GOODNIGHT COLOSSUS: Remembering Sax Maestro SONNY ROLLINS

cover photo via Rick Diamond. Sonny Rollins at NOLA Jazz Fest 2011

I had the privilege to catch Sonny Rollins once.

Once.

Sacred Sunday @ NOLA Jazz & Heritage Fest 2011. Closing out the Jazz Tent. At the time it was the most packed I’d ever seen it, spilling like a dozen rows OUTSIDE the Tent on 2 sides.

Even though I was 33, moderately familiar w his titanic contributions & influence, I did not fully understand the gravity of what was about to transpire.

photo: Jim Brock Photography. Sonny Rollins, NOLA Jazz Fest 2011

In May 2011, Sonny was 80. He labored about… his hips were disintegrating, & he lacked the Herculean lung power of his halcyon days.

Still… with a tenor sax slung, subtle svelte swagger, bucket hat, shades, & a bushy silver white beard, Sonny cut a figure of classic Harlem cool from the moment he strode onto the stage, slowly, deliberately, with patience & purpose.

The first song clocked in at a whopping 28 minutes. I did not recognize it but within 5 the freewheeling journey & resident spirits invoked had completely usurped my entire being & consciousness.

I remember the feeling that came over me almost instantly: I AM IN THE PRESENCE OF TRUE GREATNESS

Scramble Campbell painting of Sonny from Jazz Fest 2011

Sonny didn’t move much on his feet, & played facing his band more than the adoring, enraptured audience.

It didn’t matter. What we experienced that day was an OG strain of the most powerful substance I’ve dedicated my life to imbibing, then describing.

An emotional, esoteric, scintillating joyride whereas I at once felt the urge to scream, or sob, or suck down repeated deep breaths like my life depended on it.

By Second Sunday at Jazz Fest, youre so gassed & disheveled that the drugs aren’t even working any more. Only music THIS potent, impassioned, & essential as an 80 year old Sonny MF Rollins incinerating the Jazz Tent for a half hour straight w out coming up for air (bad as his lungs needed it) can so thoroughly arrest, inhabit, or transport you in this particular, overwhelmingly transformational fashion.

And like many ancient sacred medicines of this nature, dosing just once really was enough.

Sonny Rollins – NOLA Jazz Fest 2011