Doxy, Oleo, Airegin

Miles Davis and Sonny Rollins

I stopped work on Chapter 3 last night when I heard the news of the death of Sonny Rollins.

The passing of a beloved artist is sad enough, but Sonny Rollins’s death also marks the end of an era. Sonny Rollins was the last of the brilliant and uncompromising virtuosos who turned riffs, show tunes, and dance rhythms into bebop and beyond, a musical legacy of magic and truth we are still absorbing.

But as Paul Motian wrote, “music…exists. It’s not part of technology, it’s not recorded. It’s part of the soul. It’s there.” The music of Sonny Rollins and Miles Davis, who would have turned 100 years old today, is part of our souls, as present as it ever has been.

Mr. Rollins did what he came to do, shared the best of himself with all who listened, and died the beloved elder of the worldwide jazz community. As Aidan Levy’s monumental, engrossing, and wonderfully-written Rollins biography quietly shows, Sonny’s music was at the center of a life well-lived, not in terms of comfort and wealth, but of a life of boldness, bravery, clear intent and pure purpose. We have Sonny’s wonderful music— in recordings, in our memories, in our hearts— which means we have the best of Sonny himself. We have all we need.

Sheesh, such heavy words are nothing like the music of Sonny Rollins or Miles Davis! Their music is a reverently irreverent celebration of life, filled with humor, perfect for public or private enjoyment, good for families, kids, or adults, sounds great on holidays, regular days, morning noon or night. Miles and Sonny— it’s just the best stuff.

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The Miles Davis recording session on an ordinary Tuesday in June 1954, the debut of no less than three all-time Sonny Rollins melodies: “Doxy”, “Oleo”, and “Airegin” was what I reached for when I heard the news.

Kenny Clarke, born in 1914, ten years (almost to the day!) before Max Roach, connects the future sounds of Rollins, Davis, Horace Silver, and Percy Heath to ancient African American traditions, with a smile on his face and the perfect ratio of on-beats and off-beats. Clarke’s cymbal beat is the heart of this music.

I listen and I am glad: this music is filled with the stuff of life, so brilliant and so much fun that I can barely believe it was recorded. How did these notes and rhythms stay on the tape? They’re so alive and free you’d think they’d just float away.

Sonny Rollins and Miles Davis put the best of themselves in their music and then gave it to us. Listen to the records or think about their music, either way, Paul Motian was right: their music is part of the soul. It’s there.