“Nobody rivals his fluid mastery..." Boston Globe
Jazz icon Sonny Rollins kicks off Kimmel Center Presents 2009/10 season on Friday, September 25, 2009 at 8pm in Verizon Hall, as part of a 23-city international tour. Rollins, who turns 79 on September 7, is one of the few remaining titans of a golden era of jazz, having recorded more than 80 albums alongside all-time greats such as Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane. Rollins' most recent release, Road Shows, Vol. 1 (2008), has received numerous accolades the past year including DownBeats Critics Poll “Jazz Album of the Year" and “Jazz Artist of the Year" honorary distinctions in August 2009. Rollins will showcase his improvisational genius in jazz standards as well as original material intended for a 2010 studio recording.
“Remarkably, his playing here [Road Shows, Vol. 1] shows no sign of a falloff over the years; his improvisations are just as exuberant and athletic as he nears 80 as they were more than two decades earlier." --All About Jazz
This is the first performance in the Jazz Fridays Series scheduled for the Kimmel Center Presents 2009/10 season. The next concert in the series will be Christian McBride and Friends featuring Bruce Hornsby and Inside Straight on Friday, October 16, 2009 at 8pm.
Tickets for Sonny Rollins are $36, $51, $66 and $79 and can be purchased by calling 215-893-1999, online at kimmelcenter.org, or at the Kimmel Center box office open daily from 10am to 6pm and later on performance evenings. (Additional fees may apply.) For group sales call 215-790-5883.
A limited number of $10 tickets are available for every Kimmel Center Presents performance at the Kimmel Center. Tickets go on sale the day of the event and can be purchased at the Kimmel Center box office at 5:30pm prior to evening curtain time and 11:30am for matinees. Limit one ticket per person.
Sonny Rollins recently completed a summer jazz circuit of festivals in Europe, which included performances in Sweden, Germany and France, as well as Toronto, Canada. Throughout 2009, his album Road Shows, Vol. 1 (2008) received tremendous praise by critics and journalists, solidifying Rollins' place as an inimitable jazz giant: Village Voice Jazz Critics Poll deemed the album “Jazz Album of the Year." Rollins was also named “Top Tenor Saxophonist" and “Musician of the Year" at the 2009 Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Awards. And more recently, Rutgers University presented an honorary doctorate to Rollins in May 2009 for his dedication to jazz.
In addition to two Grammy® Awards, Rollins received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences in 2004. He was a recipient of the prestigious Polar Music Prize in Stockholm, Sweden in May 2007. In 2005, Rollins established his own label, Doxy Records, on which he has released the Grammy®-nominated Sonny, Please (2006) and Road Shows, Vol. 1 (2008). His first concert DVD, In Vienne (2008), showcases a live concert at the 2006 Jazz Vienne Festival.
Harlem, New York native Walter Theodore “Sonny" Rollins began his career at the age of 11, and has since become one of jazzs most prolific figures. Rollins is renowned worldwide for his signature stream-of-consciousness style and his ability to rework old melodies, making them fresh and unique. Among some of his most notable accomplishments, Rollins recordings with Miles Davis"Airegin," “Doxy" and “Oleo" have become jazz standards; his critically acclaimed album Saxophone Colossus (1956) elevated Rollins to legendary status as an innovator in thematic improvisation; and The Bridge (1962), inspired by jam sessions on the Williamsburg Bridge during the first of his famed sabbaticals from music, became one of Rollins' best-selling records.
Kimmel Center Presents' 2009/10 Season is sponsored by Citi. American Airlines is the Official Airline of Kimmel Center Presents.
Free in the Plaza programming and subsidized tickets offered to the community and social service groups for $10 are made possible through the Wachovia Gateway to the Arts Community Access Program, supported by a generous grant from the Wachovia Foundation.
The Kimmel Center is the recipient of partnership funding through the nationally recognized PNC “Grow Up Great" initiative, a ten-year, $100 million investment in preparing children for success in school and life. Funding gives support to the Kimmel Center's early childhood program “Bop and Swing," an arts program for children 1-5 years old, designed to promote an appreciation for American culture.
KIMMEL CENTER PRESENTS SPONSORED BY CITI
Friday, September 25, 2009 | 8pm
Verizon Hall
Jazz Fridays Series
Sonny Rollins, tenor saxophone
Clifton Anderson, trombone
Bobby Broom, guitar
Bob Cranshaw, bass
Kobie Watkins, drums
Sammy Figueroa, percussion
FREE AT THE KIMMEL:
Friday, September 25, 2009 | 5:30pm
Commonwealth Plaza | Free in the Plaza
Dirk Quinn Band
Philly based jazz/funk guitarist Dirk Quinn draws inspiration from music of all typeshis solo acoustic sound has been compared to the guitar “pyrotechnics" of Keller Williams and Michael Hedges, while his full band compositions bear resemblances that range from the honest, urban funk of Soulive to the brave experimentation of Medeski, Martin and Wood, as heard on the bands recently released sophomore album QuinnTet. This free performance will take place in Commonwealth Plaza prior to the ticketed performance by Sonny Rollins in Verizon Hall.
For more information contact Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.
