Sonny Rollins, June 29 at the Orpheum

At the end of Sonny Rollins’s first song Monday night, he quoted “The Man on the Flying Trapeze”. Was this a moment of whimsy? Something he’s done at the same point in the song thousands of times at thousand of gigs? Perhaps. But for me, for that night, it was who he was and still is.

While his chops appear to have diminished little over the years (in fact, we both felt that he sounded better tonight than he did when we saw him 6 years ago in SF), Rollins still appears to attack each solo as if playing it for the first time. It’s not that he’s ragged; it’s just that he has as lot to say and he won’t stop ‘til he feels like he’s done. So it was theme and variation, riff and response, and a whole lot of breathtaking soul.

Make no mistake. This is Sonny’s band and Sonny’s world, and his band knows it. Sure, band members such as long time compadre electric bassist Bob Cranshaw kept it as tight as Sonny would allow, and long time trombonist bandmate Clifton Anderson soloed solidly and added colour to many of the tunes. The rest of the band was terrific.

Sonny walked onto the stage – how shall I say- looking every bit his age, but once the first note was played, he seemed in total control and as spry as could be. Moving across the stage, communicating with his bandmates, he comped on their solos and even soloed along with them for a time until he let them take their own solos! Like, “OK, guys, you can take it from here…” And when it came time for him to wail, as I said, that is what he did. Lifting in his sax in the air in that classic Sonny pose, he engulfed the audience with pure improvisational joy. Once he got warmed up, he just kept getting better and better. Let’s hear it for the daring man with his horn in flight!!!

-Bill

Try as we might to catch the names of songs, without an intro it can be mysterious. I thought Sonny’s opening song was My One And Only You, but The Sun's Marke Andrews called it as, Someone To Watch Over Me, which was actually my first suspicion. What’s your guess? What was that sweet ballad?

Something he said at the end cracked me up, paraphrasing again: ‘I love Vancouver and I hope you all come back again’ (like we don’t live here). ‘Really, please come back and see me.’

Funny, Sonny.

-Mari