This was one of those nights
jive rhapsodist | NYC, NY United States | 01/05/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"You all know that line about Rollins: "One night...nothing like anything which has ever been captured on recording..". Well, I think this hyperbole is true in the case of Sonny. More than any of the other greats, he seems to, so often, hint at a power and majesty which is approached, elided, but not quite reached. But it's reached here. Listen to this remarkable version of Green Dolphin Street. Rollins' solo evokes for me nothing less than Louis Armstrong's playing on the original recording of Sweethearts On Parade:the combination of humor, simplicity, complexity, an incredible drive and groove, the most absurd quotations...And then there's what is, for me, Rollins' greatest innovation: the Bachian principle of making a solo instrument into a total musical experience. Rollins plays rhythm section for himself, he riffs for his own solo. Not to take away from the extraordinary playing of Henry Grimes and Billy Higgins. Sensitive and incredibly powerful. Oblique and direct, by turns. One could go through their choices, chorus by chorus, and come up with a textbook on modern (circa 1963) rhythm section playing. And then, there's Don Cherry. The head-scratching aspect of Our Man In Jazz has disappeared. As is so often the case, touring has changed potential into realization. And you can understand why Rollins wanted to work with this quixotic genius. Cherry is one of the most approximate of Jazz greats-most of his solos sound like rough sketches for a final product which never appears. But he is nowhere near as tied to the strophes of the AABA (or ABAB, or whatever) form of Jazz standards, and is able to play freely, lyrically and even symmetrically (question/answer phrases) over, under and through these procrustean markers. It must have sometimes driven Rollins crazy that, for all his mastery, this was something that he never really achieved. But Cherry, as a foil, took him as close to that Ornette-ian world as he was ever to go. The difference between this disc and Our Man...is that there Rollins really sounds like a tourist.
Which brings up my one question about this disc. As great as the performances of Solitude and Without A Song are (particularly the former, which sounds, at its beginning, like what composer Stefan Wolpe REALLY had in mind when he wrote his great Jazz-influenced Quartet in 1950), sometimes I feel that these venerable standards are made to stretch beyond their boundaries; material begins to seem like a necessary evil. It's not for nothing that Ornette Coleman is celebrated as a COMPOSER as much as anything else; his tunes are brilliant corporealizations of his improvisatory language. And this is the complex story of what "Jazz Composition" signifies: that particular synergy. Monk is Rollins' composer: his motives free flow all over the map while remaining bounded by symmetrical phrase lengths. And Sonnymoon For Two is Rollins' modest masterpiece of same, although this version can't hold a candle to the one on Live At The Village Vanguard (still my favorite Rollins disc; this one is now second), where Rollins' method of developing motivically is taken to a hilarious extreme. Caveat Emptor: this version is 23 minutes long!
The crowd in Paris knew they were witnessing something really special; their enthusiasm grows track by track. By the time we get to the shattering version of Everything Happens To Me,they are virtually delirious. Someone should write a whole paper on the relationship between material and interpretation on this track. Moments of high irony, seemingly informed by the ironic lyrics of the song. Moments of deep feeling, connected to the song's denouement...and one of Rollins' greatest recorded cadenzas, duly appreciated.This great evening ends with such a loose and jovial version of Monk's 52nd St. Theme, complete with popping rhythm section and a myriad of Monk quotes."
Track Listings (7) - Disc #1