{"id":118,"date":"2008-08-29T05:15:10","date_gmt":"2008-08-29T09:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/2008\/08\/sonny_rollins_in_chicago\/"},"modified":"2011-04-28T16:34:24","modified_gmt":"2011-04-28T20:34:24","slug":"sonny_rollins_in_chicago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2008\/08\/sonny_rollins_in_chicago.html","title":{"rendered":"Sonny Rollins in Chicago"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sonny Rollins at 78 is still a saxophone collosus, as he demonstrated leading his touring sextet Thursday night to open the Chicago Jazz Festival. His bent posture, shock of white hair and strong features give him the air of an Old Testament prophet, and his stamina may not be all it was when he was younger, but he brought wisdom, humor and intensity to an upbeat and swinging rendition of Irving Berlin&#8217;s &#8220;Falling In Love Is Wonderful,&#8221; sweet warmth \u00c2\u00a0to Ellington&#8217;s &#8220;In A Sentimental Mood&#8221; (backed only by his rhythm section), and for a finale uproarious energy to a bare-bones Chicago blues. Read Neil Tesser&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chicagoreader.com\/features\/stories\/sonnyrollins\/\">article<\/a> in the Chicago Reader for background on how Rollins cleaned up his act in Chicago, circa 1955, which accounts for his affection for the city to this day.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.howardmandel.com\" target=\"blank\">howardmandel.com<\/a> <br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/JazzBeyondJazz\" target=\"_blank\">Subscribe by Email or  RSS<\/a> <br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/archives.html\" target=\"_blank\"> All JBJ posts <\/a><br \/>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"http:\/\/w.sharethis.com\/widget\/?tabs=web%2Cpost%2Cemail&amp;charset=utf-8&amp;style=default&amp;publisher=6ed88875-2235-4b29-aaa3-60183b0bcbcc\"><\/script> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sonny Rollins at 78 is still a saxophone collosus, as he demonstrated leading his touring sextet Thursday night to open the Chicago Jazz Festival. His bent posture, shock of white hair and strong features give him the air of an Old Testament prophet, and his stamina may not be all it was when he was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[48,54],"class_list":{"0":"post-118","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"tag-chicago-jazz-festival","8":"tag-sonny-rollins","9":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1i3CL-1U","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":320,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2010\/06\/_why_give_jazz_awards.html","url_meta":{"origin":118,"position":0},"title":"Why of the Jazz Journalists Assn&#8217;s Jazz Awards","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"June 11, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Why give Jazz Awards? See my new column in City Arts re the event Monday 6\/14 at City Winery in NYC, produced by the Jazz Journalists Assoc.\u00c2\u00a0 (Full disclosure: I'm deeply involved -- as left, last year presenting Kurt Elling his statuette for Best Male Vocalist, photo by Enid Farber.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;main&quot;","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"HM-and-Kurt-Elling-jazz-awa.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/HM-and-Kurt-Elling-jazz-awa.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":537,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2011\/09\/congrats-to-sonny-rollins.html","url_meta":{"origin":118,"position":1},"title":"Congrats to Sonny Rollins","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"September 7, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Saxophonist supreme Sonny Rollins turns 81 today, and was announced as recipient of 2011 Kennedy Center honors. He really deserves it: he's been a beacon of robust, smart, honest American music for more than 60 years.\u00c2\u00a0Surfing for clips, I found this of \"Alfie's Theme\" from 1982, but there are many\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;main&quot;","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":338,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2010\/09\/sonny_the_sax_king.html","url_meta":{"origin":118,"position":2},"title":"Sonny the sax king","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"September 11, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"At age 80, Sonny Rollins is indisputably the greatest living jazz tenor saxophonist, proved last night throughout a 2-hour set at New York's sold-out Beacon Theater in which harmolodic sage Ornette Coleman sat in, backed by drummer Roy Haynes and bassist Christian McBride, on \"Tenor Madness.\"\u00a0\u00a0\"Sonnymoon For Two\". Rollins was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;main&quot;","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":339,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2010\/09\/sonny_beacon_bootlegged_video.html","url_meta":{"origin":118,"position":3},"title":"Sonny @ Beacon bootlegged video clip","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"September 11, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"A bootlegged video excerpt of Sonny Rollins at the Beacon Theater, 9\/10\/2010 is available on youtube -- the sound doesn't do him justice, and I don't intend to encourage unauthorized video, but it is out there to give the world a brief idea of last night's concert.\u00a0On the other hand,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;main&quot;","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":343,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2010\/09\/jazz_elders_cast_giant_shadows.html","url_meta":{"origin":118,"position":4},"title":"Jazz elders cast giant shadows","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"September 17, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Why isn't the amazing current generation of creative (jazz) musicians better known? Maybe because major artists of the not-so-distant past are practicing the art form at splendid peaks, overturning clich\u00c3\u00a9s about dwindling powers of octogenarians. Read my column in City Arts New York for a report that touches on Sonny\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;main&quot;","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"muhal.jpeg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/assets_c\/2010\/09\/muhal-thumb-275x183-17303.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":117,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2008\/08\/chicago_jazz_fest_in_neighborh.html","url_meta":{"origin":118,"position":5},"title":"Chicago jazz fest in neighborhood clubs","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"August 28, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"A city's jazz scene is best measured not by an annual festival -- though Sonny Rollins free at the Frank Gehry-designed Pritzker Pavillion in Chicago's Millennium Park on Thursday night was a fine thing. The real signs of Chicago's jazz depth and diversity are evident in the unique \"club tour\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;main&quot;","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}