Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Sonny Simmons: The Traveller

198

Sonny Simmons: The Traveller

By

View read count
Sonny Simmons: The Traveller
Even at 72, the great Sonny Simmons still comes up with the unexpected. On The Traveller, the veteran musician nestles into beautiful compositions and arrangements by Vidar Johansen with a group augmented by an elite string quartet from the Oslo Philharmonic. Johansen surrounds Simmons in strong, open charts that create taut frameworks for improvisational weaving. The melodically driven program spotlights Simmons' gift for spontaneous lyricism.

The string quartet introduces itself on "Humphrey with stark figures melting in the fire of Simmons' English horn. After a brief melding of the quartets, Simmons' signature alto leaps into action, gracefully vining through with bouquets of variations. After strong mid-tempo ensemble work on an appealing theme, "Armada allows Simmons to set sail and swing. He shares inspired moments with pianist Anders Aarum on "Spheres. Aarum's clipped chords complement the sax's seamless soaring, then he rolls the changes tastefully around in his right hand.

Duet pairs Simmons with bassist Mats Eilertsen in a dance mapped by invisible choreography. Whatever the extent of the scoring, the performance sounds spontaneous and impossible; Eilertsen is the perfect traveling companion for Simmons' graphite roller coaster ride. "Brainstorm starts as mild precipitation and builds to vivid group improvisation, including unexpected textures from the strings. "Sunset ends the program on a deep blue mood with an unhurried romantic piano solo followed by Simmons exposing his heart.

The very promising first volume of a planned trilogy of releases, The Traveller extends Sonny Simmons' reputation as a master artist.

Track Listing

Humphrey; Armada; Spheres; Duet; Brainstorm; Sunset.

Personnel

Sonny Simmons
saxophone, alto

Sonny Simmons: alto saxophone, English horn; Anders Aarum: piano; Mats Eilertsen: bass; Ole-Thomas Kolberg: drums; Harald Aadland: violin; Eyleen Siegel: violin; Bendik Foss: viola; Kari Ravnan: cello; Vidar Johansen: flute, conductor.

Album information

Title: The Traveller | Year Released: 2005 | Record Label: Jazzaway

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.