Sonny Fortune September 21, 2007

Sonny Fortune
Blue Note Saxophone Legend

Sonny Fortune is one of the most exciting saxophonists in jazz today, with a searing sound that is all his own. Fortune served as a sideman with a variety of leaders, including Elvin Jones, Mongo Santamaria, Buddy Rich, McCoy Tyner, Miles Davis and Nat Adderley, but it as a leader that he has truly made his mark in music. He currently leads a quartet, is co-leader with Gary Bartz and Vincent Herring of the cooperative group The Three Altos, and has an incendiary duo with Rashied Ali. Fortune also runs his own record label, Sound Reason, which releases his original music.

Sonny Fortune was born in Philadelphia in 1939. He embodies all of the finest qualities of late, great musicians like Coltrane and Parker: hard work, dedication to his art, and exceptional music. In 1967 he moved to New York saying, “to find out if you really have what it takes, you have to go to the center, and that's New York." Sonny has played with Mongo Santamaria, McCoy Tyner, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Reggie Workman and many others. Sonny has been featured on CBS’s 48 Hours and Sunday Morning and he has played on the soundtrack for Jack Nicholson’s The Crossing Guard. Sonny acknowledges John Coltrane as his greatest influence. "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." - Howard Mandel

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