{"id":50390,"date":"2018-03-27T12:41:08","date_gmt":"2018-03-27T16:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/?p=50390"},"modified":"2024-08-07T22:30:18","modified_gmt":"2024-08-08T02:30:18","slug":"the-sonny-rollins-omnibook-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/2018\/03\/the-sonny-rollins-omnibook-review\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sonny Rollins Omnibook Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

*I posted all the recordings I could find on Youtube that go with this transcription book at the bottom of this review………Enjoy!<\/em><\/p>\n

My first recording of Sonny Rollins that I heard as a teenager was “Saxophone Colossus”.\u00a0 I checked it out of the local library. I didn’t play tenor saxophone back then but I was interested in anything having to do with jazz so I checked it out.\u00a0 \u00a0I remember trying to get into it, but it was so different than the “jazz” I had been listening to at the time.\u00a0 I had been mostly listening to a combination of David Sanborn, Spyro Gyra, Hank Crawford and Chuck Mangione.\u00a0 I was probably in 9th grade at the time and sorry to say a bit to young and unseasoned to appreciate what I was hearing on Saxophone Colossus……….<\/p>\n

About 4-5 years later, in college, I got into Michael Brecker and bought a tenor saxophone.\u00a0 I remember being at Berklee and a recital was happening that week that a tenor sax student from NEC was playing on.\u00a0 (I cannot for the life of me remember who the student was but wonder if it was maybe Kenny Brooks as he went to NEC in 1988 I believe…….but I don’t know for sure).\u00a0 My friends told me this student from NEC was totally into Sonny Rollins and as I was sitting at the recital I remember being totally blown away.\u00a0 I loved everything about the way this guy played the tenor sax.\u00a0 His sound was amazing.\u00a0 Full, lush and huge and he was one of the most swingin’ students I had ever heard.\u00a0 His lines were amazing also!\u00a0 It wasn’t a modern sound or modern lines but just “old school” straight ahead swing with killin’ lines.\u00a0 I remember being totally stoked as I left that recital and thinking that that was how I wanted to sound on the tenor saxophone.\u00a0 If he was into Sonny Rollins, then I needed to get into Sonny Rollins!<\/p>\n

I left that recital and went straight to Tower Records and bought Saxophone Colossus,\u00a0 A Night at the Village Vanguard, Sonny Side Up and I believe Tenor Madness.\u00a0 I am glad to write that at that point in my development, I was much more appreciative of these albums and Sonny Rollins as a player.\u00a0 I listened to them non-stop for about a month and all the elements I loved about that recital I could hear magnified a hundredfold in those recordings with Sonny Rollins.<\/p>\n

Recently, I received an email that Hal Leonard was releasing a Sonny Rollins Omnibook for the tenor saxophone and all that excitement from the late 80’s came flooding back to me.\u00a0 I had to check this out!\u00a0 I contacted Hal Leonard and asked if I could review a copy.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sonny Rollins Omnibook<\/strong><\/p>\n

I received the Sonny Rollins Omnibook a few days ago.\u00a0 I had actually forgotten about it, so when I received the package in the mail I had no idea what it was.\u00a0 I opened it in the kitchen in front of my wife and when I saw what it was I got a huge grin on my face and started dancing around the kitchen with the book saying “Oh Yeah!, Oh Yeah, Oh Yeah!”\u00a0 She was laughing at me because she can’t believe I am a fifty year old man at times…….<\/p>\n

Yesterday, I spent a few hours going through the book.\u00a0 I didn’t do any playing,\u00a0 but I went through the book listening to the tracks as I followed along with the transcriptions.\u00a0 I could find all of these tracks on Youtube which was awesome!\u00a0 There were a few that were harder to find but if you try different search words you can find them.\u00a0 For example, I couldn’t find\u00a0 “Wail when searching with “Sonny Rollins” but I could find it when I searched for it with the word “Navarro” (It is on a Fats Navarro album). I also couldn’t find “There Will Never Be Another You” but could find it if I searched for “Rollins Stockholm 1959”)<\/p>\n

