Sonny Rollins Marks Carnegie Debut Anniversary With Concert

By I Jun. 15, 2007

On the evening of November 29, 1957, tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins, then 27 years old, took to the stage of Carnegie Hall for the first time. Sharing the bill that night with Billie Holiday, Ray Charles and the Thelonious Monk Quartet featuring John Coltrane, Rollins played three songs—“Moritat,” “Sonnymoon for Two” and “Some Enchanted Evening”—with bassist Wendell Marshall and drummer Kenny Dennis.

Come September 18 of this year, Rollins will mark the 50th anniversary of that milestone in his legendary career by revisiting the same repertoire in the same trio format—with special guests Roy Haynes on drums and Christian McBride on bass. Sonny’s own Oleo Productions will present the concert, which will also feature a set with his working band of Clifton Anderson, Bobby Broom, Bob Cranshaw and Kimati Dinizulu.

“We’re making a statement with this event,” Rollins said in a news release. “First of all, the concert is being produced in-house by the musicians, and being recorded for my own label (Doxy). It’s also a validation of the contemporaries that Roy and I played with, and an affirmation of the music we’ve been involved with all our lives.”

Tickets go on sale July 30 online at carnegiehall.org, by phone (CarnegieCharge) at 212-247-7800 or at the box office at 57th Street and 7th Avenue. The concert recording, to be released in spring 2008 by Doxy Records, will also include the 1957 trio material—a 20-minute tape recently made available to Rollins by the Library of Congress.