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Description: Tenor sax improviser and one of jazz's true greats still at the height of his powers at 77.
Last pioneer of a golden age: 79-year-old jazz tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins
Start with a bang, they always say, and the organisers of the 2009 London Jazz Festival certainly achieved that objective. Jazz Voice, the Barbican’s opening-night cavalcade of nine singers and a 40-piece orchestra, got the crowd’s juices flowing immediately. The wisdom and originality of Sheila Jordan and Kurt Elling stood out but top man was trumpeter Guy Barker, who conducted and arranged almost the entire two-hour show.
How did he manage this? “For months they locked me in a darkened room with scraps of food and pencil sharpeners,” he said. Invited to summarise 50 years of jazz since 1959, the year many epic albums (Kind of Blue, Giant Steps, Mingus Ah Um) were recorded, he drew the threads together into a five-star suite that will be performed for years to come.
Last night’s headliners, the unique keyboard master Chick Corea and devastating banjo virtuoso Bela Fleck, earned five stars for the sheer brilliance of their small-group performances. “If it wasn’t for Chick I wouldn’t be playing this music at all,” said Fleck, who started in country music but now makes his banjo sound almost like a harpsichord.
No less amazing were his Flecktones. Howard Levy, a fine pianist, somehow produced clean neo-bop lines from a simple non-chromatic blues harmonica. Alongside him, and arguably the planet’s hippest rhythm section, were the Wooten brothers, Victor and Reggie, on bass guitar and “Synth-Axe drumitar”, a contraption that looked like a guitar but sounded like a drumkit. Hearing was believing.
Corea, reunited with his original Return to Forever colleagues, bassist Stanley Clarke and drummer Lenny White, produced a surprise of his own in the shape of British tenorist Tim Garland, who popped up for a heated version of Softly as in a Morning Sunrise and the riotous finale, Spain, with the Flecktones joining in.
Saturday’s star, the great Sonny Rollins, earned his five stars for still being the saxophone colossus he is at 79. Resplendent in a guardsman-red tunic, he bestrode the stage, his tenor a living extension of his crouching body, its huge sound filling the hall with his inimitable blend of dazzling complexity and sunny simplicity.
Don’t Stop the Carnival, his calypso hit, was inevitable, yet for his British fans Rollins also unearthed a Noel Coward classic, Someday I’ll Find You, and another rare old showtune, They Say that Falling in Love is Wonderful. Pretty wonderful too were his faithful guitarist Bobby Broom and new drummer Kobe Watkins, who swung like a street-sign in a hurricane. Like us, they seemed inspired by the presence of the last pioneer of a golden age when jazz flowered from entertainment into the artistry the wider world recognises today.
Until Sunday 22 Nov. Details online at londonjazzfestival.org.uk
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
As a long standing follower of Sonny Rollins i try to see him once every 2 years. this was the year and i took my nephew who has just begun down the road of high finance after uni and a place at a major europeen bank plus my son and his fiancee.
the only shock of the night is the very increased stoop SR has,the difficulty has in walking so shut your eyes and listen. Its all still there. may be he has compressed his lead and gives the backing team each an individual number to perform jointly as lead.
we thus gained fond memories of SR in the past and still undiminished in skill and range but also the benefit of listening to each of the backing team becoming the front man on an individual number. it lead to a tremendous wide ranging concert and SR was involved all the way non stop but rightly taking short breathers where they fronted.
The playing time was one hour and 43 minutes of which, part was broadcast live on the beeb increasing the audiance range beyond the Barbican, shame the old faithful of "Don't stop the Carnival" says it all and the radio listeners may have missed it.
M
- Martyn P Lewis, Holbeton,Plymouth,Devon
