The subs of Sonny-fest
Several musicians answered the call at two shows from last weekend's Sonny Rollins mini-fest presented by Infidels Jazz
The greatest living jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins' 95th birthday was this past Sunday, September 7th. That date was the last of five consecutive days across which 11 Sonny-themed shows took place, together presented by Infidels Jazz as Vancouver Celebrates Sonny Rollins.
The first show was at La Fabrique St-George last week on September 3. For Fabrique's weekly Wednesday evening gig, tenor saxophonist Jon Bentley played the music of Rollins' 1962 album The Bridge, which featured guitarist Jim Hall in a quartet. Joining Bentley were David Sikula subbing for Bill Coon on guitar, Conrad Good on bass, and Joe Poole on drums. With Coon on guitar, they had presented this theme at Hero's Welcome back on May 18th.
I've heard plenty of straight-ahead Jon Bentley, including his own organ quartet music. But it was fun to hear him lean even further old-school on the classic Rollins repertoire. His high-pitched, often high-powered sound mellowed out just a bit. Good and Poole are an ideal rhythm section for the occasion, and indeed, they anchored other gigs throughout the mini-fest. Good also played in Steve Kaldestad's Sonny Rollins on Impulse! show at Frankie's on the Friday, while Poole played twice more: in Dave Say's Way Out West chordless trio at Frankie's the next night, and in Brent Mah's Newk's Time band at Tyrant on the Friday.
Fabrique demands three (or really two-and-a-half) sets of music, so after Bentley's band covered The Bridge's tracklist, they turned to a Jim Hall record as a secondary theme. Hall's influence on the Canadian scene is enduring. For one, guitarists like Bill Coon who learned directly from Hall have been important educators on the scene. (Sikula has quite a different sound than Coon. To me he's broader and more amped-up, far closer to Ed Bickert than to Hall.) Additionally, since guitarists are overrepresented among students versus how many there have been in the music's century-plus history, educators need go-to records to show guitar students how it's done. And notwithstanding all of that, These Rooms, recorded 1962 by the Jim Hall Trio and Tom Harrell, is just really good.
"With a Song in My Heart" from These Rooms is probably the canon version of the standard today.
