This Is What I Do

Artist: Sonny Rollins
Label: Milestone
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 025218931021
EAN: 0025218931021
ASIN: B00004Z3ZD

Release Date: 2000-11-14

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Tracks:

Salvador
Sweet Leilani
Did You See Harold Vick?
A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square
Charles M.
The Moon Of Manakoora

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Customer Reviews:

DID YOU SEE HAROLD VICK ?.......2006-03-03

SONNY ROLLINS LOVES TO PUT "DIDDIES" IN HIS TUNES, AND THOSE HUMOROUS NOTES AND MELODIES IS A HALLMARK OF SONNY'S PLAYING STYLE. DID YOU SEE HAROLD VICK ? IT'S COMICAL AND HAS A GROOVE THAT MAKES YOU WANT TO DANCE. SONNY HAS A LOT OF ALBUMS YOU CAN BUY TO LISTEN TO, BUY THIS ONE FOR THE " GROOVE".HAROLD VICK IS A TENOR PLAYER OUT OF CHICAGO. I'M NOT SURE WHAT THIS TITLE IMPLIES

THE MASTER'S NEW MASTERPIECE ! 2002 GRAMMY WINNER.......2004-07-19

FIVE HUGE STARS!! "This is What I Do" is a HUGE CD and it's a Grammy Winner to boot. It's the continuation of Sonny Rollins' production of outstanding albums, decade after decade: from "Saxphone Colossus", "Freedom Suite", "The Bridge", "Our Man in Jazz","East Broadway Run Down", "Don't Stop the Carnival", "Global Warming", and many more, he does it over and over. "This is What I Do" is simply amazingly inventive and totally enjoyable from beginning to end by Jazz' Premier Elder Statesman.

Only Sonny Rollins could find fertile improvisational utility in esoterica like "Sweet Leilani"(delivered as a bluesy New Orleans funeral march) and "The Moon of Manakoora" (a starkly beautiful hip ballad) in the same CD. I have played these two songs over and over and they are breath-taking on each pass. "Salvador" finds Rollins in his full 'hide in plain sight' mode, changing the song with each pass over the main theme, giving a graphic demonstration of true thematic improvisation. The group, especially Stephen Scott and Clifton Anderson, is wonderful. Bob Cranshaw continues to be Rollin's solid bedrock on electric bass. And Jack DeJohnette is still THE MAN on drums.

Finding the 'quotes' from songs on the CD is fun because they are well hidden, but accessible. Can you find "I'm Just Wild About Harry" four times on "Did You See Harold Vick?" How about Scott's quote of "Shimmy Like Your Sister Kate" on "Sweet Leilani"? It's wild!!

6 decades into his wonderful career, I wish Sonny many more years of great production and CD's like "This Is What I DO". For Rollins, age is no factor. And if you have the chance to see him live, do it: it's one of Jazz' great experiences and it'll blow your mind. Don't miss this CD. Five HUGE Stars!!

Great Melodic Improvisation.......2002-10-04

If you enjoy listening to melodic ideas, and improvisations on a theme, you'll like both Rollins' and Scott's work on Salvador, a very joyful tune. The Harold Vick song is a wonder; how Sonny comes up with all those ideas based on a simple four note/five note pattern, only heaven knows.

Many players are hard to connect with; they drive too fast, and try to say too much. These guys tell stories, using phrases, sentences, paragraphs and spaces.

Whatever it took.......2002-03-26

This album is a testimony to the beneficial effects of adversity. In it, Sonny Rollins, who has not had a particularly easy or uncomplicated life, blows pure music from a beautiful soul, and his ensemble follows right along.
Others have reviewed the album tune for tune, so I won't do that other than to say that the seemingly simple lyricism is not so simple after all. As in the playing of Miles Davis, each note counts, not only in its melodic placement and rhythm but above all in its texture.

If CDs had grooves, my copy of this album would have long been worn out.

70 years young and still blowing with perfection.......2001-12-02

What can I say, the title of the album says it all...This is what I do. And he does, with exceptional wit and authority. The album starts of with a great calypso hook, "Salvador". Then Sonny plays a rear and enjoyable sweet ballad titled "Sweet Leilani" with a graceful touch. After the groovy "Did You See Harold Vick?" and an elegant ballad "A Nightingale Sang in Berkley Square", Sonny ventures into the world of Charles Mingus with a nice tribute original titled, "Charles M.". He exits the album with a sensitive yet stylistic, "The Moon of Manakoora." All in all this album plays beautifully and Sonny really shows strength on improvisation with controlled crooning. At 70, he plays better than most of the young guns today. He is still the master of the sax. Anyone who enjoys Sonny Rollins or Jazz in general will be truly satisfied with this CD.

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