Sonny's Blues

• In connection with Sonny Rollins' receipt of an honorary Doctorate of Music at Rutger's University, Sonny Rollins joined Faith at her 50 Year Retrospective at the Mason Gross School of Art. Faith received her 21st honorary doctorate as well, and we celebrated with Rollins playing at her exhibition in front of her image of Sonny Rollins practicing on the Williamsburg Bridge.

Photo Essay: Sonny Rollins Plays At Faith Ringgold's Retrospective

Dr. Phillip G Zimbardo, Faith Ringgold, Prof. Abenia Busia, Sonny Rollins and Burdette Ringgold at Rutger's University, 2009

Photos taken by Faith Wallace-Gadsden (copyright 2009)

Sonny Rollins and Faith Ringgold, childhood friends from Edgecombe Avenue on Sugar Hill together again.  And how sweet it is.  Aside from my Dad, Burdette Ringgold, these pictures include Sonny Rollins, the great musician, Faith Ringgold, the great artist, and Dr. Phillip G. Zimbardo, distinguished professor of psychology at Stanford who is perhaps best known for the 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment in which the innate corruptibility of situational dominance is explored.  All three New York City bred.  New York's Finest you might say. 

Photo-Essay: Once in Awhile

http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/m1LFIKVV2ZC2AL

The Man of the Moment--1963

Once in awhile something comes along that relates to every aspect of your life.  I have I am not sure how many different blogs--on blues people music, my blues people curriculum, soul pictures on the family archive, talking in pictures on race and photography in general, and one on my take on the movies--but this thing I am about to mention relates to all of them, brings them all together, intersects them all because it reaches so far back into the period under my closest examination, the early sixties when I was a wee girl.

It is the upcoming graduation ceremony at which both the master jazz artist Sonny Rollins and my Mom Faith Ringgold will be presented with honorary doctorates.  This event will take place next week.  Sonny Rollins, my Mom and my stepdad all knew one another as children and teenagers who hailed from Edgecombe Avenue and St. Nicholas Place.  

To give this a musical hook, I would direct your attention to the release of the Jazz Icon DVD of Sonny Rollins playing in Denmark in 1963 and 1965. He performs several of his classics, most majestically for me the fabulous St. Thomas, which he could probably continue to play for hours and hours.  He does a fabulous job here.  So cool.  So right. So perfect.  

It has autobiography (Soul Pictures), stunning pictures (Talking in Pictures) film (Michele's Movie Talk), the drama of African American culture unfolding in the course of the 20th century (Blues People Curriculum) and great blues people inspired music (Blues People-The Music). Actually Sonny Rollins as well as Arthur Taylor both played for Aunt Barbara's wedding, the event that anchors this blog.  It doesn't get any better than this.

Enjoy and remember! http://jazzicons.com/vid_rollins.html

Chronologies and Documents: Sonny Rollins Podcast and Interview at CUNY

Sonny Rollins Videos

The link here is http://www.sonnyrollins.com/video.php. These materials, including lots of videos of concerts and interviews, are from the website of Sonny Rollins who was a childhood friend of my Mom, my Dad Earl Wallace and my other dad Burdette Ringgold. The videos begin with an interview with Sonny's sister Gloria reminiscencing about life in the Harlem--the Sugar Hill Edgecombe Avenue area where they all grew up-- of the thirties and forties as Sonny, her younger brother, was growing up.
Rollins playing his saxophone on the Brooklyn Bridge figures prominently in one of my Mom's painted quilts to be seen on her website www.faithringgold.com. Bebop was the required music of my early childhood and of my parent's youth and Rollins was one of the precocious creators of this magnificent music. Recently Rollins was interviewed by Gary Giddins at the CUNY Graduate Center where Giddins teaches and where I am also on the faculty of the English Ph.D. Program. My sister and I were in attendance and hoped to get a chance to say hello personally because my sister Barbara hasn't met him (not much of a jazz fan) but the magnitude of the event including an overflow room made it an accomplishment just to get into the auditorium. I don't know Giddins personally and there were clearly so many fans of one kind or another in the audience who were obviously willing to stand on their heads to greet Sonny, Barbara and I decided to retreat to my office on the fourth floor quietly. I hope Barbara will get a chance one day to meet him. I wonder what she'll think?
Here's the link to the interview with Gary Giddins on the CUNY website at
http://www1.cuny.edu/portal_ur/news/radio/podcast/lecture_107.mp3