Sonny Sharrock
Encyclopedia
Warren Harding "Sonny" Sharrock (August 27, 1940 – May 26, 1994) was an American
jazz
guitar
ist. He was once married to singer Linda Sharrock
, with whom he sometimes recorded and performed.
One of few guitarists in the first wave of free jazz
in the 1960s, Sharrock was known for his incisive, heavily chorded attack, his bursts of wild feedback, and for his use of saxophone-like lines played loudly on guitar.
and Alexander Solla in the late 1960s, appearing first on Sanders's 1966 effort, Tauhid
. He made several appearances with flautist Herbie Mann
and also made an uncredited guest appearance on Miles Davis
's A Tribute to Jack Johnson
, perhaps his most famous cameo.
He had in fact wanted to play tenor saxophone
from his youth after hearing John Coltrane
play on Davis's album Kind of Blue
on the radio at age 19, but his asthma
prevented this from happening. Sharrock said repeatedly, however, that he still considered himself "a horn
player with a really fucked up axe."
Three albums under Sharrock's name were released in the late '60s through the mid-'70s: Black Woman (which has been described by one reviewer as bringing out the beauty in emotions rather than technical prowess), Monkey-Pockie-Boo, and an album co-credited to both Sonny and his wife, Paradise (an album by which Sharrock was embarrassed and stated several times that it was not good and should not be reissued ).
coaxed him out of retirement, he worked as both a chauffeur and a caretaker for mentally challenged children. At Laswell's urging, Sharrock appeared on Material
's (one of Laswell's many projects) 1981 effort, Memory Serves. In addition, Sharrock was a member of the punk
/jazz band Last Exit
, together with Peter Brötzmann
, Laswell and Ronald Shannon Jackson
. During the late 1980s, he recorded and performed extensively with the New York-based improvising band Machine Gun
, as well as leading his own bands. Sharrock flourished with Laswell's help, noting in a 1991 interview that "the last five years have been pretty strange for me, because I went twelve years without making a record at all, and then in the last five years, I've made seven records under my own name. That's pretty strange."
Laswell would often perform with the guitarist on his albums, and produced many of Sharrock's recordings, including the entirely solo Guitar, the metal-influenced Seize the Rainbow, and the well-received Ask the Ages
, which featured John Coltrane's bandmates Pharoah Sanders
and Elvin Jones
. "Who Does She Want To Be" is very lyrical piece harking back to the Coltrane/Davis Kind Of Blue sessions that had inspired him to play. One writer described Ask the Ages as "hands down, Sharrock's finest hour, and the ideal album to play for those who claim to hate jazz guitar." Sharrock is perhaps best known for the soundtrack to the Cartoon Network
program Space Ghost Coast to Coast
with his drummer Lance Carter, one of the last projects he completed in the studio before his death.
in Ossining, NY
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
ist. He was once married to singer Linda Sharrock
Linda Sharrock
Linda Sharrock is an American jazz singer....
, with whom he sometimes recorded and performed.
One of few guitarists in the first wave of free jazz
Free jazz
Free jazz is an approach to jazz music that was first developed in the 1950s and 1960s. Though the music produced by free jazz pioneers varied widely, the common feature was a dissatisfaction with the limitations of bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz, which had developed in the 1940s and 1950s...
in the 1960s, Sharrock was known for his incisive, heavily chorded attack, his bursts of wild feedback, and for his use of saxophone-like lines played loudly on guitar.
Early life and career
Sharrock began his musical career singing doo wop in his teen years. He collaborated with Pharoah SandersPharoah Sanders
Pharoah Sanders is a Grammy Award–winning American jazz saxophonist.Saxophonist Ornette Coleman once described him as "probably the best tenor player in the world." Emerging from John Coltrane's groups of the mid-60s Sanders is known for his overblowing, harmonic, and multiphonic techniques on...
and Alexander Solla in the late 1960s, appearing first on Sanders's 1966 effort, Tauhid
Tauhid (album)
-Track listing:#"Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt" #"Japan" #"Medley:Aum/Venus/Capricorn Rising" -Personnel:*Pharoah Sanders - Tenor Saxophone, Alto Saxophone, Piccolo, Voice*Dave Burrell - Piano*Henry Grimes - Bass...
