Guest: Aidan Levy, Author of Saxophone Colossus: The Life and Music of Sonny Rollins

In his new book, Saxophone Colossus: The Life and Music of Sonny Rollins, author Aidan Levy has created a work nearly as sprawling and monumental as the seven decades of sounds crafted by a man widely considered “jazz’s greatest living improviser.” 

Levy devoted seven years to capturing Rollins – the musician, the myth, the civil rights activist, environmentalist, and wandering spiritualist – in a whopping 750 readable pages. The book is based on more than 200 interviews with Rollins, his family members, friends, and collaborators, as well as the artist’s archive of letters, journals, photos, and press clippings accrued over a career in which he has taken a few notable sabbaticals and sharp stylistic turns. It pretty much traces every recording session and gig in which the Saxophone Colossus participated. The depth of Levy’s astounding research is furthered by the more than 400 pages of footnotes available only online. You can read my earlier review of this book here.

"Reading is Funktamental" is a monthly one-hour show/podcast about great books written about music and music-makers. In each episode, host Sal Cataldi speaks to the authors of some of the best reads about rock, jazz, punk, world, experimental music, and much more. Occasionally, the host is joined by notable musicians who have written about their careers. Recent guests have included eccentric British singer-songwriter Robyn Hitchcock, Roxy Music’s Phil Manzanera, Traffic co-founder Dave Mason, and Moon Zappa. Expect a great conversation and a playlist of great music to go with it.

Sal Cataldi is a musician and writer based in Saugerties. He is best known for his work with his genre-leaping solo project, Spaghetti Eastern Music, and is also a member of the ambient guitar duo Guitars A Go Go, the poetry and music duo Vapor Vespers, the jazz ensemble Hari Karaoke Trio of Doom and the quartet, Spaceheater. His writing on music, books and film has been featured in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, PopMatters, Seattle Times, Huffington Post, Inside+Out Upstate NY, and NYSMusic.com, where he is the book reviewer.