Sonny Rollins 4tet Northampton MA 1982

The Academy of Music theatre, April 09,
Sonny Rollins (s),
Pat Metheny (g),
Bob Cranshaw (b),
Al Foster (drs).
Audience recording.
Photo: XDr.
00:00 ... 12:19 ... 18:00 McGhee 26:50 Coconut Bread 33:32 Here You Come Again 41:41 Illusions 47:18 Penny Saved 58:53 Don't Stop The Carnival 1:07:04 Alfie's Theme/ I'll Be Seeing You.

[@christophermadsen4177]

So cool! Never heard Rollins with this band before

[@davidstubbs8896]

The first song is 'No Problem' (the first and title song of the 1982 album). 'Coconut Bread', 'Here You Come Again', 'Illusions' and 'Penny Saved' were also from the "No Problem' album.
From 1962, until he died in 2016, Bob Cranshaw played bass on almost every Rollins album. Rollins hasn't recorded anything since 'Road Shows Vol. IV' in 2016. RIP Bob Cranshaw.

[@doublereverseshoe]

ur wrong buddy he rerealesed aposhumous album

[@ratiug100]

Pat 2:00 35:00

[@rinahall]

I listened to a 10h French podcast radio show on S0nny R0llins (yes, 10x 1h, covering 1951-2001!!!). A torture, but I'm like that, I dive into an artist and I listen to everything, or almost. To have my own opinion. My opinion of R0llins is that he seems very overrated to me.
As a player/improviser
First of all as a player/improviser, he does not seem to me better than Johnny Griffin, Sonny Stitt, Roland Kirk, Phil Woods, Lateef, Pharoah Sanders, Hank Mobley... but enjoys a much greater notoriety... and unjustified in my opinion. Ok he plays well, but not better in my opinion than the musicians above. Listen to Eternal Triangle which puts R0llins and Stitt together. Here they are VERY evenly matched technique wise but it is R0llins who is the more famous today. There is a lot of study done on R0llins' solos and they are generally accepted to be examples of strong overall thematic construction and development. This somewhat implies that others just play randomly. I'm not entirely convinced by that argument. If you like it, its a strength, if you think its an excuse for repetition, you'd think not.
As a composer
At the level of the composition, he did not compose anything, everyone knows that his hit ''St Thomas'' is a Caribbean folklore already recorded by Randy Weston in 1955 under the title ''Fire Down There''. St Thomas is an example of cultural transference. It is infact originally The Lincolnshire Poacher. An old english folk tune. It was taken to the Carribean presumably on the slave ships but possibly even earlier by the pirate ships (appropriate given its title). It gets transmuted into a Carribean Folk tune and then R0llins recalls it from his childhood being sung by his mother and renames it after the Island. I had assumed St Thomas was what his mother called it, but the Ted Heath Band, a British Big Band of the 1950s had a big(ish) hit with 'The Lincolnshire Poacher' done presumably as a 'ripost' to St Thomas. His ''Tenor Madness'' is a composition by Kenny Clarke published in 1947 under the title ''Rue Chaptal''. His other compositions from the 50s... well, Oleo, Airegin etc... it can in no way be compared to the compositions of Trane, Bird, Monk or Shorter... One thing that always struck me that I've heard no one else mention is that the Alfie theme is merely a reworking of the intro to 'Singing In The Rain!'
Sound and artistic vision
I find this a curious aspect. Early on, in the 50s his sound was distinct enough but it became more distinctive later. It is an odd sound for tenor but its one I hear more and more players now using. I'm not quite sure how its done or if there is a physiological reason for it. I have found it to be an aquired taste. Moreover, his playing and his sound are terribly degraded after 1966 (36 years). Something happened on that bridge, he lost his mind. He seems to have been traumatized by the arrival of Ornette, Trane, Ayler... In the 60s he tried to be freer than Ayler, more calypso/blues than Ornette, and more mystical than Trane, but without succeeding because so superficial... Then in the 70s/80s he tried his hand at funk, disco... with really ridiculous and corny results... Did he want to be funkier than James Brown himself? More disco than Chic and Nile Rodgers? On ''SAIS'' from the ''Horn Culture'' album, one example among many, just picking up a random piece between 1966 and 2001....It's a shame. He plays out of tune, out of rhythm, with an absolutely disgusting sound. It is a lack of respect towards himself, the other musicians and the listener. No normally constituted musician would have agreed to let this recording be released. The problem with R0llins is that EVERYTHING IS LIKE THIS after 1966. He even said himself that he was high on marijuana when he recorded his solo album ''Soloscope'' at the Museum of Modern Art. from NYC...Also listen to the result, it's ridiculous and disrespectful towards the listeners...
Ego and money
Also, on the radio show, they say he was paid today's $300,000 for himself to record the Nucleus album (listen to the result!!!!), and that for his concerts, his Financial claims were unrealistic, only big festivals could afford it. He played with the Stones but didn't want to tour with them because, according to Mike Jagger himself, he wanted too much money! I am not making anything up here. In a blindfold test published in downbeat in 2006, he doesn't recognize ANY saxophonist, even taking James Carter for Don Byas! Totally mind-blowing and revealing!
Conclusion
In conclusion Sonny R0llins is for me the archetype of a narcissistic complacency encouraged by the fans and the milieu which has placed him on a throne since 1956 and his (very average) album ''saxophone colossus''. You have to be quite arrogant to glorify yourself as a ''saxophone colossus'' at 26 years old when BIRD had just died the previous year.
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I posted this on reddit/jazz and got hundreds of insults regarding:
1) the size of my ass,
2) the size of my brain,
3) the size of my penis
4) about the fact that I would be ignorant
5) on the education received by my parents
6) about the fact that R0llins would have fucked my mother
7) about R0llins fucking my wife
8 ) about the fact that I will be jealous
9) do I have health insurance that covers psychiatric care
10) I am a moron, I deserve any and all insults I get.
I said 'yes okay' but back on topic: S0nny R0llins is not so great. No response on the subject. I was finally banned for life from reddit/jazz for posting this text.