to acknowledge that. But I thought Jazz was all about doing your own thingYup! This is as good as this artform gets.
That's the REAL Sonny. To be frank, some of his recent albums seem boring to me ; Sonny is THE man for great live sessions. I may have seen him live about 10 times and it's always been a gas. I even heard him in Antibes some months after his wife's death ; brought the audience to tears in an unforgettable concert.This clip captures what I love about him. It's like the Jazz Icon DVD, but really stretching out. It reminds me of the 1959 live bootleg from Aix-En-Provence: it's just a trio, and it's noisy enough that it almost sounds like a house party, with Kenny Clarke (!!) on drums. It's *thrilling* playing. Meanwhile, on one of the tunes he trades fours with KC *FOREVER* -- just crazy long -- and when the whole thing's over you hear him say to Kenny "Aw, man, I thought we were gonna stretch!"
Kelly, one comment under the clip mentions as possible rhythm section Kenny Drew on piano, Niels Henning on bass and Tootie Heath on drums (late 60's recording in Denmark).
I love trying to figure stuff like this out!But if I were to guess I would say maybe this is material from Ronnie Scott's in London from January 1965. If that's so, it would be Rick Laird on bass, Ronnie Stephenson on drums, and Stan Tracey on piano.
The Ronnie Scott's material, unlike the Jazz Icons stuff, was not professionally recorded and has all kinds of sonic imperfections, as in this particular track in which we can hear what sounds like someone practicing clarinet in the background, probably bleeding through from a recording on the other side of the tape (most obvious during the bass solo). The Ronnie Scott's stuff has been issued on bootlegs, including at least one other version of "Four" that's similar in length and approach. Also the bass player does not sound to me like NHOP, although I wouldn't want to put any money on my ability to differentiate between bassists sight unseen. My guess is that this is from a copy of a copy of the Ronnie Scott tapes.
Anyway... yes, yes, yes, absolutely marvelous stuff. Sonny is a motherlode of inspiration.