Sonny Rollins: Unknown Silent Footage, and a TV Theme

Burt Goldblatt was a well-known and well-liked photographer and illustrator. You can read all about him and see samples of his work here. While taking photos at performances, he was also in the habit of making silent home movies, just for himself. I have previously shared his silent films of Coltrane and Dolphy, and Blakey with Wayne Shorter (see the Index). Today you will enjoy his footage of Sonny Rollins, thanks to Konrad Nowakowski, a jazz researcher in Vienna.

Unfortunately on his VHS tape label, Goldblatt wrote only “Sonny Rollins”—nothing more! But I was able to date it with some detective work. Sonny’s hair style and suit tell us that this is from the early 1960s. Much of the footage looks like it’s from a balcony, and there’s a big stage, so this must be a concert hall, not a nightclub. We see a bassist and maybe other musicians from above at 2:22, but they’re in the shadows and very hard to identify. However, there is a very brief shot of Shirley Scott at the organ at 2:46. Looking through Aidan Levy’s thorough Rollins biography, which, among other things, notes every known Rollins performance, I found the gig:

Sonny was on the same bill with Scott (that is, they and other groups each performed short sets separately) at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, February 2 through 7, 1962, Friday through Wednesday, with Monday the 5th off. So the footage comes from one of those evenings. (Coltrane came in on February 8.) The saxophonist at 2:48 is Billy Mitchell, who co-led a sextet at the Apollo that same week with trombonist Al Grey. Rollins is back from 3:00 to the end. Singer Gloria Lynne was also on the bill, but she’s not in the film. Sonny’s group that week was Jim Hall, guitar, Bob Cranshaw, bass, and drummer Harry "H.T." Saunders, so these might be some of the musicians at 2:22 in the footage.

There is actually an advantage to silent footage like this. In films with sound, the camera tends to move around a lot, but in these films the camera focuses on Rollins for a long time, giving us a good chance to observe certain details. This is about 4 minutes long. Here goes:

And as a little “extra,” did you know that Sonny re-recorded “I’ve Told Ev’ry Little Star,” a song that was in his repertory in the late 1950s, to be used as the theme of a 1992 TV show? The show, Billy, starred Scottish actor Billy Connolly. I watched the first episode back then just to catch Sonny’s music. But this is all there was of Sonny:

Still, it’s an unexpected place to hear Rollins, and fun to watch. Something to add to your “complete Sonny Rollins” collection. See you next time!

All the best,
Lewis