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Episode details

Radio 3,19 Mar 2015,15 mins

SeriesMeeting the Giants of Jazz

Sonny Rollins

The Essay

Available for over a year

Critic Martin Gayford tells the stories of his encounters and friendships with five leading jazz musicians as a fan, an amateur music promoter and, latterly, as a journalist. Martin recalls the lessons that he learnt from his two meetings, over the space of a 12 years, with the saxophone colossus Sonny Rollins. Martin travelled to New York in 2010 to interview him on the eve of a concert celebrating his 80th birthday, his life changed by the events of September 11th, when his lower Manhattan home was destroyed.

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