Wow!!! Early Sonny Rollins video footage!
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Hehe man those videos are so out of sync. The Part 1 he takes the horn out of his mouth at the very end and the songs still going 
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Thanks, LiAm84. Those are great videos.
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I don't think I've every seen video that badly synced. It's horribly noticeable during the trading 4's with the drums.CountSpatula said:Hehe man those videos are so out of sync. The Part 1 he takes the horn out of his mouth at the very end and the songs still going
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Synch schmink. It's great to be able to see Sonny on film. Personally, I've seen little of him from this era so this is a treat. BTW it's fun to hear how he works quotes into his playing (take 3) ; Sheherazade in the opening and closing cadenzas, once the song got started and Don't Worry About Me later into the tune. The guy's a walking lexicon. Thanks for posting.
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Amen to that. He sounds gorgeous on that S20 -- and looks gorgeous too. Look at that embouchure! (Nice dimples!)gary said:
There have been a lot of Sonnys over the years. I like this Sonny a LOT.
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heres some more Sonny from David Sanborn's shoe Night Music. The quality is pretty decent.
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Thanks Liam
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Wow: I've only known these performances as bootlegs from Sonny's 1959 European tour -- I had no idea there was video of these. Very cool!
This for me is The Prime Sonny Rollins -- after this '59 tour, he took one of his legendary sabbaticals ... and he never played quite like this again.
Sonny has always been very self-deprecating about his playing, and around this time period some have said that he felt he needed to "catch up to" or somehow "address" what Coltrane and Ornette Coleman were doing. Branford Marsalis said in an interview somewhere that in a weird way Sonny never realized how great he was in this time period, and abandoned some aspects of this approach.
When he ended his sabbatical a couple of years later and came out with The Bridge, he was a different player -- still marvelous, but, for me, more "forced", more abstract, and less "natural."
I have some other boots from this '59 tour, and I treasure them, both as examples of impossibly great playing, casually devastating virtuosity, and as an end of an era.
Thanks for pointing these out, LiAm84!
This for me is The Prime Sonny Rollins -- after this '59 tour, he took one of his legendary sabbaticals ... and he never played quite like this again.
Sonny has always been very self-deprecating about his playing, and around this time period some have said that he felt he needed to "catch up to" or somehow "address" what Coltrane and Ornette Coleman were doing. Branford Marsalis said in an interview somewhere that in a weird way Sonny never realized how great he was in this time period, and abandoned some aspects of this approach.
When he ended his sabbatical a couple of years later and came out with The Bridge, he was a different player -- still marvelous, but, for me, more "forced", more abstract, and less "natural."
I have some other boots from this '59 tour, and I treasure them, both as examples of impossibly great playing, casually devastating virtuosity, and as an end of an era.
Thanks for pointing these out, LiAm84!
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More early Rollins - looks like the same period but playing a HR mouthpiece (Selmer Soloist short shank is my guess - see 5:34). Hmmm, but not the same Super 20 either. Was this the period of the alleged horn thefts that drove changes in setups or, just maybe, was he playing more than one horn during the same period? :shock:
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Nice! And awesome to see and hear Henry Grimes at such an early age.
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