Reality demands that the Olympian saxophone improviser Sonny Rollins must slow down one day, and every time he appears, his fans look anxiously for signs. But at the Barbican on the London jazz festival's closing weekend, there were none. As if heartened by arrival at his 80th birthday, Rollins swept imperiously through a two-hour single set without a blink.
As ever, the tunes were standard Rollins fare – calypsos like Global Warming and a finale of Don't Stop The Carnival, tender ballads racked by sardonic diversions, barging runs and sly quotes. His usual road-band accompanied him, too, though the fluent and melodious Russell Malone came in on guitar, and regular trombonist Clifton Anderson was absent. The show thus depended crucially on the leader's sustained energies, but only one treading-water episode late on hinted at fatigue. As it turned out, the boss was conserving himself for an eruption into unaccompanied semi-abstraction that acted as a fanfare for a sumptuous Ellington medley.
On Friday, the Bad Plus, the festival's resident band, showed another side of its ever-evolving character with an enthralling set of rock and classical covers performed with the incisive Minneapolis vocalist Wendy Lewis.
The Bad Plus appear on Radio 3's Jazz on 3 on 17 January.
