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Author:  David Luebbert Posted:  10/31/04; 10:06:10 PM Msg#:  4358 (top msg in thread) Prev/Next:  4357/4359 Reads:  4064

Like Sonny

Tenor saxophonist John Coltrane wrote a tune Like Sonny that was supposedly based on a melodic figure that his friend and competitor Sonny Rollins played.  I've listened to a lot of Rollins music and always wondered where Trane had heard him perform the figure. I've waited more than 20 years to get an answer.

Figured it out last Friday when I was listening to Channel 70, the "Real Jazz" channel on XM Radio.  Trumpeter Kenny Dorham's performance of My Old Flame was playing, with Rollins taking the tenor solo.  Towards the end he invents the phrase that Trane used and manipulated in his composition. Wee-hah!

I'm guessing that the Dorham record that contains the My Old Flame performance is "Jazz Contrasts".  (Amazon has a clip but it won't play for me).  Like Sonny appears on Coltrane's "Coltrane Jazz" album for Atlantic Records.

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