SAXOPHONE COLOSSUS by AIDAN LEVY (Hachette Books) (2022): Sonny Rollins and Charlie Parker

A voluminous book, 770 pages in all, and meticulously detailed and written in an accessible and erudite way, comprehensive and detail rich. To exemplify I will take the section of the book where Levy describes Sonny Rollins in relation to ‘The Bird’ Charlie Parker in chapter 6. His account starts in 1946 when tenor saxophonist Don Byas released ‘How High the Moon’. Its B-side went under the name of Chas Parker and was called ‘Koko’. Despite some indifferent reviews, ‘Koko’ “announced a revolution in jazz” (page 73) and was notable for the musicians that played on it: a 19 years-old Miles Davis, drummer Max Roach and a mystery man called ‘Hen Gates’ (Dizzy Gillespie), with Curly Russell on bass. Four tunes formed the early part of Bird’s repertoire: ‘Koko’, ‘Now’s the Time’, ‘Billie’s Bounce’ and ‘Thriving from a Riff’ (renamed ‘Anthropology’). Sonny was blown away by Parker’s “fusillade of notes” and vibrato + delivery. Sonny: “We’d speed up a Coleman Hawkins record, and you’d hear Charlie Parker.” ‘Koko’ was “a bold restatement – a changing of the guard.”

Parker’s influences were wide and varied – from Bartok and Beethoven (One might add Stravinsky) to Byas and Ben Webster. Described as “progressive music both aesthetically and politically” from “a quintessential nonconformist” (p 75), Levy goes on to describe Parker as a father figure to Rollins. Jackie McLean also comes into the story as a neighbour in San Juan Hill, Manhattan and he describes Bird’s music as “a secret weapon” in his own repertoire.

I realise this is a book about Sonny Rollins but of all of the afore written shows the deep contextual narrative in Aidan Levy’s book which is a must for all serious jazz lovers. It is also available on Amazon Kindle.