Memorial Hall is not a jazz club. It’s big, it’s drafty and it seats more than 1,400 people.
But on Tuesday night, jazz saxophone legend Sonny Rollins and his quintet did their best to draw the audience in Memorial Hall closer with an intimate, casual performance as warm as it was dazzling.
The Grammy Award-winning tenor saxophonist has had a career spanning most of his 79 years. And though he’s older than most of the performers who pass through campus, he played a lively, up-tempo set, dancing and shaking throughout.
Rollins, who opened the 2009-10 Carolina Performing Arts season, ambled slowly onstage at the beginning of his set, his back bent and his gait slow.
Sonny Rollins
4.5 of 5 stars
And with a gentle shake of his fist, he tore into the music.
Accompanied by a bass, a guitar, a drummer, a conga drummer and a trombone, Rollins and his backing band played as a cohesive and steady unit, piping up during lulls and filling in holes in the music.
True to form, the band played Rollins’ trademark improvisational style throughout the set.
Above all, they were having a good time.
Often, instrumental solos came as a surprise to Rollins, who wandered across the stage to whisper conspiratorially in the ears of his band when he wanted them to riff.
In the middle of a lilting jazz waltz, the conga drummer launched into a rhythmic solo, playing musical tag with the drummer and Rollins in rapid succession.
Rollins himself seemed to be a reluctant centerpiece of the jazz combo, taking charge at times and in other moments taking refuge behind members of his band, nodding and bobbing his head to the beat.
And when Rollins took the lead, his playing was raw — filled with staggers, honks and groans. He played with great humor, laughing at his chord leaps with trills and slides.
The concert was not perfect. At times, unusual gaps and strange pauses left the central theme dead. The set was short, and only true jazz aficionados would recognize the unannounced string of tunes.
But it was jazz in its purest form — wild, joyous and free.
“You can’t win ‘em all, but you got to keep fighting,” Rollins said in closing.
And with a shake of his fist as he ambled off stage right, Rollins won the night.
Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.
