WMPG’s Jazz At the Movies presents the film Sonny Rollins: Beyond The Notes, Saturday, March 21st at 7pm
WMPG’s Jazz At The Movies and The Portland Conservatory of Music are pleased to present “Sonny Rollins: Beyond The Notes”, a film about the living jazz legend saxophonist Sonny Rollins.
Called the Saxophone Colossus, Rollins is a giant who strode across the history of jazz, bridging bebop and the avant-garde over his fabulous 7 decade career. He is the only living musician who played with Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis and John Coltrane in the Golden Age of Jazz.
Cinematographer Dick Fontaine's film, Sonny Rollins: Beyond The Notes was made for the BBC in 2010. Fontaine first started following and filming Sonny during the musician’s self imposed sabbatical 50 years earlier, when Sonny was playing on the Williamsburg Bridge late at night, back when he had chosen to leave the scene to work on his
music and find himself.
The footage Fontaine shot back then became the 1968 TV documentary “Who Is Sonny Rollins? “. Four decades later, Dick Fountain caught up again with Rollins who had invited several other jazz masters he had played with, including drummer Roy Haynes, guitarist Jim Hall, trumpeter Roy Hargrove, Ornette Coleman, and bass player Christian McBride, to help him celebrate his 80th birthday at the Beacon Theater. What resulted was a movie of that historic concert with the 80 year old saxophonist at full throttle, joined by other great musicians celebrating his jazz journey. Beyond The Notes is an inspiring movie about an artist who made momentous choices in his quest for perfection and his search for meaning in life, and who grew to true greatness.
Fontaine used Sonny’s 80th birthday to look into the man and his music. Early footage shows Rollins revisiting his life and early influences, with clips from Fats Waller, Louis Jordan, and Charlie Parker, and reflecting on his role in jazz’s long history. In this movie, Rollins does not just celebrate himself, but the others who had contributed to and advanced the music they loved and believed in, and its future for coming generations.
“Beyond The Notes” is about the great saxophonist Sonny Rollins, the last surviving musician from Art Kane’s famous 1958 group photo of New York jazz musicians, A Great Day in Harlem . Please join us in celebrating this living legend, Saturday night, April 18th, for WMPG’s screening of Sonny Rollins: Beyond The Notes, 7pm, at the Portland Conservatory of Music, 28 Neal St., Portland. Admission is Free, and donations are gladly accepted.