I first heard this song on the radio about ten years ago, but had no idea what it was. The melody seared my brain for years, and I hummed it to tons of deejays and so called music lovers, but no one could tell me what it was. Well, my parents were on a cruise and my mom heard a band playing the tune I had hummed to her. After the show, she hunted down one of the musicians and got the name of the song. Best gift she ever gave me... Besides life of course.
My dad's favorite tune. Or one of them at least. He always hummed this song when he was in a good mood, it was a sure sign. He would have turned 70 today so that's why I'm listening to this clip. Sorta trying to imagine what he would have felt had he heard it. I think he would have loved how the pianist quotes Rollins' original solo from the record.
This song was played at my dads funeral. Its was a beautifull thing! As my mom and dad had great memories of the song! My father used to run a jazzfestival in Norway! And Sonny rollins visiting their home was a great ordeal for them! :) I have heard the song many times through my childhood. Many good memories! :) RIP dad! I miss you so much!
I recently read a magazine article that stated there was a time in Sonny's life when he quit performing and got up everyday and went up on a bridge and just practiced all day. Of course everybody thought he was crazy, but I like that kind of devotion to his craft.
he took sabbaticals from professional music at least twice. the reason he did it is due to his personal commitment to music. to play like sonny, or trane or bird and countless others, you have to give your life to it and so he saw something that he had to do in order to get to the next summit.
Yes, I've recently heard that he envied how good other guys were. I like that humility in him. Of course we know today that he was better than most, but HE had things he needed to prove to HIMSELF. It was about him wanting to to do things with the sax he felt he couldn't do without concentrated practice.
The whole performance is incredible. I love the way Tootie Heath never strays too far from from the original rhythm during his 4 or 5 chorus drum solo, during which he maintains the festive flow of a Calypso tune. Every second is great, but to me, my favorite part is the 2 choruses Rollins plays right after the drum solo, playing spectacular variations of the melody...Sonny Rollins was born to play the tenor sax and we're lucky to witness it! Sadly he has retired from playing, around 2011 or so. I feel privileged to have seen him play live on 4 occasions between 1972 and 2007.
As a native of the USVI, I grew up on this song along with the rich influx of calypso from the West Indies islands and salsa from my parents birth land, Puerto Rico. Even though the rhythm section is jazz, the tune from Sonny Rollins is completely island calypso, including his marvelous solo. Not many continental Americans have the insight and talents to express another genre of music so genuinely. Mr. Rollins is pure magic.
Sonny Rollins was born in New York just a couple years after his parents moved from St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. He grew up as part of a VI community in New York. Although he is as deeply rooted in the jazz tradition as it is possible to be, he has always, to my St. Thomian ears, played the saxophone with a West Indian accent. 😊
I can assure what he is saying is a fact as kids in the Virgin Islands 🇻🇮 St.Thomas is a song we would hear often.. even our local steel pan bands play it and our Quelbe bands I don’t kno who actually wrote the song but Sonny said it was a song his mother used to sing to him as a child .. I always come back to this song to reminisce on how simple and good life was growing up in ST.Thomas will always love home
The performance of this song captures all that Sonny Rollins was. Joy. Play. Invention. Curiosity. Optimism. If there were dark days in his life, he chased them away with a beautiful melody. I saw him in concert at Massey Hall in Toronto (the site of another historic concert that he praised). I wish I could summon a tenth of the passion he could.
Music can not be better. Rollins at his peak. NHØP at the beginning of his. Kenny Drew at his peak and "Tootie" Heath the most underrated drummer in jazz history. This is just fantastic!
Oh if only my Dad was around.... I can see him(Teddy John Francis) sitting there with a Big smile on his face... Bobbing his head with the tune🎼🎶 clicking his fingers and stomping his feet 🎶🎼 My Dad Loved Jazz... Ya I got it from there 😍
His birthday is September 7, 1930 so in 2003 he was 72 or 73, depending on the date. He retired from performing in 2012 at the age of 82. The last time I saw him was in 2007 and was playing long, energetic, creative solos. He had the audience in the palm of his hand.
@@grantkoeller8911 I was responding to KroMcLOvinFaSho who saw Rollins in 2003 or thereabouts. Sonny Rollins was born in September of 1930. So depending on when in 2003 Mr, KroMcLovinFaSho saw Rollins he would have been either 72 or 73. But yes I also see my typo re his retirement age. I mis-typed 62 instead of 82. Oops....I will correct that...thanks.
