My favorite Sony Rollins story: he heard ‘Waiting on a Friend’ in a grocery store.<p>He thought to himself, “finally, a Rolling Stones song that I like.”<p>Then he remembered he was the saxophone player on the song…
I saw Sonny Rollins at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1997. I bought a single ticket from a classified ad. The group who sold it were about 10 or 12 people who have been attending together for 30 years — the type of people you would want to be sitting with there.<p>Diana Krall opened and by open I mean she was the first of 4 acts and had a free concert a couple days before at a coffee shop down the street — practically unknown.<p>Sonny Rollins headlined and for the encore he played La Cucaracha. After about 20 minutes of La Cucaracha the pianist was signaling to the sound engineer to cut the sound. 5 minutes later the band one by one started to put down their instruments walking off the stage. Sonny Rollins kept belting La Cucaracha from his saxophone probably for another half hour or more after that. Life is good.
We saw him live in Kansas City in 1998. He soloed for 36 choruses on St. Thomas. Gave the people what they came to see. Amazing to have so many ideas flow effortlessly.
Comes just a few days after the death of Dick Parry, Pink Floyd's saxophonist.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Parry" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Parry</a>
He was the last of the legends.