Jazz Giant Sonny Rollins to Perform in Wellington this June

TelstraClear and the Wellington Jazz Festival will present the last of the living jazz legends, Sonny Rollins at the Michael Fowler Centre on Saturday 11 June, 2011. Tickets for the concert, Rollins’ only New Zealand performance, will be on sale from Monday 7 March, 2011.

Sonny Rollins is known as the original saxophone colossus, a name he earned when he was just 26 years old playing alongside jazz greats Charlie Parker, Thelonius Monk and Miles Davis.

Now 80, he is the last of the great bebop saxophonists, and still has incredible form playing with the energy of a man half his age. He refers to jazz as “the king of all musics,” and still performs 20 to 25 dates a year at the cream of international jazz festivals.

The Evening Standard jazz critic commented after his London concert last month, “By the finale, everyone knew what a jazz giant sounded like. Long live Sonny Rollins.”

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Many of Rollins’ compositions are in the standard repertoire of jazz musicians. In 2004 he received a Lifetime Achievement Grammy.

Due to competition for funding in the Rugby World Cup year, the 2011 Wellington Jazz Festival won’t be going ahead in its usual format. Instead the Festival has invited Rollins for this spectacular Headliner concert in 2011, with potential for another event later in the year. In 2013 the Wellington Jazz Festival will revert to its four day format.

Festival Chair Kerry Prendergast, who was appointed to the board in December, said: “We’re thrilled to be able to welcome the inimitable Sonny Rollins to New Zealand. It will be an unforgettable night of pure entertainment from one of the finest jazz musicians of our time.”

The Wellington Jazz Festival gratefully acknowledges the support of Principal Sponsor TelstraClear, Wellington City Council, Wellington Venues Ltd., The Dominion Post, The Radio Network and Positively Wellington Tourism.

ENDS

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