New Newk, New Guest Columnist
I suppose many of you have already seen that a new Sonny Rollins album came out last week, Rollins in Holland. Unfortunately, Sonny is no longer playing the sax. The music and interviews are from radio and concert appearances from May 1967, a time when Sonny was taking a hiatus from studio recordings in the States, so this is an interesting addition to the catalogue from a time period where there isn’t much Newk on record. I have to admit, I haven’t ordered the record yet, nor have I heard the music, but I will order it as soon as I finish writing this post. I was planning to wait until getting the record to write about it, and I will probably still do that, but in the meantime our loyal reader from Amsterdam, Maarten Kools, sent me an email last week with some insights on the album and I wanted to share them here. Maarten also sent me a separate email a few weeks ago about some of the great jazz artists who are still alive, so I henceforth shall be turning this post over to Maarten as an improvised guest column of sorts.
Subject: Sonny Rollins in Holland, 1967
Hello Al,
Hope you are safe and sound. Just thought you would find this interesting. In 1967 Sonny Rollins played for one week in Holland, doing different gigs and a radio show. He played with the Dutch players Ruud Jacobs (29 at the time) on bass and Han Bennink (25 at the time) on drums. He didn’t like a piano added. Last year they found the tapes and now they are issued on CD in a co-production of Resonance Records & the Dutch Jazz Archive. Great, because I think he almost recorded no records between 1966 and 1972. There is a nice article today in the Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant. I attached some photos. Of course it is in Dutch, so I will translate some interesting points.
Sonny Rollins has listened to the tapes last year and thought also that it must be brought out on CD. “I remember I was in holland in May 1967 and had a great week with Ruud and Han. But I didn’t know we played THAT good. The sound of Ruud’s base was so beautiful and the energy of Han’s drumming was merciless. When I listened back to the tapes, I instantly thought: This must be heard.”
There were great reviews at the time in the media about the concerts, especially the one in Arnhem on the 3rd of May 1967 at the Art Academy (most concerts where in very small venues as jazz in 1967 was getting less attention versus the up and coming rock music. Other jazz musicians have been circulating cassette tapes of the concert, of very poor quality, copied over and over again by jazz colleagues. They played in Loosdrecht (also TV show), Arnhem and Utrecht. The photos in the article are from those concerts. This is the website of the Dutch Jazz Archive (they reissue lots of concerts of the jazz greats, played in Holland in the 50’s and 60’s and have a nice photo-archive).
https://www.jazzarchief.nl/product-categorie/jazz-at-the-concertgebouw/
Ruud Jacobs was one of the great Dutch jazz bassist in Holland who played with many people in the late ‘50s and ‘60s (Johnny Griffin, Bud Shank, Kenny Clarke, Stan Getz). The brother of pianist Pim Jacobs. Han Bennink is still alive. He also played with the greats, and became a more experimental drummer, together with the Instant Composers Pool, the Willem Breuker Collective, Eric Dolphy, Don Cherry, etc. He played loud and merciless; he uses everything he can drum on. During the concerts with Rollins he states: “When Sonny ‘gave’ me a solo, I would go out of rhythm and played for example on a flowerpot.” (hahaha)
I could imagine that Rudolph would have visited one of the concerts maybe, as he listened to so many in the Netherlands during the 50’s and 60’s??
All the best Al from Amsterdam. Always thankful for the Jazzcollector!
sorry for my grammar
Note from Al: Pictures are below the post. Next is the other email from Maarten.
Subject: Still Alive
Every time I read an obituary in the newspaper or on Jazz Collector…I always think: What? This person was still alive?… While I have records from the fifties where he /she plays on it. And then I want to write something nice about them. But I think; it’s too late. Why not honor somebody when they are still alive. So many jazz artist are still amongst us. I think it could be a very nice post on Jazz Collector. First of all, we will start thinking of those who are still there and gave us this great music. But also it could be inspiring to listen to them while still alive. Everybody will come up with an artist that maybe nobody thought they are still there…and we would start listening to them… while they are still alive.
Joanne Brackeen, born 1938… made some great records still alive
Herbie Hancock.. albums with Mobley, Byrd, etc … still alive
Benny Golson 1929!! still alive
Curtis Fuller 1934!! still alive
Ron Carter 1937!! still alive
And of course Rollins. Lets not weep when they are dead… but celebrate them now.
Ok. I am getting a bit over excited. Of course you don’t have to address this in Jazz Collector. ? Iam just drinking some beers while listening to jazzzzzz
Wish you all the best
Regards
Maarten Kools
Amsterdam
the Netherlands
Fantastic set. I have CDRs from cassettes of the Arnhem concert and am glad that this music was given proper treatment all these decades later. Pretty sure this ranks as my favorite Rollins next to the Village Gate performances with Cherry, Cranshaw, and Higgins. Bennink had already made recordings with the Instant Composers Pool and Marion Brown when he linked up with Rollins, so we’re hearing a drummer that had gone well beyond his bop influences.
Still working my way through this ‘Black Friday’ 3LP set but as Clifford says, the music is fabulous and Bennink is on fire. Although LPs 2 and 3 are far from audiophile, they did a good job with the restoration and the result has great presence. Good booklet too !
