Book Launch: The Notebooks of Sonny Rollins

One of the towering masters of American music, Rollins was a virtuoso of the saxophone, and an unequaled improviser whose live performances are legendary and who has reshaped modern jazz time and time again over the course of a career lasting more than sixty years.

His notebooks, donated to the New York Public Library in 2017 and edited by Sam, are ‘an illuminating selection of writings on a wide variety of topics—everything from technique, music theory, and daily routine to spirituality and systemic racism” (The New York Times). The book, published by NYRB, is a landmark in the history of jazz writing, and “an indispensable look into the mind and interior life of one of the most celebrated jazz musicians of all time” (The Millions).

Sam will be joined by poet, academic, and musician JT Welsch.

Sam Reese is a short story writer, critic of jazz and literature, and senior lecturer at York St John University. He has won prizes including the Arthur Miller First Book award, and his short fiction has been collected in two volumes.

J.T. Welsch is a senior lecturer at the University of York. He is co-editor of Wretched Strangers: Borders Movement Homes, and author of various books of and about poetry, including The Selling and Self-Regulation of Contemporary Poetry. He is also a perpetually aspiring jazz pianist, with a keen interest in the relationship between music and writing.