Thursday, January 04, 2007

Sonny Rollins and Leonard Cohen

Editor & Publisher does it again: digging up another terrific archival performance. This one features Leonard Cohen singing "Who By Fire" with some very cool backup singers and a sensational Sonny Rollins on saxophone who has not one, not two but three solos. At the end, everyone turns and applauds, including the other musicians and backup singers, which you almost never see. He's that good. By the way,it seems to come from the late night music show by David Sanborn. he was an unofficial member of David Letterman's band, sitting in for years with Paul Schaeffer and the guys. Then Sanborn had this wonderful late night show a la "Later With Jools Holland," where cool guests just came on, maybe chatted for a moment and then played their hearts out. I could never figure out why VH1 or some other outlet didn't pick it up after "Sunday Night" was cancelled back in 1988 after a short run. But I remember it fondly.

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