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Sonny's Recorded Legacy
Access Sonny's recordings individually, using this pull down menu, or by decade. This list includes everything by Sonny currently available on CD or as a download.
40s | 50s | 60s | 70s | 80s | 90s | 00s
| Compilations
Featured Recording: The Solo Album
Sonny recorded his first unaccompanied solo on The Sound of Sonny, in 1957 and in his live performances, he frequently plays chorus after chorus by himself. In 1985, his passion for unaccompanied saxophone came to the forefront, and he played a concert at New York's Museum of Modern Art, all by himself, that was recorded by Milestone Records and released as The Solo Album. This recording is a dream come true for Sonny Rollins fans, as Rollins presents an entire program without accompaniment. As expected, Rollins drops allusions all over the place and spins core melodic ideas into extended variations. The real fun, though, is simply getting caught up in the inspired whirl of the Rollins imagination as it darts here and there, managing to be both coherent and unpredictable in a manner that has earned him recognition as the music's supreme improviser. The enthusiastic audience, delighted to be along for the ride, even gets into the act at the close of this colossal solo session. More...
Rare Live Recording
Max Roach left us in 2007. Max, one of the true innovators of modern Jazz, rewrote the rules of drumming in the 1940’s and spent the rest of his career breaking musical barriers and defying listeners’ expectations. Sonny first played with Max in the mid-50s in the one of the most celebrated groups in Jazz history, along wtih Clifford Brown.
On November 12, 1966, Sonny played a special concert with Max and bassist Jymie Merritt in Graf, Austria. A recording of this remarkable music has finally surfaced and we are pleased to offer one mindblowing track, Lover, which runs nearly sixteen minutes ($1.99), and could be used to heat a frigid apartment on a winter's morning.
Questions, etc., please contact Customer Service.
Sonny, Please
Sonny, Please is Sonny's first studio recording in five years and his debut on his own Doxy Records and it captures his working band. Anytime you do a string of performances, it tightens up the ensemble, and the band was playing well-very high-powered at this time."
The album is a mix of Rollins originals and indelible standards, including the assertive title track which takes its name from 'something my wife Lucille always used to say: `Sonny, Please!'".
Listen to Excerpts and Purchase Sonny, Please