2 minutes and 51 seconds of pure magic. I picked up the saxophone when I heard Lou Donaldson’s It’s Your Thing. I play 2 hours a day every day because I want to learn St Thomas. I reckon I have another 20 years to go.
Je ne me lasserai pas d'écouter ce quart et. Quand j'étais jeune à Paris fin des années 70 j'allais dans pas mal de concert par exemple: ART BLAKEY......... Merci !
I managed to see Sonny for the first time when he came to UCSB a couple of years back. I was amazed 1) that I got to see him, and 2) he could still play like few others, even at age 80. Fantastic show.
I simply love ❤this. That's why Sonny is one of my sax favorites. And those bass and drum solos left me stunned. I never heard or seen anything like it.!!
I played it in church on Christmas Eve on a Jazz Electric Guitar, ES 335 with my daughter accompanying me on twin bongos. I don't know how well we did, but it was accepted as fantastic and fit right it. What a wonderful and versatile song. It was well received and we loved doing it. Thanks Sonny. Carribean Christmas!
To hear drums resonate the way they were designed to, you must listen back in time to when people knew how to tune them and also play in such a way as to draw rich sound from them. Well done, Tootie. A seemingly lost art.
One of the greatest jazz artist that ever touched a horn. No one like Sonny, not even close. His improvisations are sometimes hard to keep up with, and full of surprises.
Sonny is the master. This is honestly some amazing jazz from my favorite era in the genre. This piece just screams class. I was a chef in a Jazz Lounge and our house band played it every weekend. I will never tire of hearing the next improv rendition!!
Much, much better than the studio version. Much stronger calypso feel, in both rhythm and solos, particularly Sonny's solo. It makes me wonder if they deliberately held down the feel on the take for the record.
Lovely Dancing,swinging Caribbean music with GREAT musicans (read Kenny Drew piano, Niels Henning Ørsted Pedersen bass, and Al Heath drums) plus of course the MAN himself Sonny R
The main melody of this song gives me weird feeling of nostalgia. But I really love it. I hope I can play it someday. Also that was the best bass solo i’ve ever heard!
I'm used to the version on the 'Saxophone Colossus' EP, but there's something about this version that I really like. It's almost even more upbeat, and a bit faster. Plus it's cool to actually watch him play.
Master Sonny Rollins! The 4th major School of The Tenor Sax. Hawk, Prez, Dexter and Trane being the 5th. This is a Black Treasure! Keep on blowin' Sonny we Love You!!!
I first heard this song on the radio about ten years ago, but had no idea what it was. The melody seared my brain for years, and I hummed it to tons of deejays and so called music lovers, but no one could tell me what it was. Well, my parents were on a cruise and my mom heard a band playing the tune I had hummed to her. After the show, she hunted down one of the musicians and got the name of the song. Best gift she ever gave me... Besides life of course.
what a story!! that's such a satisfying feeling
Me too!
It is in the Bb tenor sax Real Book.
Piano key Concert C...
Tenor sax key D...
Alto sax key of A
20 years ago now is insane
Same story for me
My dad's favorite tune. Or one of them at least. He always hummed this song when he was in a good mood, it was a sure sign. He would have turned 70 today so that's why I'm listening to this clip. Sorta trying to imagine what he would have felt had he heard it. I think he would have loved how the pianist quotes Rollins' original solo from the record.
This song was played at my dads funeral. Its was a beautifull thing! As my mom and dad had great memories of the song! My father used to run a jazzfestival in Norway! And Sonny rollins visiting their home was a great ordeal for them! :) I have heard the song many times through my childhood. Many good memories! :) RIP dad! I miss you so much!
I recently read a magazine article that stated there was a time in Sonny's life when he quit performing and got up everyday and went up on a bridge and just practiced all day. Of course everybody thought he was crazy, but I like that kind of devotion to his craft.
I wish more of the Jazz legends were still alive as he is.
he took sabbaticals from professional music at least twice. the reason he did it is due to his personal commitment to music. to play like sonny, or trane or bird and countless others, you have to give your life to it and so he saw something that he had to do in order to get to the next summit.
Yes, I've recently heard that he envied how good other guys were. I like that humility in him. Of course we know today that he was better than most, but HE had things he needed to prove to HIMSELF. It was about him wanting to to do things with the sax he felt he couldn't do without concentrated practice.
