I’ve attended two Sonny Rollins concerts at the Kennedy Center during the last year and a half, which gives me at least some ability to discuss those vexed questions: How good is his band and why is he notoriously inconsistent in his live appearances?
I think these problems are interrelated. All of the band members are excellent players. During the second half of the earlier concert, in spring 2008, Clifton Anderson took several excellent extended trombone solos, as did Bobby Broom on guitar. Bob Cranshaw is a strong bassist, and the percussionists and drummers (different at each concert) were most impressive.
The problem as I see it, is that the band lacks cohesion overall because everything hinges on Sonny. In the first concert, he played well but, especially after the intermission, seemed to recede into the background. The other musicians took up the slack via the aforementioned extended solos, which were individually accomplished but more or less strung together rather than parts of a whole.
In the concert in December 2009, Sonny came out and blew us away on the first tune. He then grabbed the mic, talked about visiting Annapolis when he was a kid, reminisced, joked, and generally seemed to be having a good time. That’s the way it went for the remainder of the night. This time it was the band that receded before a force of nature. To the extent that they played, they played well, but Sonny was overwhelmingly dominant, soloing aggressively, trading fours with Cranshaw, even “singing” a bit on his tribute, “J. J. Johnson”. It was a thrill to hear how Sonny can still reach down and play chorus after blistering chorus, seemingly a repository of an endless stream of ideas and energy.
So for the Sonny Rollins band, it’s feast or famine. Play a lot when Sonny isn’t out front and back off when he’s on – and maybe there is no middle ground. As Whitney Balliett once said about the older Roy Eldridge, his band acts as a buoy when he’s off and as ballast when he’s on. As to why – would a more cohesive and challenging band get more out of him? For whatever reason, he doesn’t seem interested in finding out, and that’s his prerogative.
I think these problems are interrelated. All of the band members are excellent players. During the second half of the earlier concert, in spring 2008, Clifton Anderson took several excellent extended trombone solos, as did Bobby Broom on guitar. Bob Cranshaw is a strong bassist, and the percussionists and drummers (different at each concert) were most impressive.
The problem as I see it, is that the band lacks cohesion overall because everything hinges on Sonny. In the first concert, he played well but, especially after the intermission, seemed to recede into the background. The other musicians took up the slack via the aforementioned extended solos, which were individually accomplished but more or less strung together rather than parts of a whole.
In the concert in December 2009, Sonny came out and blew us away on the first tune. He then grabbed the mic, talked about visiting Annapolis when he was a kid, reminisced, joked, and generally seemed to be having a good time. That’s the way it went for the remainder of the night. This time it was the band that receded before a force of nature. To the extent that they played, they played well, but Sonny was overwhelmingly dominant, soloing aggressively, trading fours with Cranshaw, even “singing” a bit on his tribute, “J. J. Johnson”. It was a thrill to hear how Sonny can still reach down and play chorus after blistering chorus, seemingly a repository of an endless stream of ideas and energy.
So for the Sonny Rollins band, it’s feast or famine. Play a lot when Sonny isn’t out front and back off when he’s on – and maybe there is no middle ground. As Whitney Balliett once said about the older Roy Eldridge, his band acts as a buoy when he’s off and as ballast when he’s on. As to why – would a more cohesive and challenging band get more out of him? For whatever reason, he doesn’t seem interested in finding out, and that’s his prerogative.