. He made several appearances with flautist Herbie Mann
Herbie Mann
Herbert Jay Solomon , better known as Herbie Mann, was a Jewish American jazz flutist and important early practitioner of world music...
and also made an uncredited guest appearance on Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
's A Tribute to Jack Johnson
A Tribute to Jack Johnson
A Tribute to Jack Johnson is a studio album by American jazz musician Miles Davis, released February 24, 1971 on Columbia Records. It also serves as the soundtrack for a documentary by Bill Cayton about the heavyweight world champion boxer Jack Johnson....
, perhaps his most famous cameo.
He had in fact wanted to play tenor saxophone
Tenor saxophone
The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble...
from his youth after hearing John Coltrane
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...
play on Davis's album Kind of Blue
Kind of Blue
Kind of Blue is a studio album by American jazz musician Miles Davis, released August 17, 1959, on Columbia Records in the United States. Recording sessions for the album took place at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York City on March 2 and April 22, 1959...
on the radio at age 19, but his asthma
Asthma
Asthma is the common chronic inflammatory disease of the airways characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and bronchospasm. Symptoms include wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath...
prevented this from happening. Sharrock said repeatedly, however, that he still considered himself "a horn
Horn section
In music, a horn section can refer to several groups of musicians. It can refer to the musicians in a symphony orchestra who play the horn . In a British-style brass band it refers to the tenor horn players. In popular music, it can also refer to a small group of wind instrumentalists who augment a...
player with a really fucked up axe."
Three albums under Sharrock's name were released in the late '60s through the mid-'70s: Black Woman (which has been described by one reviewer as bringing out the beauty in emotions rather than technical prowess), Monkey-Pockie-Boo, and an album co-credited to both Sonny and his wife, Paradise (an album by which Sharrock was embarrassed and stated several times that it was not good and should not be reissued ).
Career revival
After the release of Paradise, Sharrock was semi-retired for much of the 1970s, undergoing a divorce from wife/occasional collaborator Linda in 1978. In the intermittent years until producer/bassist Bill LaswellBill Laswell
Bill Laswell is an American bassist, producer and record label owner....
coaxed him out of retirement, he worked as both a chauffeur and a caretaker for mentally challenged children. At Laswell's urging, Sharrock appeared on Material
Material (band)
For the rock band of the same name, see The MaterialMaterial is a musical group formed in 1979 and led by bass guitarist Bill Laswell.-1978-82: The band:...
's (one of Laswell's many projects) 1981 effort, Memory Serves. In addition, Sharrock was a member of the punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
/jazz band Last Exit
Last Exit (Free jazz band)
Last Exit was a free jazz supergroup composed of electric guitarist Sonny Sharrock, drummer/occasional vocalist Ronald Shannon Jackson, saxophonist Peter Brötzmann, and bass guitarist Bill Laswell. They were active from 1986 to the early 1990s, releasing primarily live albums recorded in Europe...
, together with Peter Brötzmann
Peter Brötzmann
Peter Brötzmann is a German artist and free jazz saxophonist and clarinetist.Brötzmann is among the most important European free jazz musicians. His rough, lyrical timbre is easily recognized on his many recordings.-Early life:...
, Laswell and Ronald Shannon Jackson
Ronald Shannon Jackson
Ronald Shannon Jackson is an American jazz drummer. He was born in Fort Worth, Texas.Jackson is notable for his unusual approach to his instrument, which draws as much inspiration from military and parade bands as from traditional jazz drumming.He is the only person to have recorded and performed...
. During the late 1980s, he recorded and performed extensively with the New York-based improvising band Machine Gun
Machine Gun (band)
Machine Gun was an improvising band formed in New York City in 1986. Its members were: Robert Musso: guitars, Thomas Chapin: reeds and flute, John Richey: vocals, cut-ups, tapes, tv, Bil Bryant: drums, Jair-Rohm Parker Wells: basses...
