Vancouver International Jazz Festival Thursday July 2nd, 2009
posted by Nou Dadoun
| The beat goes on with most venues quiet today for the Canada Day Celebrations and festivities at Granville Island. Sonny Rollins' performance at the Orpheum on Monday night was definitely a highlight so far. I heard a few people groan when Sonny was first announced that he'd been here just year before last but Sonny followers know that when Sonny is energized, he can give one of the most riveting performances in the business. Which this was, in spades. When he and the band came out, the bustling crowd gave him a standing ovation before he played a note and he took note in turn. Sonny came out in a black shirt and white suit, his shock of white hair and dark sunglasses. He still has that colossus frame but it's fairly hunched over now that he's in his late 70s. But the energy he put out after the music started was incredible, the effect was a caged animal like a white leopard prowling the stage. It almost seemed as though he never stopped playing, his energy was so infectious - pacing the stage, challenging the other players, facing the drummer, taking swipes during other solos and unleashing torrents during his own solos. We were sitting next to Kate Hammett-Vaughan and just before the concert started we'd been discussing the upcoming Kurt Elling tribute to the Coltrane/Hartman collaboration. Ironically, Rollin's first two pieces appear on that recording - he started with My One and Only Love and continued with They Say It's Wonderful, followed by a ballad that sounded like a familiar show tune that I couldn't quite place. Rollins has been criticized in the past for keeping a band that is not up to his calibre but on a night like this, the best thing the rest of the band can do is get out of the way. My only complaint was that on the next tune Sonny Please (one of his strongest compositions in decades) Sonny took a fiery solo and handed things to the guitarist Bobby Broom. The riff tune called for a strong rhythmic and melodic statement and Broom's solo was anything but, a meandering collection of notes that was only loosely related to the tune - fortunately it didn't last long before Sonny took the reins again. Sonny's longtime bassist Bob Cranshaw was workmanlike, the trombonist Clifton Anderson was as good as I've ever heard him and the percussionist Victor See Yuen was relatively non-descript. I would single out the drummer Kobie Watkins for challenging Sonny and really driving the whole band forward with uncomplicated energetic percussion, a perfect foil for Sonny and the reason that Sonny seemed to carry on a dialog with him for most of the evening. They played a few more tunes (including one of Sonny's obligatory 'mango' tunes) and the energy didn't let up. I kept thinking of Paul Gonsalves famous Newport 56 solo on Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue where the effect is almost like an RnB player who builds a solo and ups the ante on every chorus but always remains in total control, no screeching, every note passionate but perfectly selected for maximum effect. And thinking "Damn, Sonny probably does this every night!" Definitely one for the ages .... ---- Back to a full complement of shows, here are tomorrow's offerings (with blank lines at no extra charge): Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 |
