Saxophone Colossus The Life And Music Of Sonny Rollins 1st Aidan Levy by Aidan Levy 9780306902796, 9780306902826, 0306902796, 0306902826 instant download after payment.

The long-awaited first full biography of legendary jazz saxophonist and composer Sonny Rollins, chronicling the gripping story of a freedom fighter and spiritual seeker whose life has been as much of a thematic improvisation as his music Sonny Rollins has long been considered an enigma. Known as the "Saxophone Colossus," he is widely acknowledged as the greatest living jazz improviser, having won Grammys, the Austrian Cross of Honor, Sweden''s Polar Music Prize and a National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama. He is one of our last links to the golden age of jazz--one of only two remaining musicians pictured in the iconic "Great Day in Harlem" portrait. His colossal seven-decade career has been well documented, but the backstage life of the man once called "the only jazz recluse" has gone largely untold--until now. Saxophone Colossus introduces us to the man behind the myth. Based on more than 200 interviews with Rollins himself, family members, friends and collaborators, as well as Rollins'' extensive personal archive, it is the comprehensive portrait of this living legend, tireless civil rights activist and environmentalist. A Depression-era child of the Harlem Renaissance, Rollins'' precocious talent quickly landed him on the bandstand or in the recording studio with Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, the Clifford Brown-Max Roach Quintet, Abbey Lincoln and Dizzy Gillespie. He soon became an icon in his own right, recording fifteen albums under his own name in a staggering three-year span--including Tenor Madness, featuring a blues battle with John Coltrane; Way Out West, which established the pianoless trio; Freedom Suite, the first civil rights-themed album of the hard bop era; A Night at the Village Vanguard, which put the storied jazz venue on the map; and the 1956 classic Saxophone Colossus, credited for introducing calypso to jazz with "St. Thomas." He was even more prolific on the bandstand, performing everywhere from…