Sonny Rollins!

One of THE all-time greats, Sonny Rollins, played a short gig at the Paramount Theater in Seattle last night. For those not in the know, Rollins is one of the most influential tenor saxophonists of all time. He played with Miles Davis while still a teenager, Thelonious Monk a bit later, with Clifford Brown and Max Roach in the 50s...the list goes on. See his web site, http://www.sonnyrollins.com/ for details.

The band: Mark Soskin on piano, Bob Cranshaw on electric bass, Kobie Watkins on drums, Victor Y. See Yuen on percussion, and of course Sonny on tenor...and vocals to close the show.

It's amazing to see anyone play with the energy and stamina that Sonny showed last night, sounding more like a young lion than a 79-year-old elder statesman. He went outside...WAY outside...on each tune, playing what to me sounded like extensions of the chord extensions. Sometimes I was able to follow what he was doing with the lines, sometimes not. There were moments when it sounded like he was deliberately playing against the key, letting long dissonant notes crunch against everything going on the busy but grooving rhythm section.

Everyone was featured on at least one tune, and everyone in the band really cooked. I really liked Soskin's work on "Don't Stop the Carnival," in that you could hear the musical stories he was telling - each chorus sounded like a new chapter being added to a book, using familiar characters and developing the plot over time.

Sonny even sang a couple of choruses on "Low Down Dirty Shame," the raucous blues that ended the performance. Sadly, there was no encore...he came out and waved, and that was it. Still, it was quite a treat to hear him play. There aren't many left from his generation of jazz luminaries, and if any of them are passing through the Seattle area (such as Jimmy Heath at this summer's Port Townsend Jazz Festival) you should get out to hear them play.

And that's who I checked out yesterday. So...who have you been listening to?