There are few musicians as temperamental, profound, infuriating, and transcendent as Sonny Rollins. Continuing a career that began 50 years ago (!), Rollins has retired many, many times, despairing of having anything new to say, only to come back and not only have something new to say, but to say it in a way no one dreamed was possible. I realize it is highly presumptuous of me - Rollins constant self-immolating criticism is based on a desire to always be better, and who can argue with that in a musician? - but, you know what? Shut up and play!
First, from 1963, here he is with Don Cherry on trumpet:
There are times when Rollins will just riff, apparently, not really moved. There are times, however, when he takes whatever he has and makes something not just beautiful, but profound out of it. Here he is in 1982, with "My One and Only Love":
Here he is, from ten years ago, playing a song called "Global Warming" in Finland:
I managed to do a post on Sonny Rollins without putting up "St. Thomas"! I should be congratulated for that.
