Sonny Rollins, Barbican | reviews, news & interviews
Sonny Rollins, Barbican
Sonny Rollins, Barbican
More than two hours of magic from US sax colossus
Sunday, 21 November 2010
"Being asked to introduce this artist”, began the compere, “is like being asked to introduce God." Fans of Eric Clapton, of course, might beg to differ. But in jazz terms, Sonny Rollins, self-proclaimed “saxophone colossus”, has indisputably been on the all-time A-list since his early work with Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk. He is also on a particularly exclusive part of that list of jazz greats: those still alive. Yet even amongst those few, whose resilient ranks include both Cecil Taylor and Ornette Coleman, Rollins’s London Jazz Festival performance represented a quite remarkable feat of stamina.
When he shuffled onto the stage, sporting shades and a baggy, billowing red shirt reaching almost to his knees, the tenor player was apparently expected to play for around 70 minutes. Even that seemed impressive enough given that the accompanying line-up of guitar, electric bass, drums and congas left the soloing focus firmly on Rollins. Yet that finish point passed unacknowledged.
'By the time he finally stopped, two-and-a-quarter hours had elapsed (I swear the guitarist checked his watch at two hours 10). Sonny Rollins is 80 years old'
Just beyond the 100-minute mark, he went into a mammoth solo coda that surely signalled the show’s climax, and the audience – half of which had delivered a standing ovation before Rollins even played a note – went bananas. But Rollins returned to his mouthpiece. Two hours in, Rollins took to the mic for the first time to deliver a lengthy, rasping monologue that took in homespun philosophy, hip hop and the history of the London jazz scene. And once again returned to his mouthpiece. By the time he finally stopped, two-and-a-quarter hours had elapsed (I swear the guitarist checked his watch at two hours 10). Sonny Rollins is 80 years old.
Many would be happy merely to have witnessed such a marathon performance from a man of Rollins’s reputation, yet what was most impressive was that his chops remained in such fine fettle. True, it was all fairly safe; unlike a contemporary appearance by Taylor, for instance, the night passed without a single challenging note. But then Rollins never set out to be the iconoclast. Instead, he has been and remains an effortlessly melodic soloist, one who is still – despite the white hair and hunched posture – sufficiently mischievous to quote, on occasion, from other well-known melodies.
The band, navigating Latin and calypso rhythms as well as swing, was consummate but on the whole somewhat bland (though bassist Bob Cranshaw stood out for all the wrong reasons, with a thin, metallic bass tone otherwise unheard since a bass guitar instructional video circa 1993). The major exception was Kobie Watkins on drums, who topped off a stellar performance with a phenomenally assured, nuanced and genuinely musical solo. Yet it was without a doubt Mr Rollins’s night – and the standing ovation at the end seemed genuinely to be not only for the sheer weight of history, but also for the concert we'd just witnessed.
- Find Sonny Rollins on Amazon
- London Jazz Festival finishes today
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