The Sonny Rollins Omnibook was transcribed by Chris “Doc” Stewart who was a student of Charlie Shoemake.\u00a0 There are some great paragraphs on the second page of the book where Chris writes about how he studied with Charlie Shoemake and Charlie would use Sonny Rollins transcriptions with Chris in their lessons.\u00a0 Here is a quote from Chris on this:<\/p>\n

“By using Sonny’s transcribed solos, Charlie pointed out to me how Sonny would craft his improvisations following an incredibly well thought out set of musical rules that respected all the important elements of jazz.”-Chris “Doc” Stewart<\/em><\/p>\n

I also love this quote from Charlie Shoemake who Chris asked to pick out all the solos that would be included in the Sonny Rollins Omnibook.<\/p>\n

“He (Sonny) exemplified the most creative, in-depth mastery of the basic three elements of music: melody, rhythm and harmony.\u00a0 Sonny has mastered his craft to the point that his improvisations are completely free of any restriction but still maintain the basic structure of the song.\u00a0 This to me-though it’s a very difficult task and one that requires enormous work-is what truly great jazz playing is supposed to be about……..By studying Sonny Rollins, you will be dealing with not just a portion of the necessary elements of jazz music, but with ALL of them.\u00a0 He has been and always will be a gigantic influence on the way jazz music should be played.”-Charlie Shoemake<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sonny Rollins Omnibook<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first thing I noticed about the Sonny Rollins Omnibook is that Chris “Doc” Stewart went above and beyond in the details included in these transcriptions.\u00a0 In many of the transcriptions, there are trumpet lines included, piano lines (many with the voicing written out), bass cues, three part harmony lines when there are three parts in the melody such as when Rollins is playing with Sonny Stitt and Miles.\u00a0 During the rests it tells you what instrument is soloing or if there is trading fours with drums going on.\u00a0 All of these specifics make it so much easier to find where you are in the transcriptions.<\/p>\n

The other details that are great is that there are a ton of articulation markings throughout each solo to help with how to play these solos like Sonny Rollins.\u00a0 As I look through the book I see all sorts of, slurs, accents, staccato markings, ghost notes, grace notes, scooped notes, etc…….<\/p>\n

It is also obvious that Chris did not just fill in the known chords of each tune over the transcriptions but added the details of the chords even when there were alterations or substitutions.\u00a0 You can easily see this as you look through each tune and compare the chords of each chorus. Many times there are differences in each chorus as you compare chords.\u00a0 This is a cool feature for those of us interested in the harmonies going on behind these solos.<\/p>\n

The Sonny Rollins Omnibook Song List<\/strong><\/p>\n

Airegin,\u00a0 All the Things You Are, Almost Like Being in Love, Blue Seven, Bouncing with Bud, But Not For Me, Compulsion, Dance of the Infidels, Dig, Down, Doxy, Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye, 52nd Street Theme, I Know That You Know, I Remember You, I Want to be Happy, I’ll Remember April, I’ll Take Romance, In Your Own Sweet Way, Just In Time, The Last Time I Saw Paris, Mambo Bounce, Moving Out, Namely You, No Moe, Old Devil Moon, Oleo, On a Slow Boat To China, Out of the Blue, Pent Up House, Raincheck, St. Thomas, The Scene Is Clean, Scoops, The Serpent’s Tooth, Solid, Sonnymoon for Two, Strode Rode, Tenor Madness, There Will Never Be Another You, Toot, Toot, Tootsie (Good-Bye!), Tune Up, Valse Hot, Vierd Blues, Wail, What Is This Thing Called Love, When Your Lover Has Gone, Whispering, Woodyn’ You, You Stepped Out of a Dream<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

As I mentioned earlier, I spent a few hours going through the Sonny Rollins Omnibook yesterday.\u00a0 I wanted to add just a few of my “Wow” moments that I encountered.<\/p>\n