1. Thread

Happy 90th birthday to the greatest of them all -- @sonnyrollins. I have no bigger hero in or out of jazz. In his honor here's a playlist of 25 brilliant live performances that span nearly 50 years, from 1957-2006.

2. Caveat: Some of my absolute favorite performances --"Remember" from Newport in '63; an epic 48-minute version of "Four" & 32-minute "Three Little Words" captured in Copenhagen in '68 -- are not on YouTube. But what's here is choice. Like Bird, the best Sonny is live Sonny .

3 “Bye, Bye Blackbird” w/Miles Davis 5qt, Café Bohemia, NY, 7/27/57. Fun to hear Miles in this era with Sonny rather than Trane. Sonny sounds a bit sassy here, and he's seriously swinging. Red, PC. Art Taylor. (Note: Tape is running 1/2 step fast.)

4 "Old Devil Moon,” Village Vanguard, NY 11/3/57 Wilbur Ware/Elvin Jones. Favorite track from my all-time favorite LP. Dazzling flow of spontaneous & witty melodic/rhythmic rhyme from greatest standards player ever. The trio is as flexible as a rubber band

5 "Striver’s Row,” Village Vanguard, NY, 11/3/57. Wilbur Ware/Elvin Jones. A romp through the changes to "Confirmation." Almost as good as "Old Devil Moon." Sometimes I think it might be better. Still sounds state-of-the-art 63 years later.

6 “Woody ‘N You,” Aix-en-Provence, France, 3/11/59 Henry Grimes, Kenny Clarke. The chiseled strength of Sonny's sound, his relentless intensity, and indefatigable stamina all foreshadow his work in the '60s.

7 "St. Thomas,” Nalen, Stockholm, Sweden 3/2/59 Henry Grimes, Pete La Roca. A crackling performance full of thematic ideas and surprising twists like the slip-sliding out of key at 2:16

8 "Without a Song," Playboy Jazz Fest, Chi, 8/9/59, Bob Cranshaw/Walter Perkins. Sonny's last gig before his sabbatical & 1st gig w/Cranshaw. Dig Sonny's spur-of-the-moment modulation coming out of his solo tenor cadenza & how Cranshaw is all over it.

9 “If Ever I Would Leave You,” Ralph J. Gleason's "Jazz Casual" (television). 3/23/62. Sonny stretches out on TV. Imagine seeing this in real time when it aired. Thematic improvisation, ecstatic rhythm and a bellowing tone.

10 "Oleo," Village Gate, NY, 7/27/62. Sonny’s landmark LP “Our Man in Jazz” introduced the most challenging band he ever led, w/ Don Cherry, Cranshaw, Billy Higgins. A tour de force, "Oleo" shows how it balanced abstraction & form. Loose but anchored.

11 "Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” Village Gate, NY, 7/28/62. Beyond "Our Man in Jazz," RCA recorded 350 (!) additional minutes at the Gate never officially released. What a nutty song choice this! (I. Berlin, 1911.) Great interplay between Sonny & Cherry
.

12 "Everything Happens to Me, Paris," Paris, 1/19/63. Lots of European bootlegs of Sonny w/ Cherry, Grimes, Higgins in ’63, tho hard to find pitch-corrected versions. This one sounds just a little flat. Muscular, unsentimental but affecting ballad playing

13 "All the Things You Are," Newport Jazz Fest, 7/7/63. Hawkins/Bley/Grimes/McCurdy. The live meeting between Sonny & Hawk is far more electric than the studio recording a week later. Bley & Sonny had a connection. Super loose but still playing the tune.

14 "Mack the Knife," Tokyo, 9/19/63. Sonny's only other live performance with Paul Bley that’s surfaced on tape beyond Newport. The wildest "Mack the Knife I know. Unless it’ a pseudonym, this is the only recording of Cherry-like trumpeter Reshid, Kmal Ali.