, as well as leading his own bands. Sharrock flourished with Laswell's help, noting in a 1991 interview that "the last five years have been pretty strange for me, because I went twelve years without making a record at all, and then in the last five years, I've made seven records under my own name. That's pretty strange."
Laswell would often perform with the guitarist on his albums, and produced many of Sharrock's recordings, including the entirely solo Guitar, the metal-influenced Seize the Rainbow, and the well-received Ask the Ages
Ask the Ages
Ask the Ages was the last album released by jazz guitarist Sonny Sharrock before his death in 1994 .-Track listing:#"Promises Kept" –9:43#"Who Does She Hope to Be?" –4:41...
, which featured John Coltrane's bandmates Pharoah Sanders
Pharoah Sanders
Pharoah Sanders is a Grammy Award–winning American jazz saxophonist.Saxophonist Ornette Coleman once described him as "probably the best tenor player in the world." Emerging from John Coltrane's groups of the mid-60s Sanders is known for his overblowing, harmonic, and multiphonic techniques on...
and Elvin Jones
Elvin Jones
Elvin Ray Jones was a jazz drummer of the post-bop era. He showed interest in drums at a young age, watching the circus bands march by his family's home in Pontiac, Michigan....
. "Who Does She Want To Be" is very lyrical piece harking back to the Coltrane/Davis Kind Of Blue sessions that had inspired him to play. One writer described Ask the Ages as "hands down, Sharrock's finest hour, and the ideal album to play for those who claim to hate jazz guitar." Sharrock is perhaps best known for the soundtrack to the Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network is a name of television channels worldwide created by Turner Broadcasting which used to primarily show animated programming. The channel began broadcasting on October 1, 1992 in the United States....
program Space Ghost Coast to Coast
Space Ghost Coast to Coast
Space Ghost Coast to Coast is an American animated parody talk show hosted by the 60s Hanna-Barbera cartoon character Space Ghost. The show premiered on April 15, 1994 on Cartoon Network...
with his drummer Lance Carter, one of the last projects he completed in the studio before his death.
Death
In 1994, Sharrock died unexpectedly of a heart attack in his hometown of Ossining, New York, just as he was on the verge of signing the first major label deal in his entire career. He was 53. He left behind his wife of 11 years, Nettie and his daughter, Jasmyn. He is interred at the Dale CemeteryDale Cemetery
The Dale Cemetery located in Ossining, New York is a town-owned cemetery encompassing and has been operational since October 1851.-Description:...
in Ossining, NY
Ossining (town), New York
Ossining is a town in Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 37,674 at the 2010 census. It contains two villages, the Village of Ossining and part of Briarcliff Manor, the rest of which is located in the Town of Mount Pleasant....
.
As leader
- 1969: Black Woman
- 1970: Monkey-Pockie-Boo
- 1975: Paradise
- 1982: Dance with me Montana
- 1986: Guitar
- 1987: Seize the Rainbow
- 1988: Machine Gun (with Machine GunMachine Gun (band)Machine Gun was an improvising band formed in New York City in 1986. Its members were: Robert Musso: guitars, Thomas Chapin: reeds and flute, John Richey: vocals, cut-ups, tapes, tv, Bil Bryant: drums, Jair-Rohm Parker Wells: basses...
) - 1989: No Material (with Ginger BakerGinger BakerPeter Edward "Ginger" Baker is an English drummer, best known for his work with Cream and Blind Faith. He is also known for his numerous associations with World music, mainly the use of African influences...
) - 1989: Live in New York
- 1990: Highlife
- 1991: Faith Moves (duo with Nicky SkopelitisNicky SkopelitisNicky Skopelitis is an American guitarist and composer from Greek heritage. He is best known as a guitarist, but also performs on banjo, oud, lute, keyboards and other instruments....
) - 1991: Ask the AgesAsk the AgesAsk the Ages was the last album released by jazz guitarist Sonny Sharrock before his death in 1994 .-Track listing:#"Promises Kept" –9:43#"Who Does She Hope to Be?" –4:41...
