Talk:Sonny Rollins

Songwriter?
I don't know that the category of Songwriter (in any of its sub-cats) would apply to Rollins. Composer, certainly, but the term 'songwriter' has a different connotation (and probably different denotation also - one who writes tunes with words). One wouldn't call an instrumental classical (or jazz) piece a song. - Special-T (talk) 22:56, 4 November 2010 (UTC)
 * It maybe fits, given that Oleo (song) is sitting classified in Category:Jazz songs, but I agree that it doesn't feel right. See previous debates on category names, such as Wikipedia:Categories_for_discussion/Log/2009_July_11. AllyD (talk) 23:12, 4 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Maybe Charlie Parker is a decent analogy. He's not in Category:Songwriters from Kansas but is in Category:American jazz composers. Rollins is also in the latter. So maybe this article should just lose Category:Songwriters from New York? AllyD (talk) 23:18, 4 November 2010 (UTC)

I don't really have an answer. It kind of hinges on the definition Wikipedia wants to use for "songwriter". Certainly the connotation is more Carole King than Charlie Parker, which is what struck me as odd about Rollins' inclusion in any songwriter category. OTOH, what noun would we use to define "Oleo"? The colloquial "tune" is probably not a good choice... I agree with the above-mentioned discussion that "Composition" is much better. - Special-T (talk) 23:26, 4 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Maybe as a Contrafact? (But I'm not suggesting a Jazz Contrafact Composer category) AllyD (talk) 08:10, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

A Contrafact category may be useful. It's a pretty rarefied term, but I don't think there's a more common/recognizable word for it. This happens all the time in jazz - the nice, specific, academic musical term for something is never actually used colloquially (the classical "major-minor-seventh" chord is what non-classical musicians just call a "seventh" chord). - Special-T (talk) 14:11, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

Sources belong here, not in external links
These sources do not belong in External links. I have moved the link farm from there to this talk page where they do belong. Warning: I didn't check them over, so be careful in choosing any references here. Thank you! --Leahtwosaints (talk) 12:24, 3 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Documentary about Sonny's new CD "SONNY, PLEASE"
 * Night Lights radio show featuring excerpts from Rollins' live 1965 appearances at Ronnie Scott's
 * Review of Sonny Please by JazzChicago.net
 * Sonny Rollins multimedia directory
 * Sonny Rollins: The Titan Remembers - slideshow by Life magazine

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 1 one external link on Sonny Rollins. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20150709190919/http://www.thelodownny.com/leslog/2015/07/from-our-magazine-remembering-the-people-of-400-402-grand-st.html to http://www.thelodownny.com/leslog/2015/07/from-our-magazine-remembering-the-people-of-400-402-grand-st.html

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Cheers. —cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 16:08, 17 October 2015 (UTC)

Nonsensical Quote?
Stanley Crouch seems to strongly praise Rollins rather than support the author's goal (quote below). Also, this section does not seem consistent, in style or content, with the effort to chronicle chapters in Rollins' life.

And not to offend the philosophical sensibility of Wikipedia, but is there some centralized focus on cleaning up the (specifically Jazz, though generally applicable) entries? The bad writing, popular orientation and posturing of wikipedia give it both the "editorial" freedom to puke nonsense in addition to the prestige normally conferred on reputable and thoughtful efforts. Most of this page, and others, reads like the work of a first year student, and if wikipedia is how younger people increasingly define knowledge, something should be done to raise awareness that, minimally, bad writing is not OK.

START QUOTE FROM PAGE

Critics such as Gary Giddins and Stanley Crouch have noted the disparity between Rollins the recording artist, and Rollins the concert artist. In a May 2005 New Yorker profile, Crouch wrote of Rollins the concert artist:

Over and over, decade after decade, from the late seventies through the eighties and nineties, there he is, Sonny Rollins, the saxophone colossus, playing somewhere in the world, some afternoon or some eight o'clock somewhere, pursuing the combination of emotion, memory, thought, and aesthetic design with a command that allows him to achieve spontaneous grandiloquence. With its brass body, its pearl-button keys, its mouthpiece, and its cane reed, the horn becomes the vessel for the epic of Rollins' talent and the undimmed power and lore of his jazz ancestors. 77.165.64.198 (talk) 23:42, 8 June 2018 (UTC)