I read on facebook some time ago that there's a wish from certain people to make this bridge renamed with Sonny Rollins reference.
I love your comment ! it's really inspirational
My favorite St. Thomas, the whole group is so tight and Tootie plays the melody on the tubs.
Nice drum solo. He plays it with the melody going on in his head. You can hear him accent just as if Sonny was playing the melody with him.
oh yes, that's why I love jazz drumming.
It's all about the inspiration given by the main melody.
At the service of it! :-)
that was the best bit of advice one of my teachers gave me
Monsieur le Batteur joue avec ses tripes. Je ne me lasserai jamais d'ecouter Sony Rolins.
Yep. Thats what seaparates jazz drummers from guys who just create beats and keep time
Superbly played by the finest jazz sax player that ever lived.
He's splendid.
No where near in the same league as coltrane
Sonny is a Beast. Neils-Henning is a freaking monster also. He is playing more changes than I hear most bass players play.
NHOP is a beast. (The good kind.)
The whole performance is incredible. I love the way Tootie Heath never strays too far from from the original rhythm during his 4 or 5 chorus drum solo, during which he maintains the festive flow of a Calypso tune. Every second is great, but to me, my favorite part is the 2 choruses Rollins plays right after the drum solo, playing spectacular variations of the melody...Sonny Rollins was born to play the tenor sax and we're lucky to witness it! Sadly he has retired from playing, around 2011 or so. I feel privileged to have seen him play live on 4 occasions between 1972 and 2007.
As a native of the USVI, I grew up on this song along with the rich influx of calypso from the West Indies islands and salsa from my parents birth land, Puerto Rico. Even though the rhythm section is jazz, the tune from Sonny Rollins is completely island calypso, including his marvelous solo. Not many continental Americans have the insight and talents to express another genre of music so genuinely. Mr. Rollins is pure magic.
Sonny Rollins is from the islands so that makes sense, I think he came over here when he was a baby
Sonny Rollins was born in New York just a couple years after his parents moved from St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. He grew up as part of a VI community in New York. Although he is as deeply rooted in the jazz tradition as it is possible to be, he has always, to my St. Thomian ears, played the saxophone with a West Indian accent. 😊
@@VIProfessor Thanks for the info. It all makes sense now...St. Thomas.
I can assure what he is saying is a fact as kids in the Virgin Islands 🇻🇮 St.Thomas is a song we would hear often.. even our local steel pan bands play it and our Quelbe bands I don’t kno who actually wrote the song but Sonny said it was a song his mother used to sing to him as a child .. I always come back to this song to reminisce on how simple and good life was growing up in ST.Thomas will always love home
The performance of this song captures all that Sonny Rollins was. Joy. Play. Invention. Curiosity. Optimism. If there were dark days in his life, he chased them away with a beautiful melody. I saw him in concert at Massey Hall in Toronto (the site of another historic concert that he praised). I wish I could summon a tenth of the passion he could.
He is still alive...
*is
@@jorgek92 RIP
Finally a pianist lets the bassist get on with a solo and doesn't comp the crap out of it. Great Bass solo.
Uh ever listened to Charles Mingus' solos?
good point. i love mingus
Of course no one dares to do that. Mingus is the band leader.
I could listen to this song for hours and never be bored. It's simply that good.
Damn, I'm a bass player in my High School Jazz Band, and this bass player blew my mind.
Music can not be better. Rollins at his peak. NHØP at the beginning of his. Kenny Drew at his peak and "Tootie" Heath the most underrated drummer in jazz history.
This is just fantastic!
What a stud!!! Just turned 80 and still a saxophone colossus!!!
Oh if only my Dad was around....
I can see him(Teddy John Francis) sitting there with a Big smile on his face... Bobbing his head with the tune🎼🎶 clicking his fingers and stomping his feet 🎶🎼
My Dad Loved Jazz...
Ya I got it from there 😍
I saw Sonny in Central Park around 2003-ish. Even at 60-something, Sonny has the greatest stamina of any musician I've ever heard.
His birthday is September 7, 1930 so in 2003 he was 72 or 73, depending on the date. He retired from performing in 2012 at the age of 82. The last time I saw him was in 2007 and was playing long, energetic, creative solos. He had the audience in the palm of his hand.
@@callmejeffbob check your math!!!!
@@grantkoeller8911 I was responding to KroMcLOvinFaSho who saw Rollins in 2003 or thereabouts. Sonny Rollins was born in September of 1930. So depending on when in 2003 Mr, KroMcLovinFaSho saw Rollins he would have been either 72 or 73.