- 1996: Space Ghost Coast to CoastSpace Ghost Coast to Coast (album)Space Ghost Coast to Coast is a soundtrack album by Sonny Sharrock, containing music composed for Cartoon Network's Space Ghost Coast to Coast...
- 1996: Into Another Light (compilation)
With Last Exit
- 1986: Last Exit
- 1986: Last Exit, Live In Köln (first actual performance)
- 1986: Last Exit, Noise Of Trouble: Live In Tokyo
- 1987: Last Exit, Cassette Recordings (reissued in 1995 as From The Board)
- 1988: Iron Path (studio recording)
- 1989: Last Exit, Headfirst into the Flames: Live in Europe
- 1990: Best Of Last Exit (compilation)
- 1990: Various Artists, Live From The Knitting Factory Vol. 4 (Track #3, The Sprawl)
As sideman
- 1966: TauhidTauhid (album)-Track listing:#"Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt" #"Japan" #"Medley:Aum/Venus/Capricorn Rising" -Personnel:*Pharoah Sanders - Tenor Saxophone, Alto Saxophone, Piccolo, Voice*Dave Burrell - Piano*Henry Grimes - Bass...
(with Pharoah SandersPharoah SandersPharoah Sanders is a Grammy Award–winning American jazz saxophonist.Saxophonist Ornette Coleman once described him as "probably the best tenor player in the world." Emerging from John Coltrane's groups of the mid-60s Sanders is known for his overblowing, harmonic, and multiphonic techniques on...
) - 1968: Eternal Rhythm (with Don CherryDon Cherry (jazz)Donald Eugene Cherry was an innovative African-American jazz cornetist whose career began with a long association with saxophonist Ornette Coleman. He went on to live in many parts of the world and work with a wide variety of musicians.-Biography:Cherry was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and...
) - 1969: Izipho Zam (with Pharoah SandersPharoah SandersPharoah Sanders is a Grammy Award–winning American jazz saxophonist.Saxophonist Ornette Coleman once described him as "probably the best tenor player in the world." Emerging from John Coltrane's groups of the mid-60s Sanders is known for his overblowing, harmonic, and multiphonic techniques on...
) - 1969: Super NovaSuper Nova (Wayne Shorter album)-Track listing:All compositions by Wayne Shorter except as indicated.# "Supernova" - 4:52# "Sweet Pea" - 4:36# "Dindi" - 9:35# "Water Babies" - 4:53# "Capricorn" - 7:47# "More Than Human" - 6:12...
(with Wayne ShorterWayne ShorterWayne Shorter is an American jazz saxophonist and composer.He is generally acknowledged to be jazz's greatest living composer, and many of his compositions have become standards...
) - 1969: Live at the Whisky A Go Go (with Herbie MannHerbie MannHerbert Jay Solomon , better known as Herbie Mann, was a Jewish American jazz flutist and important early practitioner of world music...
) - 1969: Memphis Underground (with Herbie MannHerbie MannHerbert Jay Solomon , better known as Herbie Mann, was a Jewish American jazz flutist and important early practitioner of world music...
) - 1970: Stone Flute (with Herbie MannHerbie MannHerbert Jay Solomon , better known as Herbie Mann, was a Jewish American jazz flutist and important early practitioner of world music...
) - 1970: A Tribute to Jack JohnsonA Tribute to Jack JohnsonA Tribute to Jack Johnson is a studio album by American jazz musician Miles Davis, released February 24, 1971 on Columbia Records. It also serves as the soundtrack for a documentary by Bill Cayton about the heavyweight world champion boxer Jack Johnson....
and The Complete Jack Johnson SessionsThe Complete Jack Johnson SessionsThe Complete Jack Johnson Sessions were recorded in April 1970 by Miles Davis, and released in September 2003. These sessions formed the basis for the 1970 album A Tribute to Jack Johnson....
(with Miles DavisMiles DavisMiles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
) - 1973: Hold On, I'm Comin' (with Herbie MannHerbie MannHerbert Jay Solomon , better known as Herbie Mann, was a Jewish American jazz flutist and important early practitioner of world music...
)