In December, Aidan Levy published Saxophone Colossus: The Life and Music of Sonny Rollins (Hachette), a 784-page biography of the tenor saxophonist. Recently, Bret Primack, who interviewed Sonny on camera at length over the years, interviewed Levy on a range of Sonny-related topics:
Here’s Bret and Aidan on Coleman Hawkins…
Here’s Bret and Aidan on Don Byas’s influence on Sonny…
Here’s Bret and Aidan on the relationship between Sonny and Thelonious Monk…
And here’s the rest of the interview…
Bonus: Here’s the complete Sonny Rollins Vol. 1 (Blue Note), recorded in December 1956, with Sonny on tenor saxophone, Donald Byrd on trumpet, Wynton Kelly on piano, Gene Ramey on bass and Max Roach on drums. The tracks are Decision (0:00), Bluesnote (8:00), How Are Things In Glocca Morra (14:59), Plain Jane (24:35) and Sonnysphere (30:52). Sonny wrote Decision, Bluesnote, Plain Jane and Sonnysphere…
