Jazz Colussus Strides into Town

Captivation is the rule when Sonny Rollins, jazz's so-called "Saxophone Colossus," comes to town, and such were the expectations of a sellout crowd spanning four generations at Berklee Performance Center.

In past years, Rollins has been accused of fielding a mediocre band to serve as a foil for his spectacular extemporaneous flights. The same cannot be said of his present band. In pianist Stephen Scott and trombonist Clifton Anderson, Rollins has two tremendous talents with which to share feature time. Percussionist Victor See-Yuen, drummer Perry Wilson and bassist Bob Cranshaw (an intermitent member of Rollins' bands for 40 years) keep rock-solid time and provide the springboard for the virtuosic solos of the three leads.

The sextet opened the concert by launching into Rollins' new calypso "Salvador," from his recently-released album This Is What I Do. Scott provided the first fireworks of the night with his dazzling, percussive piano solo (although his occasionally audible singing served as a distraction in this performance as well as at various points throughout the night). Scott and See-Yuen divided time between their primary instruments and kalimbas for the calypso "Global Warming," a tune which simultaneously reflected Rollins' environmental concerns as well as the African influence in Carribean and American music. Anderson proved a worthy front-line counterpart for Rollins. Their joint choral statements were closer to interplay than harmonization; they seemed to form a mutual inspiration society. Anderson's solos added much needed firepower which both complemented the maestro and compensated for Rollins' more conservative improvisatory moments. Anderson's feature on Duke Ellington's "In My Solitude" stands out as a highlight of the concert. His flurry-filled solo, combined with the reserved accompaniment of the rhythm section, brought just enough life to Ellington's ballad without overcooking it (an occasional habit of Rollins' past bands).

The greatest spectacle of the night, both visually and aurally, was Sonny Rollins himself. An imposing figure clad in black (with the exception of his red Converse sneakers), Rollins stalked the stage throughout the performance, pouncing out toward the audience at one moment, bouncing back toward his drummer at the next. His improvisations combined the high- and low-brow, interweaving complex patterns and quotes from pop tunes. Contacting the muse seemingly at will, Rollins would abstain from soloing for one song, then follow with a 10-minute-plus tour-de-force in the following tune. His freewheeling rendition of "They Say It's Wonderful" (from Annie Get Your Gun) drained the saccharin from the showtune. At the peak improvisatory moment of the night, Rollins followed the closing melodic statement of the tune with an extended unaccompanied solo, deconstructing the melody into its individual parts, playing with each in turn, then reintroducing his band to close the piece.

Rollins closed out the performance with another calypso, the West Indian folksong "Don't Stop the Carnival." Rollins seemed to feed off the energy of the crowd, playfully examining the entire range of his tenor saxophone, conjuring the highest altissimo wails and lowest foghorn blares. He then paused, while the band played on, to restate some of his environmental qualms. "We gotta live easy on the planet," Rollins implored. "Stop driving all those SUVs." Perhaps realizing that he could touch his audience much more powerfully with his horn than with his words, he finally sighed and said, "Y'all understand what I mean," before closing out the piece as he began it, with his horn.

At the end of the second half, the Berklee audience responded with a standing ovation filled with screams and whistles. Despite the audience's rather explicit requests for an encore, Rollins waved his fist in the air in a show of solidarity with his fans and hurried off without playing another note. Despite their apparent disappointment at being deprived of a bonus tune, one thing is for certain-no one sitting in that audience will ever consider 70 old again.

SONNY ROLLINS

at

Berklee Performance Center

Oct. 27

at

Berklee Performance Center

Oct. 27