a face with a view

Sonny Rollins (1930-2026)

Word came through yesterday that Sonny Rollins had passed away at the age of 95 — a titan of 20th century music, a real American hero, a wonderfully strange person who shared so much with us over the course of a long life. There's so much to dig into when it comes to Sonny, whether it's his 60+ year discography, the fascinating recent biography by Aidan Levy, or his revealing notebooks, which NYRB published in 2024. Decades upon decades in search of some elusive perfection, a combination of notes and rhythm that passes beyond all understanding. A holy sound.

One of my favorite Sonny situations is a late 1960s BBC doc that you can watch on Vimeo. Entitled Who Is Sonny Rollins?, it follows Sonny from the Williamsburg Bridge to a New Jersey forest, the camerawork evocative and intimate, Rollins’ playing always imaginative and inspiring. Best of all is an extended sequence that shows Sonny showing up at a youth jazz band rehearsal in Harlem. He seems as serious playing a wild, almost atonal blues with the kids as he'd be at Lincoln Center. Who was Sonny Rollins? I don't know, but he was amazing.

Danai Gurira, CCH Pounder, Kerry Washington, Carmen Ejogo, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Ava DuVernay, Zoe Saldaña, Rosario Dawson, Nicole Beharie, Anika Noni Rose

LaTanya Richardson, Angela Bassett, Marianne Jean-Baptise, Loretta Devine, Emayatzy Corinealdi, Lorraine Toussaint, Viola Davis, Jurnee Smollett, Margaret Avery

Eartha Kitt and orchestra leader Frank Weir at Churchill’s Club in London, 1951.

I really dislike Kawaii Future Bass or whatever this genre is called so I made it sound shitty with a bunch of random samples.