The Dikeou Collection is pleased to announce a very special edition of the Fresh Jazz and Crisp Vinyl Series, which will be in tribute to the legendary alto-sax player, Sonny Simmons. John Díaz-Cortés and The Folklorika Arkestra will perform compositions from Simmons’ repertoire, and KGNU Program Manager, Dave Ashton, will play a DJ set from composed with music from the collection’s record archive. This event is free and open to the public with light refreshments provided.
Born on August 4, 1933 in Sicily Island, Louisiana as the eldest of eight brothers, Sonny Simmons stands as one of the pillars of the free jazz and avant-garde jazz movements. Growing up in the rural south, with his father serving as a Baptist preacher and voodoo priest, Simmons was heavily influenced by the sounds of nature, gospel hymns, and tribal drums. His family relocated to Oakland, California in 1944 where he befriended William “Prince” Lasha, a fellow saxophonist who Simmons performed and recorded with for many years and released two seminal albums together, The Cry! (1962) and Firebirds (1967). In 1963 Sonny toured in New York where he met two other influential musicians, Sonny Rollins and Eric Dolphy, with whom he would also collaborate. Sonny returned to the West Coast later that year where he made his mark mentoring the younger generation of jazz musicians and in 1965 welcomed the birth of his son Zarak with his wife and musical partner, Barbara Donald. Sonny and Barbara released two powerful albums the following year, Staying On The Watch and Music From The Spheres, but after that his career slowed down significantly in the 1970s and ’80s due to personal problems and lack of work. Despite these setbacks, he never stopped making music, and thanks to hard work and helpful friends, he reemerged in the 1990s playing at international festivals and forming a new group, The Cosmosamatics. The group is hugely popular in Europe where they frequently tour and has recorded eight albums. Sonny Simmons now lives in Hells Kitchen, New York.
Sonny also served as the inspiration for a large-scale installation by Devon Dikeou titled “Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys,” which she created during her residency at Artpace in 2011. Elliot Reichert of Artpace writes:
“In this multimedia installation, Devon Dikeou acts as curator, spectator, critic and detective, and asks that the viewer also takes on and learns from these roles. The casual viewer would not easily recognize most of the 56 names on display, many of which would be obscure to non-experts in Jazz. This time, the subject is jazz, widely recognized as America’s only native art form. Dikeou has further complicated her curatorial authority by inserting a forged nameplate for Sonny Simmons in her collection. By including and refocusing Sonny’s name among the giants of Jazz, Dikeou presents a revised history of the genre. In doing so, she questions the authority of taste and the apparent rigidity of entrenched and historicized popular culture.”
John A. Díaz-Cortés is an American saxophonist, composer and educator. The Folklorika Arkestra, formed in 2009, combines the improvisational aspects of live jazz with the traditional folk sounds and melodies of the Americas. The band is dedicated to keeping the roots of various folk music from the Americas alive while delivering a modern message of community action and inclusiveness. The lineup for the evening includes John A. Díaz-Cortés on saxophone, Carlos Snaider on guitar, John Grigsby on bass, and Neil Hemphill on drums.
The ‘Fresh Jazz and Crisp Vinyl Series’ focuses on jazz musicians living and working today, whose names are not yet embossed into history, but whose energy, wisdom, well worn instruments, and presence in the jazz scene are further defining our admiration for the life form, Jazz music. Selections from the vinyl archive will thus serve as a remembrance to all the jazz greats who came before the jazz musicians invited to play at this bi-monthly series.