Sand Dancer from "Up the river": Jazz Pioneer Sonny Sharrock And Highlife



We Miss You Still

 What an amazing guitar player Sonny Sharrock was. He was from my neck of the woods on the Hudson River, in Ossining, a town that most people know because of the notorious prison, Sing-Sing, that has dominated the downtown of the village for over 200 years. They have a museum in the local community center where they have a replica of an electric chair, and a whole collection of weapons made by prison artisans out of ordinary correctional facility items. There is a nostalgia about the place because of movies, just like San Quentin or Alcatraz. People remember the Rosenberg trial of the 50's and the phrase of being "sent up the river". I wish the place wasn't there; it doesn't seem right to have a prison smack in the middle of a downtown and taking up such a great amount of space, but I guess it is a historical fact. People should recognize Ossining as the birthplace of the first free jazz guitarist.

The legend is that Sonny was a great admirer of saxophonist John Coltrane and wanted to follow in his footsteps. Unfortunately he had asthma, which forced him to switch to the guitar, and history was made. And for many years he carved out a career as a sideman with many jazz greats, such as Pharoah Sanders, Wayne Shorter, Miles Davis, Herbie Mann, Byard Lancaster. After a long tenure with Herbie Mann, he formed his own group with his first wife Linda and produced three albums.

Before I go any further let me say that musically, Sonny Sharrock is not the typical jazz guitarist. He did play in a variety of styles, but I would say that overall his playing is a lot louder and more aggressive than any jazz guitarist up to that point, and beyond. He took the power of the instrument and used its capabilities to great effect, just like any other forward looking jazz great would do. And it was very common to hear the loud volume and to try to lump him in with rockers, with people often making comparisons to Jimi Hendrix. But they were misinformed---he was a jazzman first and foremost, and he was having no part of those comparisons-he found them insulting. A lot of his music was complicated, and he would acknowledge no kinship with the Eric Clapton's of the world. That being said, people who love guitar but who are not jazz aficionados should love and admire his work.

After a hiatus from the music business, Sonny began working in earnest in the 1980's, performing in Bill Laswell's Material, and in the extreme free jazz improvisational supergroup Last Exit, with Laswell, drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson, and german sax player Peter Brotzmann. He also began putting out his own work starting with his overdubbed solo album Guitar in 1986. He followed with Seize The Rainbow (now with band) and a live album. The next album was Highlife, and on this album he tried some new things, mostly for the better. But overall, it was still that glorious guitar.

I would have to believe that he had heard been listening to African or Calypso music at this time, at least because of the opening track No More Tears and the eponymous fourth song. The guitar riffs and the rhythms on these songs seem a little bit outside what people deem jazz, but frankly I don't get worked up about those things. Whether his guitar creations are wrapped in a taco, or a pita, it doesn't matter--I just like it when musicians try to be expansive and the quality of the music is the real litmus test. Some think that this album was a commercial move, but I'm not so sure about that, and not just because it didn't work. On a superficial level, the backing sounds a little more pristine here, and there is a lot of keyboard here. The keyboard playing itself is well done, but the actual sound dates the album a bit. The guitar is completely fierce buzzsaw in many places, and in others quietly and beautifully transcendent. There is great passion here. I just think he was a thoughtful guy who was interested in pushing the envelope and evolving his art.

And that joy you hear on record was so evident in a live setting. I had the good fortune to see him perform twice, once on a sunny day in Central Park, and another time at the Knitting Factory. The gig in the park was one of the great show I've ever seen. He was a complete motherfucker--that was the word I kept babbling to myself as my jaw fell and hit my collarbone during every solo. That's the best and only word to describe it--the albums did not prepare me for this. And he was so happy out there, it was so personal. At that moment he completely loving what he did, and I think the reaction of the crowd and his responses kept building upon each other, like an arms race--complete shock and awe. So much bliss on that stage that day!! I felt like he was wringing out of that guitar a part of himself, succeeding in a way that a trumpeter or sax player would make the instrument an extension of himself.

And at the Knitting Factory I briefly met him. A friend used to have a recording studio in his basement where Sonny would rehearse sometimes. He went down to the show and they chatted a bit. It was another great show, and we were at a table right in front. I kept ducking involuntarily in reaction to Sharrock-he kept whipping his guitar four feet over my head up on stage. He would play in that buzzsaw mode of his strumming rapidfire until his pic broke. He seemed to keep a pile of pics in his mouth like a chipmunk, or a baseball player with a wad of tobacco. He would throw a broken pic out into the audience and then spit a new one into his hand. I got a few souvenirs that night. As I recall another friend (the world's most interesting man from my Brazil post) actually fell asleep in a chair right next to the PA system with that extremely loud guitar blasting. As I've said before, he is truly an amazing person.

I like this album--Chumpy as a free jazz song with a bluesy stomp of a middle section. The heartfelt Kate (variations on a theme by Kate Bush)--the slow burning fuse leading to a molten guitar explosion of Pharoah Sanders Venus/Upper Egypt. Your Eyes is another song in the vein of the opener and the guitar is literally singing here. The album actually ends with a short snippet of Coletrane's Giant Steps. The sad thing is that he died so prematurely back in 1994 at the age of 53. I had heard a lot of rumors that he was signing a huge record deal in the US, that he was getting outfitted with a new band, and even that he would perform on Saturday Night Live. But unfortunately, he did not live to see this come to fruition.

There is actually a nice footnote to this post. It is uncanny how serendipitous things occur when I write a post (though I'm not taking credit). It turns out that this weekend they are actually naming a street in Ossining after Sonny Sharrock (the street he grew up on). And I found this out after I started writing this!! I am very happy that he is getting recognition for his great artistic achievements for his legacy as an influential and innovative pioneering jazz musician. When I think of his legacy I'm always reminded of the song Sanddancer from Last Exit's Iron Path album. Subdued, dignified, passionate and exhibiting his astounding virtuosic abilities.