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Sonny Fortune

When critics speak of Sonny Fortune, names like Coltrane, Cannonball, Young, Bechet, Hawkins and Parker are mentioned. Quite a legacy - but well deserved - for Sonny Fortune embodies all of the finest qualities of those late, great musicians: hard work, dedication to his art, and exceptional music. Lucky for us, Sonny is still here and blowing hard.

Born in Philadelphia on May 19, 1939, he was 18 years old before deciding to pursue a career in jazz. In 1967 he moved to New York. Says the quiet, straight-talking Fortune of that move: "Eventually, in order to find out if you really have what it takes, you have to go to the center, and that's New York...you can only do so much in your hometown."

After a brief stint with Elvin Jones and Frank Foster, Fortune, an early admirer of John Coltrane, Charlie Parker and Sonny Rollins, joined Mongo Santamaria's group, with whom he remained for over 2 years. He moved to Los Angeles in 1970, but stayed in California for only seven months and came back east where he worked with vocalist Leon Thomas before joining McCoy Tyner with whom he played for 2 1/2 years. During this period, in which Fortune started playing the soprano sax, he cemented an already solid reputation as an instrumental innovator with his contributions on Tyner's albums Sahara, Song For My Lady, and Song of the New World.

Fortune then went on to work independently with his own ensemble and with drummer Buddy Rich, and was featured on the live LP recorded at Rich's Manhattan nightspot, Buddy's Place. In September 1974, Miles Davis offered Sonny a job in his fusion group. Fortune had previously turned down the same offer to stay with Tyner, but now he eagerly accepted the opportunity to move on to something completely new. Fortune, by now accomplished on several instruments (clarinet, flute, tenor and baritone sax included), stayed with Miles for a year, recording four LPs, Big Fun, Agartha, Pangaea and Get Up With It.

Over the years Sonny has also recorded with such greats as Dizzy Gillespie, Elvin Jones, Oliver Nelson, George Benson and Nat Adderly, to name a few. In June 1975 Sonny formed his own group, marking his debut as a leader with two critically-acclaimed LPs for A&M Horizon, Awakening and Waves of Dreams. He's had many albums released since then. Sonny's three Blue Note CD's received rave reviews. Four In One, his album of the music of Thelonious Monk, was released in the Fall of 1994. His second Blue Note CD, A Better Understanding was released September of 1995, and consists of all original material in groupings from duo to septet. Sonny's third CD for Blue Note, From Now On, was released in September 1996 and consists of both original material and compositions by other artists. The raves have continued and it was featured on many year-end Ten Best lists.

In addition to leading his own quartet, the following 10 years saw Sonny playing with the Nat Adderly Quartet and as a featured soloist with the Elvin Jones Jazz Machine. In 1987-88 he was part of the Coltrane Legacy Band that also featured McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones and Reggie Workman.

Sonny's groups have always featured his own compositions, and he has toured around the world, including the U.S., Canada, Europe and Japan. CBS TV's 48 Hours with Dan Rather did a feature on Sonny, which was broadcast in late 1993. He is a featured soloist on the soundtrack for the Jack Nicholson film, The Crossing Guard, and was the subject of a recent CBS Sunday Morning feature with Billy Taylor. He headlined the first Chicago Playboy Jazz Festival and was the featured jazz performer at the 1995 Atlanta Montreaux International Music Festival. He has been touring the U.S. consistently over the past few years.

Fortune is still busy with live appearances, including the St. Lucia Festival and the Canadian jazz festivals. He also performed in a special trio with Reggie Workman and Rashied Ali at concerts in Philadelphia and Washington D.C. that were dedicated to John Coltrane, as well as being part of a special Elvin Jones ensemble performing in New York City in celebration of Elvin's 70th's birthday and performing with Elvin at the Playboy and JVC jazz festivals.

The seeds for In the Spirit of John Coltrane, released on Shanachie in January 2000, were planted in 1959, when Sonny first heard Trane's album My Favorite Things. From that point on Coltrane became the primary inspiration for Sonny — a male figure whose influence on Sonny's life is rivaled only by that of Sonny's own father. In the Spirit of John Coltrane, which features performances from Coltrane alumni Reggie Workman and Rashied Ali, underscore Fortune's reputation as, quoting Stereophile magazine, "one of the most intriguing alto players in contemporary jazz."

