Sonny's wild rose

Rollins and medal

Sonny Rollins was on Sunday the first jazz player to be awarded the Edward MacDowell medal. The 2010 award is for composition, although both Rollins and presenting critic Gary Giddins made the point that jazz players compose on the spot (and rightly so, since jazz solos are more often arrangements of prepared motifs than pure improvisation). The award has been made annually since 1960 by the MacDowell artists colony in New Hampshire that was founded in honour of Romantic composer Edward MacDowell (1860-1908).

The Rollins award is not entirely, or even at all, a demonstration of the classical establishment basking in the reflected demotic glory of jazz. As Rollins pointed out, he and MacDowell go back. He said: ‘Edward MacDowell’s spirit engaged me many years ago when, as a child, I was inspired by his composition To A Wild Rose. Later, I had the opportunity to make it a part of my repertoire, performing it on many occasions and eventually recording it.’

The award is perhaps a little curious since Rollins is better known as an improviser than writer. Wouldn’t Wayne Shorter, who matches the vintage equally well, have been a closer fit for his groundbreaking Blue Note compositions of the early 1960s?

But 2010 is Rollins' year. He'll be 80, Saxophone Colossus: A Portrait Of Sonny Rollins, the biography by Bob Blumenthal is issued (review by Bob Weir in October’s Jazz Journal) and he's touring to octagenarian acclaim around the world.