Sonny Rollins - Without a Song (The 9/11 Concert)

Press Release from Fantasy Records: (now a part of Concord Records)

Tenor saxophonist SONNY ROLLINS has completed mixing a new Milestone album for 8/30 release. The CD, Without a Song (The 9/11 Concert), is taken from a show he did at the Berklee Performance Center in Boston on September 15, 2001, just four days after the World Trade Center attacks.

On the 12th Rollins, who had been in his Lower Manhattan apartment at the time of the attacks, was evacuated by authorities along with other building residents. Since planes were grounded, Sonny and his band had to drive to Boston for their Berklee concert, long scheduled for the 15th. Once onstage, he proceeded to unleash a powerful, emotion-charged performance for the next two and a half hours, to the astonishment and delight of the sold-out crowd. (The band that night consisted of Clifton Anderson, trombone; Stephen Scott, piano; Bob Cranshaw, bass; Perry Wilson, drums; Kimati Dinizulu, percussion.)

A single disc with 72 minutes of exhilarating music has been culled from the concert. It will be Sonny's first new recording since This Is What I Do (2000), which earned him a Grammy--his first--for Best Jazz Performance. It's also his first live album since 1978's Don't Stop the Carnival (cut at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco). In addition to the title track, which Sonny last recorded on The Bridge (1962), the songs are: "Global Warming," "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square," "Why Was I Born," and "Where or When."

Without a Song's release will also coincide with the 75th birthday (9/7) of the Saxophone Colossus.