"Of all of Trane's lasting contributions, perhaps the greatest to the future of improvised music was his example of spiritual integrity and physical drive. Sonny blows with both."
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Swingin' In The Rain: Portland Jazz Festival 2016

by Chuck Koton
April 11, 2016

Sonny Fortune and Azar Lawrence Jimmy Mak'sPDX Jazz FestivalPortland, OR February 18-19, 2016 Any American burg that aspires to “great city" status has got to have a solid jazz scene. Sorry, but hipster hat shops, artisanal juiceries, and $6 coffee from beans grown on sustainable farms in Africa and Latin America just wont do. Portland, the Rose City of the rugged Northwest, is one of those aspirational cities. And after a ...

Live Review

Sonny Fortune at Lancaster Avenue Jazz Festival, Philadelphia

by Victor L. Schermer
July 23, 2015

Sonny Fortune Quartet Ninth Annual Lancaster Avenue Jazz Festival Philadelphia, PA July 18, 2015 It isn't often that you're going to hear a jazz legend like saxophonist Sonny Fortune at an inner city vest pocket park festival featuring mostly young lions and R&B groups, but in this case, at Saunders Park Green in Philadelphia's Powelton Village, Fortune was a local boy come home, and it was a sentimental thrill to see and hear this ...

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Album Review

Sonny Fortune: Last Night At Sweet Rhythm

Read "Last Night At Sweet Rhythm" reviewed by Chuck Koton

by Chuck Koton
May 28, 2010

Jellyfish plumes of toxic smoke may no longer hover in the air, but clinking glasses, persistent waiters and the intermittent roaring of drink mixers still conspire to diminish a jazz lover's listening pleasure at a live nightclub performance. Yet, somehow, spontaneous improvisation--the lifeblood of jazz--and the intimate interactions among the musicians and the audience, combine in clubs around the world to consistently conjure sonic magic on the bandstand.

Reed and flute master Sonny Fortune's incendiary blowin' style is ...

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Album Review

Sonny Fortune: Last Night at Sweet Rhythm

Read "Last Night at Sweet Rhythm" reviewed by Terrell Kent Holmes

by Terrell Kent Holmes
January 13, 2010

A few months ago, in 2009, reedman Sonny Fortune brought his quartet into the late Greenwich Village club to cut his first live recording as a leader. The performance captured on Last Night at Sweet Rhythm shows, as Fortune moves into his seventies, that his playing is as innovative, daring and fiery as ever. The set list can be viewed as a kind of retrospective, originals culled from various periods in Fortune's career. He goes for the ...

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Profile

Sonny Fortune: Thank God For That Day Job

by Chuck Koton
July 2, 2008

With an auspicious name like Sonny Fortune, could there be any doubt that this man would find success and fulfillment down whatever path he chose to follow in life. Fortune-ately for jazz lovers, he focused his talent and energy on the saxophone.

Fortune's destiny began at the beguine-ing; he was born at the right time, May 19, 1939, and at the right place, Philadelphia. While the City of Brotherly Love has been considered a second-tier jazz ...

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Album Review

Sonny Fortune: You and the Night and the Music

Read "You and the Night and the Music" reviewed by Troy Collins

by Troy Collins
August 31, 2007

From the generation of post-bop saxophonists following in the shadow of John Coltrane, multi-instrumentalist Sonny Fortune comes closest to capturing Coltrane's spirit and intensity. Since the late 1960s, Fortune has made an indelible mark on jazz history, collaborating with Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner, Miles Davis and Mongo Santamaria, among other luminaries. Despite his numerous side-man appearances and a fertile solo career, he remains a respected but unsung hero of the jazz cognoscenti.

Dominated by standards and traditional tunes, ...

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Album Review

Sonny Fortune: You and the Night and the Music

Read "You and the Night and the Music" reviewed by Joel Roberts

by Joel Roberts
July 16, 2007

While he's been overshadowed by other saxophonists throughout much of his career, Sonny Fortune has been an important force in jazz for many years, playing in a style that owes much to John Coltrane and was showcased in the bands of Coltrane's key collaborators, Elvin Jones and McCoy Tyner--as well as in a stint with Miles Davis in the 1970s. Fortune's You and The Night and The Music shows the Philadelphia-born Fortune in fine form at the ...

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