Sonny Rollins is one of the greatest and most influential jazz saxophonists in jazz history.
He has played with Charlie Parker, Clifford Brown, Max Roach, Thelonius Monk and the list goes on and on.
Some of his recordings as a leader include The Bridge, A Night at the Village Vanguard( the first live recording at the Village Vanguard), Tenor Madness, Saxophone Colossus and Freedom Suite.
A more complete discography can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonny_Rollins_discography
Over the years I was lucky enough to see Sonny Rollins perform live.
At one of these concerts I had the opportunity to meet him. It was at the Berklee Performance Center in Boston, Massachusetts around 1980. It was my first semester at Berklee as a saxophone performance/jazz composition student.
After the show I went to the stage entrance with a friend who was determined to get backstage. Somehow my friend was able to get us into Sonny Rollins dressing room area which was packed with guests and people from the press. I stood there in the middle of the room not knowing how exactly my friend did this when Sonny Rollins came into the room. He looked straight at me and smiled. Then walked down the hallway to a small office/dressing room.
I was in shock!
I was trying to figure out how to talk to him when we heard that he had left the building. My friend and I went looking for him in the back entrance of the building where we found him standing outside his limo autographing someone’s guitar by scratching his initials into the guitar with a nail.
In an attempt to try and get his autograph and not having a pen, I asked the driver and a lady in the car for a pen. No one had a pen. I then turned around as Sonny finished autographing the guitar. He turned and looked at me. I was standing next to someone who had been with Bird, Clifford Brown and John Coltrane to name a few. It was pretty overwhelming.
I told him that I was a big fan and really enjoyed his show. He thanked me with a big smile and shook my hand and then got into the limo. My friend and I started walking away.
As we walked down the street, Sonny Rollins limo passed us and I saw Sonny in the small back window of the limo waving to us. That made my day.
