People who died (Part Two) " Sonny Sharrock-Guitar Genius"

You may think you know all about electric guitar and the incredible variety of music that has been created with it, but if you aren't familiar with Sonny Sharrock you're about to discover one of the most unique and expressive artists ever to wield a Les Paul (plugged into a Marshall Stack of course.) Countless people around the world have made music with these tools but few ever manage to carve out a style and a sonic niche that is truly their own. You can get the important biographical info here so there's no need for me to repeat all that but I think one of the most significant facts regarding the origins of his style is that if not for asthma, he probably would have been a tenor sax player. He just figured out a way to do that on guitar. He forged his sound in the free jazz heyday of the sixties and it's no surprise that Pharoah Sanders was one of the first people to give Sonny a shot on a record (Tauhid.) What isn't as obvious is that he also served a stint in Herbie Mann's band-not necessarily the first guy you think of as far as Herbie's smoother sound goes. When I interviewed Herbie at the Montreal Jazz Festival in the mid nineties he told me that he hired Sonny "to be his John Coltrane."  Makes perfect sense to me. Check out this priceless clip:

You can hear Sonny starting to get his sound together here but he hasn't yet really discovered the full-on distortion that would provide him with the keys to the kingdom. Now, Miles. It's ironic and kind of tragic that Sonny didn't get to play for any length of time in some of Miles' great electric bands of the late sixties and early seventies. Given how infatuated Miles was with the electric guitar, Sonny would seem like the perfect choice but, aside from an uncredited appearance on the Jack Johnson soundtrack (end of "Yesternow" I believe) that's the only time they hooked up. Tragic because aside from Pete Cosey and a few others, Miles (in my opinion) didn't necessarily always have such badass guitarists as he should have in those great bands. Actually Sonny didn't really find his niche until, after a period of semi-retirement in the seventies, Bill Laswell (to his everlasting credit) plucked him out of obscurity and put him to work. A career highlight is the essential "Guitar" from 1986. Sonny expressed the more untamed side of his music in the free jazz ensemble Last Exit alongside Bill Laswell, Peter Brotzmann and Ronald Shannon Jackson. Man, you want heavy, they were heavier than ANY metal band-bar none. I kid you not:

Indeed. This is where Sonny transcended to the levels of his sixties tenor sax mentors like Coltrane and created something truly timeless. A couple of years before his untimely death in 1994 from a heart attack at the ridiculously young age of 53, Sonny recorded his crowning achievement "Ask The Ages" with none other than Elvin Jones, Pharoah Sanders and Charnett Moffett. Here it all came together, the tender, lyrical solos, the free-jazz mayhem, the great melodies and riffs, all driven along by Elvin's magnificent drumming. I wish there was a clip of that lineup  but I haven't found any yet so I'll leave you with this:

Comments

[Jim]

I think you mean Pharoah Sanders, not Saunders.

[Brad Nelson]

Great post on my favorite jazz guitarist. I actually wrote (prepare for rapid shame loss) a blog about Last Exit and their particular hold on me, and despite my boundless love for Brotzmann, Sharrock gets most of my appreciation in that group, for all those dark guitar apocalypses he let gallop from his soul.

[Paul]

Great piece! I go on and on about Sharrock to any jazzbos I run into - it was an article in the lamented Motorbooty magazine that let me in on his identity, but before that, it was hearing his possessed demonic noize solo rip through the tight funky groove of Herbie Mann's Hold On - I'm Comin' that really knocked me sideways. An unjustly neglected talent.

[Kay]

I love Bill Laswell's remix of Sonny Sharrock and Eddie "Funkadelic" Hazel on Peace from the the album Axiom Ambient: Lost in the Translation, an all-around great album. Sharrock's solo comes from Ask The Ages album, Hazel's from Maggot Brain.

[Bob]

Thanks for this---I remember first finding out about Sonny Sharrock in Valarie Wilmer's book "As Serious As Your Life". He really tapped into the sound-as-texture approach of playing the guitar in beautiful ways.

[Ghost Writer]

You may say that "Ask the Ages" was Sharrock's crowning achievement, but I think most people would say that it was "Space Ghost Coast to Coast."

[James]

His 1969 record -Black Woman- is great, too (and it's even currently in print on CD).

[DJ ManRich]

His return album Guitar is really under-rated. I think it's the link between his early, funky Jazz albums with then-wife Linda and his masterpiece Ask the Ages.
Laswell's a saint for coaxing him out of retirement, IMHO.

[davo]

amazing Herbie Mann video- Miroslav Vitous is the tallest bass player ever,
and Steve Marcus on Sax-WHEW! was that Roy Haynes on drums?? Sonny was amazing-
tho when i was 14 in '72 i bought a record collection from a guy moving to the middle east-
it had a bunch of BYG actuel stuff- including Sonny Sharrock "Monkey Pockie Boo"-
i couldnt stand it, altho i could easily sit thru the 3 disc alan silva set....
funny, but i think some of Sonny's music was the best ever. :)

[Jim]

Bruno Carr on drums, I think.

[fred g sanford]

I love that CD with the Orange -ish pic on the cover that i picked up at Other Music back in 19??
argh , forget it

[wandrew]

Sonny was amazing. I remember being at the college radio station when his Guitar album came in. One listen and I was hooked. I quickly became acquainted with Last Exit and went back into the vaults for Material--the Memory Serves album in particular. And yes, Ask the Ages was AWESOME. Space Ghost dedicated a whole episode to his passing, with Thurston Moore as the "guest."

[j.g.]

Miles Davis had one of the most supremely badass guitarists that ever walked this earth in Pete Cosey. (Is it the absence of hagiographic repackaging a la Bill Laswell that hinders Cosey from achieving the reputation THIS MAN DESERVES?!?)

And, though not as technically advanced as Pete Cosey, Reggie Lucas is also owed respect for his interlocking, time-stretching, and occasionally fire-breathing fretwork alongside Cosey.

John McLaughlin, with his most odorous spiritual urges bottled up, aint too shabby, either.

Really, what (guitarwise) could anyone be longing for in MD's music from 1969-1975?

[illlich]

Funny to see this now-- I've been listening to "Ask The Ages" non-stop in my car for the past week. My drummer gave me a copy, I hadn't heard it since it came out, had forgotten how good it is. That "Live In New York" cd has a few great cuts on it ("Uncle Herbie's Dance" among them, wonder if that's dedicated to Herbie Mann).

I recall an interview with Sonny where he mentioned his time with Herbie Mann. Once they did a show overlooking a marina, where people sat on their boats and listened to the main set of Herbie's soul-jazz, then Herbie was nice enough to give Sonny a solo set of free improvisation as an encore . . . and one by one all the boats started raising anchor and leaving the marina. Philistines!

[BrianTurner]

I saw a show of Sonny's right around the release of Ask the Ages, and it was totally one of the most memorable gigs ever for me.

[Dieter Kramer]

Thanks for this great post, the Herbie mann one is very choice. His recording with Sharrock of London Underground on the Newport live album is 100% pure smoke!