But yes I also see my typo re his retirement age. I mis-typed 62 instead of 82. Oops....I will correct that...thanks.
This version is from Sony Rollins in Denmark 1968
One of the best
🇩🇰
Love the way the light glints of his horn! It's like it is radiating pure musical energy ;)
2 minutes and 51 seconds of pure magic. I picked up the saxophone when I heard Lou Donaldson’s It’s Your Thing. I play 2 hours a day every day because I want to learn St Thomas. I reckon I have another 20 years to go.
Stay with it. We're counting on ya!
This video is what harmony, peace, and happiness sound like
😌
Beautiful playing. Powerful drum solo. Love it.
what the hell all the solos are incredible WHAT MASTERS THANK GOD FOR THEIR EXISTANCE
Sept.7: Happy birthday THE Jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins. Thank you and God bless. Thanks for the upload, BluesBeBopper2000. Blessings
And yet another birthday rolls around for the man.
Being a jazz bassist myself, I must say, that bass solo blows my mind.
Cool to see the young Orsted-Pedersen, didn't know he ever played with Sonny. That makes almost everybody.
I met Sonny Rollins a couple of times personally in London and many years later in Vancouver. He was a nice man who walked with a limp.
G-Man (1986)
I discovered this song from the GTA 4 radio and immediately came here to hear this masterpiece
This very song and Sonny Rollins in general is my inspiration when I play in Jazz Band. Wherever I go to college, it better have a Jazz Band.
Je ne me lasserai pas d'écouter ce quart et. Quand j'étais jeune à Paris fin des années 70 j'allais dans pas mal de concert par exemple: ART BLAKEY.........
Merci !
Jazz at it best !! Legend sonny rollings
I managed to see Sonny for the first time when he came to UCSB a couple of years back. I was amazed 1) that I got to see him, and 2) he could still play like few others, even at age 80. Fantastic show.
everyone looks so chilled and you can see their having fun.these is real music
Each musician is playing so beautifully, I am eternally jealous to anybody who saw Sonny during this period.
I could watch this video over and over again.. 4 amazing solos by 4 amazing musicians.
I simply love ❤this. That's why Sonny is one of my sax favorites. And those bass and drum solos left me stunned. I never heard or seen anything like it.!!
I played it in church on Christmas Eve on a Jazz Electric Guitar, ES 335 with my daughter accompanying me on twin bongos. I don't know how well we did, but it was accepted as fantastic and fit right it. What a wonderful and versatile song. It was well received and we loved doing it. Thanks Sonny. Carribean Christmas!
Incredible! The drummers solo is great!
This dude Heath is a monster
To hear drums resonate the way they were designed to, you must listen back in time to when people knew how to tune them and also play in such a way as to draw rich sound from them. Well done, Tootie. A seemingly lost art.
All four of these people are extremely talented, it's just unbelievable.
If I close my eyes I see st. thomas...... beatufull!!!!
Thats jazz at its best I love it.
I can listen this song thousand times without getting tired
07;18 Sunday morning! what a bliss,gorgeous way to start my day.thank you.
A Master piece ,the melody alterations on the tenor sax are heavenly!!!
Fantastic combo,genius ofRollins up front
Sensational! Bravo! He was unquestionably the very best saxophonist.ever.
what a fine performance
🙂
One of the greatest jazz artist that ever touched a horn. No one like Sonny, not even close. His improvisations are sometimes hard to keep up with, and full of surprises.
Sonny is the master. This is honestly some amazing jazz from my favorite era in the genre. This piece just screams class. I was a chef in a Jazz Lounge and our house band played it every weekend. I will never tire of hearing the next improv rendition!!
Probably the best version ever!
Great piece! I feel Bossa nova in the air...
This track must be on my "Jazz goes to Brazil" playlist.
he actually witnessed this song to hs mother who was from the Caribbean.
Calypso.
A sheer Masterclass in Musicianship.
