I’m a tenor player, man. I’ve always thought of myself as one. I don’t like guitar, I don’t like it at all, and I’ve always been influenced by horn players.
- Sonny Sharrock
In the Summer of 1992, I met Ken Vandermark for the first time at the Bop Shop on West Division Street in Chicago. I was there for the Nelson Algren Birthday Party. An annual event started in 1989. As it turned out, Ken and I were by far the youngest people there. We talked for a while before he excused himself, he was about to go onstage with his quartet. Evidently, they were the event’s entertainment. I found out later that his quartet had just released their first album, Big Head Eddie.
We hung out a little after the show and talked music. A few weeks later we went to see James Blood Ulmer, another solid guitar player.
In the Fall of 1993, Sonny Sharrock came to Chicago to play at the Lounge Ax. Ken’s band opened up for him. Admittedly, I did not know much about Sharrock. At that time, I had only seen him on the cover of a BYG release Monkey-Pockie-Boo,
and I had never heard his music - at least that’s what I thought….
Since that show, I’ve kept my ears open for Sonny Sharrock, and like Roy Ayers from last week’s journey, I found that, in fact, I had been listening to Sharrock on albums I’d picked up long ago, but never knew he was on them – like Herbie Mann’s Concerto Grosso in D Blues and Stone Flute.
Sonny Sharrock was born in Ossining, New York, and grew up singing in a local doo-wop group called The Echoes. He recalled, “The other guys were a lot older, but I’d just pencil in my mustache and go right on into the club.” He was 14 years old and sang baritone.
Sharrock was also obsessed with horns, but because he had asthma was forced to play guitar. He purchased his first guitar in 1960 and the following year left Ossining for Boston and the Berklee College of Music.
In 1962, with some music theory basics, he left Berklee for California, where he lived in a trailer with several other struggling musicians. He soon returned to New York City and met Sun Ra. He recalled:
When I got there, I ran into Sun Ra on 125th Street and I asked to study with him. He said, ‘Come by.’ So I went to his place and Pat Patrick, Marshall Allen, and all these heavies from his band were there, and Sun Ra showed me two movies. That was the extent of the lessons. Real weird! But while I was there, they got a call from (Nigerian drummer and bandleader) Olatunji about a gig. I heard Pat say, ‘Yeah, I’ve got a guitar player here.’ I thought, ‘He can’t be talking about me.’ That’s how I ended up working with those guys. They were very nice to me because I didn’t know what the hell I was doing.
It was first with Sun Ra and then with Pharoah Sanders that Sharrock got his career going, and 1966 was a big year.
He made his musical debut on Sanders’ November 1966 Impulse! release Tauhid.
On December 8, 1966, he recorded on Marzette Watts’ stunning ESP-Disk album Marzette Watts and Company. Joining Watts and Sharrock on this album was a heavy band consisting of Byard Lancaster on alto sax, flute, and bass clarinet; Clifford Thorton on trombone; Karl Berger on vibes; Henry Grimes on bass; and J. C. Moses on drums. From this stellar album, here is la:
Sharrock’s guitar on this is incredible and knocked me out the first time I heard it.
Also on December 8, 1966, Sonny Sharrock recorded on Byard Lancaster’s Vortex release It’s Not Up to Us:
Along with Marzette Watts and Company, this is my favorite Sharrock album from his earlier work. His guitar work on these albums is completely innovative. For example, from It’s Not Up To Us, here is Satan:
It was while playing in Lancaster’s band that Sharrock got a telegram - at the time he was so broke that he didn’t even have a telephone. The telegram asked him to call Herbie Mann.
Sometime in 1967, Sharrock joined Herbie Mann’s working band, which included Roy Ayers on vibes, Miroslav Vitous on bass, and Bruno Carr on drums. In February 1968, he recorded his first album with Mann, Windows Opened, and in May The Inspiration I Feel. On these albums, Sharrock is relegated primarily to rhythm playing. These Mann albums were mostly a vehicle for Mann’s flute, which I think is a little odd since Mann described Sharrock as his Coltrane. Regardless of the album’s rather straight-ahead approach, this was an excellent band, as you can hear from this rare, must-see video clip:
Before too long, Sharrock was getting the spotlight once every Mann concert. It was in Mann’s band that Sharrock met Linda Chambers, whom he married. Together, in October 1968, they recorded Black Woman, Sharrock’s first album as a leader, a deal Mann worked out with the Atlantic subsidiary Vortex.
In late 1968 and early 1969, Sharrock played a good supporting role in two fine albums: Don Cherry’s Eternal Rhythm, recorded for the MPS label in November 1968:
and Wayne Shorter’s Super Nova, recorded for Blue Note in August and September 1969:
From Super Nova, I really like their version of Antonio Carlos Jobim’s Dindi.
In March and August 1969, Sharrock played on Mann’s Stone Flute, an excellent album on Mann’s Embryo label. On the strength of that album and his body of work, in 1970 Miles Davis invited Sharrock to join his band. He did play, uncredited, on Davis’ Jack Jackson album; however, Sharrock turned him down, which opened the door for Pete Cosey. We can only assume that with his own impressive resume, Sharrock wanted to go his own way. Unfortunately, he would not record another album for six years. It was bassist Bill Laswell who finally convinced Sharrock to get back into the greater music scene. In 1981, Sharrock got a band together and by 1985 he was on his way.
In 1986, Sharrock, along with Laswell, saxophonist Peter Brötzmann, and drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson, formed the free jazz group Last Exit. I think there’s no better way to describe Last Exit than to just play the first song on their first album: Discharge.
Also, in 1986, Sharrock released his seminal recording Guitar. This is a guitar fanatic’s dream album, where he performs solo, overdubbing guitar improvisations onto sections of songs he had recorded beforehand. From that album, I like his Princess Sonata, a unique set of four movements - the last, They Enter the Dream, is stunning. I think he is successful in sounding like a tenor sax:
From Sharrock’s 1987 hard-rocking jazz album Seize The Rainbow, here he is playing probably his most popular composition My Song:
I recall Sharrock playing this song at the Lounge Ax in 1993 and bringing down the house. Regrettably, I would never get the chance to see him play again.
Here is one more for the road. Ask the Ages was Sonny Sharrock’s final album recorded during his lifetime and perhaps his best. From this fine 1991 album, here is Little Rock, with Pharoah Sanders on tenor, Charnett Moffett on bass, and Elvin Jones on drums:
Unfortunately, at perhaps the prime of his playing and after he had signed a major record deal, Sonny Sharrock suddenly passed away. On May 25, 1994, he died in his home in Ossining, New York. He was 53 years old. As I think about him now, since his passing, has anyone really picked up the baton?
This week’s journey is dedicated to my old friend Shaun Williams, another guitar enthusiast, who continues to inspire me.
Next week on that Big River called Jazz, we’ll dig our paddles in to explore the deep and wide waters of Wayne Shorter.
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Until then, keep on walking….