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The rhythmic style of Sonny Rollins: Are there new players like that?

9K views 63 replies 33 participants last post by  LiAm84 
#1 · (Edited)
Well, this turned into yet another contentious circus. I'm out.
 
#48 ·
Well, it's one thing to throw around encomia and superlatives, and it's another to post videos of great current players, but I think the original question was about Rollins' rhythmic sense.

Even at his time there were few players who would routinely play such rhythmically varied lines. And I'm talking about the greats. Parker's rhythmic patterns, if you study his transcribed solos, tend to be consistent and recognizable. Trane had certain types of rhythmic patterns he would play predictably, though the nature of them changed depending on what he was working on at a given period in his life. Stitt - very exciting player, but you can predict there'll be long strings of eighth notes with a couple of very characteristic rhythmic patterns to terminate a line. And so on.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying these great players were "formulaic" or that they weren't creating at the very highest level. But one thing that makes Rollins distinctive is the extreme variety of rhythmic patterns he uses, and the way he will so often play something unexpected.

Most of the great current players I hear tend toward long lines with a lot of eighth notes, a driving forward feel, creating a lot of excitement - but I don't hear a lot of that dry, every bar dramatically different, Rollins rhythm.
 
#50 ·
Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying these great players were "formulaic" or that they weren't creating at the very highest level. But one thing that makes Rollins distinctive is the extreme variety of rhythmic patterns he uses, and the way he will so often play something unexpected.

Most of the great current players I hear tend toward long lines with a lot of eighth notes, a driving forward feel, creating a lot of excitement - but I don't hear a lot of that dry, every bar dramatically different, Rollins rhythm.
I just recently went back and listened to Chris Potter's 2002 album "Traveling Mercies". Check it out. I'm not exaggerating when I say that there wasn't a single "run" (defined as a set of more than 8 rapid equal-length notes, such as 8ths, 16ths, triplets, etc.) on the entire album!
 
#60 ·
I think if you're talking rhythm, Zoot is on par with or even better than Sonny and Joe. Probably not in terms of his ideas and lines, but definitely in his sense of time, which was non pareil.

I saw Sonny live, but not Joe. But if I had a chance to go back in time to see anyone I missed (at least on tenor), it would probably be Zoot.
 
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