Just ordered the vinyl set. Big difference in pricing between CDs and vinyl, but I couldn’t even imagine buying a CD when vinyl is an option.
ah…didnt know there was a vinyl set… so far for my interest hahaha… great, will buy it, as i don’t own a cd player, and the dutch jazz archive is not on spotify etc
Roy Haynes,..still alive at 95
And Wayne Shorter still alive at 87
Gary Bartz is 80.
Charles McPherson 81. Kenny Burrell 89.
ah.. i will get my kenny burrell & john Coltrane copy now… let’s listen ))
Richard Davis is still around. Age 90, I believe.
And Dusko Goykovich, 89
Bird lives….
Yea Han Moncur III, great composer and jazz trombonist is still around, born in 1937.
Grachan, not what spell check stuck in there
Ahmad Jamal, 90.James Spaulding and Frank Strozier, 83
Barry Harris 91 and Louis Hayes 83
Cecil McBee 85, Kirk Lightsey 83, Charles Lloyd 82 and George Coleman 85
Marshall Allen is still blowing them away at the tender age of 96
Slide Hampton, 88
Junior Mance is 92. Sadly, he suffers alzheimer’s and dementia. His daughter has a Facebook page for him (last updated in August). There are some touching (and even a little heartbreaking) clips of him tinkering on a piano, and moving to the music in his head. We are all on this big rock for such a fleeting moment.
https://www.facebook.com/Junior-Mance-277737877858
…Lou Donaldson, 94, Reggie Workman, 83, Pharoah Sanders, 80, Albert “Tootie” Heath, 85, Freddie Redd, 92, Sheila Jordan, 92, Herbie Hancock, 80…
Maarten: excellent read. Thank you for exposing the Arnhem concerts.
At that time I spent 5 years in Groningen. We still had some notorious visitors coming up North. Lee Konitz accompanied by René Thomas and Johnny Griffin.
The concerts organized by Lou van Rees in Scheveningen and Amsterdam in the fifties and early sixties have been recorded at the time by the VARA and broadcast on the public radio. Some of them are on excellent CD’s issued by Nederlands Jazz Archief. A special mention should be made of the 1955 Chet Baker Quartet recording featuring Dick Twardzik.
The only time I heard Rollins live was somewhere 1961/62 when he played with 3 members of the Ornette Coleman quartet. The Kurhaus was half empty and I was not impressed. Thevsame goes for the corresponding RCA album. Just a footnote in Sonny’s legacy.
The Arnhem session looks to be a more straightforward affair.
Dave Bailey is still around, age 94. George Braith too, age 81.
Terry Gibbs 96 and Bill Holman 93
Terry Gibbs 96, Bill Holman 93
rudolph: unbelievable how so many small villages in holland had great concerts in the fifties/sixties… groningen, laren, hilversum, etc… i also saw sonny only once live,… it was like six years ago in the concertgebouw… bob cranshaw played the electric bass… (( sound was not to good… but i saw the man alive 🙂 luckily there are the great records
The great Archie Shepp, still releasing new music, was born in 1937. His frequent collaborator Dave Burrell (b.1940) is also still active!
Pianist Steve Kuhn still alive, 82 years old.
Art : “Bird lives….”…. yes!
Ringo is 80 :]
I lived for a year in Rotterdam in 2003. I saw Charlie Mariano at one of his last gigs. I also saw a number of great orchestras and also a number of terrific classical Indian music concerts. I really appreciated the way the Dutch government supported and subsidized the performing arts. Not only were there more concerts than I could actually have time to see, tickets were also quite reasonably priced.
Maarten: Rollins was in Holland in 1959 with his trio (Henry Grimes and Pete Laroca). He did a concert which was broadcast on national TV. I saw it and even took pictures of the TV screen, no success of course.
Do you know what happened to the sound tracks.? The guys in Hilversum must have stored them somewhere.
Working Late. Listening to Blue Mitchell – Blue Soul 12-309 Riverside. What a uplifting LP !
Curtis Fuller and Benny Golson, both still with us in 2020.
billy hart just turned 80
@rudolph it must have been at nick vollenbrecht/ Astoria in Laren.
3 songs where issued on “Live in europe 1959, the complete” , on cd on SOLAR records, the rest was from switserland,sweden,france and germany concerts..
have not ever came across of the cd…. see there is a copy on amazon..
but there must be more tapes of the holland concert.. i will email the dutch jazz archive
there is a download available on
https://www.designday.fr/download/file22/go.php?q=Sonny+Rollins+Trio+-+Live+In+Europe+1959+%28Complete+Recordings%29+%28MP3%29&a=zip&i=/images/noimage.jpg&s=1132%20mb
@ rudolph
there is one song i could find on youtube of the 59 broadcast… (march 7, 1959) it’s the first tune, …the others are from sweden, march 4, 1959
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HP3eg6quOdE
Maarten, enorm bedankt voor die eerste track. The TV broadcast was split in 2 parts, the Horace Silver qnt and the Rollins trio. Sweet memories, 61 years ago.
Thought I would add in case he’s been forgotten, Dizzy Reece is 89.
Dino Piana 90
Shafi Hadi (born Curtis Porter) 91