2005年頃テレビで見てライブあるのを知って行きました。
ライブも最高で終わった後クーペさんがホールにいて「ありがとうございました」って言ってくれたのを覚えています。
あの時はかなり病んでて、けどクーペ&shifoの歌に支えられて、今でも生きてられるのは、クーペ&shifoのおかげです。
まわりの人間がみんな死んでしまうあの時、一線越えずに済んだのに感謝します。
あの時から感じていたけどクーペさんは死生観とか昔ながらの日常にあった愛を伝えていたんですよね。だからこそ伝わってきた。
作品は残るけどshifoさんにも苦労を共にしてきたものを、いつか産み出してくださるのを期待しています。
Much, much better than the studio version. Much stronger calypso feel, in both rhythm and solos, particularly Sonny's solo. It makes me wonder if they deliberately held down the feel on the take for the record.
+adamatari I agree, this has a great verve and feeling to it. It just feels more alive than the studio version, which is still awesome!
they play so chilled and realy having fun playin'.these is how everybody should play!
Love that bass player
The Best! Just...The Best.
Long after we're all gone, I hope if some distant alien race finds anything left behind by us, they find this recording. It's too perfect.
Thanks Mr Rollins, you saved my day !!!!!!!
Sonny rollins is just amazing! i wish i could see him play at the disney concert hall this summer!
He are the best at the rytmisk play, on sax, and loogisk inproveision.. Thank you! Rollins!
As I was watching this video the sun just shined in through my window.
This is incredible! The best band all Sonny has haved so far. The definitive version of St.Thomaso...
Lovely Dancing,swinging Caribbean music with GREAT musicans (read Kenny Drew piano, Niels Henning Ørsted Pedersen bass, and Al Heath drums) plus of course the MAN himself Sonny R
There are rollers and non-rollers. And then there is Sonny Roller, the inventor of roll & roll. Happy belated birthday, Sonny Roller!
I’m here in 2020, known about this song and have loved it for some time but damn, this live/studio version is what dreams are made of! 🎷 🎶 🎹
We saw him last night in Melbourne at the Town hall. He's 80 now, and still blowing a storm. :-)
This song is my favorite jazz song ever if not my favorite songs ever!!
First heard this beautiful piece of music in the background of a radio show in GTA then on the actual station.
What a great rhythm section this was and backed so many in Copenhagen and Europe.
🇪🇺
Love this. Thank you. They all contribute tasteful, interesting, melodic solos.
I went to see Sonny recently about a year ago and he was still groovin like he is exactly in this video. and now he's eighty.
absolutely riveting on so many levels.
The main melody of this song gives me weird feeling of nostalgia. But I really love it. I hope I can play it someday. Also that was the best bass solo i’ve ever heard!
Tootie blows my mind!!! some sick drum work:) I love what he does with the snare:) Incredible.
🤯
Man love the sound of those drums
That bassist is literally so so in tune that is redonculous!
Seems like he was the goto bass in Europe at the time - he also played with Rahsaan:
th-cam.com/video/_GHMFOTcnNM/w-d-xo.html
Worth a look.
Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen is really good. I like it.
Good
Good Sir
Beautiful!
i play this song in my jazz band and i fell in love with it
Just an amazing rhythm section.
All these guys are MUSICIANS!!!!!
Sonny makes it look so effortless!! Love his ideas!
This tune is what joy sounds like
😊
I love playing this song, that makes listening to it more fun.
What compares to watching and listening to this video? absolutely nothing.
All the best Sonny.
I'm used to the version on the 'Saxophone Colossus' EP, but there's something about this version that I really like. It's almost even more upbeat, and a bit faster. Plus it's cool to actually watch him play.
That bass though
I wouldn't be surprised if he was the greatest improvisational musician of all time.
“ Working Girl” sound track favorite moment . Wedding crashers”
💃🏻🕺🏻 Happy Birthday, Mr. Rollins 🎵
sonny can hold an interesting improv for 12 hr no stop. he is never out of ideas-amazing!!
Fantastico, molte persone ascoltano la musica senza essere passate da qui !!!
Master Sonny Rollins! The 4th major School of The Tenor Sax. Hawk, Prez, Dexter and Trane being the 5th. This is a Black Treasure! Keep on blowin' Sonny we Love You!!!
And the band!! The ultimate St,Thomas!! Incredible!
such improvisation, much sax, many melodies .wow
Ujjwal Bhandari wow. Not even here man wow. lol
u
+Ujjwal Bhandari Very Jazz, Much Rhythm, Such Classic . WOW
+Ujjwal Bhandari Nice Me-Me
+Darius Knopfler they are everywhere these days
A sax legend
THE saxophone legend.
Another musical Genius, Mr Sonny Rollins!!
Sonny Rollins is the jazz genius.
Classic ! Great performance......one of mine alltime favourites