CiTR

Today is is the 85th Birthday of Sonny Rollins, who was born in New York City on September 7,1930. Sonny of course is one of the major figures in the development of post-war Jazz music and without a doubt one of the most important saxophonists in Jazz history. His story is very evident in books and the internet and some wonderful interviews can be seen on iTunes that were conducted by Bret Primack and ALL of them are worth seeing. Tpnight's Jazz feature is one of Sonny's very best and it's called "Newk's Time" "Newk is one of Sonny's nicknames as he resembled the famous baseball player Don Newcomb. It was done on a day when Sonny didn't feel intimidated by the recording studio as he never liked recording in the studio. He picked some of his favourite musicians to do this informal date. They had to be the best as there were no plans and no rehearsals until the studio. Everything went down in first takes, save for some false starts. The players Sonny used were pianist Wynton Kelly, bassist Doug Watkins and drum great Philly Joe Jones.The tunes were a few lesser played standards, one by Miles Davis and one by trumpeter and pal Kenny Dorham and one great blues by Sonny called "Blues for Philly Joe". Only 34 plus minutes but one great recording finished in about 1 and 1/2 hours! Happy Birthday Mr. Rollins.