Sonny Rollins Plays the Bridge
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
James Ransome's glorious art celebrates jazz icon Sonny Rollins and how he found an inspired spot to practice his saxophone when his neighbors complained.
Sonny Rollins loved his saxophone. As a teenager, he was already playing with jazz stars and making a name for himself. But in 1959, at age twenty-nine, he took a break from performing—to work on being a better, not just famous, musician. Practicing in a city apartment didn’t please the neighbors, so Sonny found a surprising alternative—the Williamsburg Bridge. There, with his head in the clouds and foghorns for company, Sonny could play to his heart’s content and perfect his craft. It was a bold choice, for a bold young man and musician.
Sonny’s passion for music comes alive in jazzy text and vivid, evocative paintings of New York City. His story celebrates striving to be your very best self, an inspiration to music lovers young and old.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In an evocative snapshot of a moment in a musician's life, Golio (Dark Was the Night) celebrates Black saxophonist Sonny Rollins's (b. 1930) private escape to a public place: when you can't/ play in your apartment/ (shhh—the neighbors!)/ you can/ play outside/ if/ you know where." Ransome (Overground Railroad) creates vivid watercolor and collage spreads of Rollins rehearsing on a fire escape, and the frustrated expressions of noise-averse neighbors, then follows the musician as he strides through city streets with his saxophone in its case, heading for the Williamsburg Bridge walkway, where "you can/ blow/ blow/ BLOW A HORN/ as loud as/ you/ WANT." Ransome doesn't stint on background scenery; he paints the structure, the buildings below it, and even the traffic along the river with reverence. Up on the bridge, golden bubbles of effervescent sound burst from the bell of Rollins's instrument as he plays to his heart's content, "anything/ EVERYTHING/ that/ comes into his/ mind" against the rhythm of trains "clanking clanging" and "tugboats/ blowing bass notes." The creators' deliberate lines and detailed visuals sing like music themselves as they pay homage to an artist who finds a way to ring out loud and clear. Ages 4–8.