15 "Oleo/Sonnymoon For Two/Darn That Dream,” Copenhagen, 10/31/65. Top-shelf Sonny. he three minutes of improvisation starting at 26:48 amounts to the most greatest soloing over "I Got Rhythm" that I know. Definition of jazz: Sonny Rollins and a good trio

16 “I Can’t Get Started/3 Little Words/St. Thomas)/There Will Never Be Another You,” Paris 11/4/65. Gilbert Rovere/Art Taylor. Most inspired Sonny on film. Olympian authority understates the case. Almost everyone else in jazz sounds like child after this. http://saxonthetube.blogspot.com/2014/10/sonny-rollins-live-in-paris-on-november.html

17 "Will You Still Be Mine," London, TV broadcast taped, 11/6/66 (“Jazz Goes to College: Sonny Rollins/Max Roach.") I'd LOVE to see the video of this reunion with Max. Sonny catches fire on "Will You Still Be Mine." Also with Ronnie Mathews/Jymie Merritt.

18 "Naima", Copenhagen, 9/6/68, Drew/NHOP/Heath. From one giant to another, a heart-rendering farewell to Coltrane a year after his death. Sonny stays close to the melody. The only recording of him playing Trane's anthem. Did he play it on other gigs?

19 "Love Letters," 1973. I'm not sure of the location. I wish the guitarist would shut up -- he's just cluttering up the works, but, Sonny doesn't seem to care -- he's burning. Great little solo cadenza too. Always liked drummer David Lee's groove.

20 "Autumn Nocturne," San Francisco, 4/78. Sonny goes it alone for more than 4 minutes of dazzling a cappella improvisation. A bright spot among Sonny's often disappointing official releases in the ' 70s and early '80s.

21 Untitled solo, Tonight Show, 1979. I still can't believe that Sonny played a 6-1/2 minute a cappella solo on national TV. (Guest host Bill Cosby made it happen.) I heard about this not long after it happened and then waited 35 years to actually see it. .

22 "I’ll Be Seeing You, Montreal," 6/82. Sonny sings the hell out of the tune, before launching into five minutes-plus of trading with Jack DeJohnette. Punch & counter-punch. Some of Sonny's purest bebop lines since the '60s flow from his subconscious

23 "My One and Only Love," Montreal, 6/82. Same concert as above. Beautiful ballad playing -- Sonny plays songs as if he really loves them. Plus, another brilliant cadenza. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=FxpRNju_Bkw

24 East of the Sun , Copenhagen, 5/27/85, with Mark Soskin, Bobby Broom, Victor Bailey, Tommy Campbell. Not a band build for swinging, but Sonny just powers through the clutter and clunk in chorus after chorus. Such a joyful improviser!

25 “Best Wishes,” Tokyo, 5/25/86. Paced by Al Foster's driving drums, Sonny turns in what for me is his most exciting & inspired playing on the "Road Shows" compilations. Amazing how he keeps foregrounding the tune, spinning his variations off the melody.

26 "G-Man,” Saugerties, NY, 8/16/86, with Soskin, Cranshaw, @TheRealSmittone Another track where Sonny never gives up the ball. Fifteen minutes of brisk and glorious G dominant 7. Go, man!

27 Coda: Let me interrupt the playlist to note that the Saugerties concert is the one where Sonny jumped off a ledge mid-tune, ended up breaking his ankle, yet continued to play. Here's film of that remarkable episode. Talk about staying in the moment

28 "Someday I’ll Find You," Toulouse, 5/15/06. Sonny revives Noel Coward's waltz nearly 60 years after first recording it in '58. After Bobby Broom's guitar, Sonny improvises for eight minutes. Energy & inspiration never flag; he keeps finding another gear

29 Errata: I inadvertently singled out the wrong section of Sonny's improvisation on "Oleo" in Tweet #15. What I meant to highlight starts at 29:26 & continues 4-1/2 minutes until 33:56. THAT's the greatest "Rhythm changes" playing that I know. Sorry for the confusion.