Talk:Sonny Simmons

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Sonny Simmons article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Biography: Musicians

	Biography portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography articles
	This article is supported by WikiProject Musicians (assessed as Low-importance).

Jazz Start‑class Low‑importance

	Jazz portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Jazz, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of jazz on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.JazzWikipedia:WikiProject JazzTemplate:WikiProject JazzJazz articles
Start	This article has been given a rating which conflicts with the project-independent quality rating in the banner shell. Please resolve this conflict if possible.
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Was English horn his first instrument?

This is something that NPR reported in their obituary, but having read all the interviews with him I don't believe it's correct.

He started out wanting to play the English Horn but because of the cost ended up on tenor sax, which he played throughout high school and continued to play occasionally later in his career.

Let's try to get back to the primary sources for this information.

For instance, this interview includes background biographical information. Presumably the author was in contact with Sonny when he wrote this, unlike the NPR editor who wrote the obit.

https://www.andyhamilton.org/single-post/2007/02/21/Interview-with-Sonny-Simmons

Here is the quote:

Starting on tenor-sax at the age of 16, in 1949 he experienced a bebop epiphany when he saw Charlie Parker with Jazz at the Philharmonic in Oakland: "Bird filled up this whole auditorium [with his sound] – I never heard such beautiful music coming out of a saxophone. It changed my life". He tried to sneak backstage to speak to the master, but Parker, who was doing very well by this time, was whisked away in a long Cadillac limo: "He had on this white suit like in the Charlie Chan movies", Simmons recalls.

According to this article his first instrument was an accordian, which his father (a preacher) gave him when he was six years old.

https://reader.exacteditions.com/issues/3044/page/35?term=sONNY+SIMMONS

"The development of Simmons instrumental skills has been unusual, in that he regards cor anglais as his main instrument - as on alto sax he's almost entirely self-taught. Tenor sax was his first instrument, which he worked to buy when he was sixteen - his parents couldn't afford it. "Big Jay McNeely was my main man, and Illinois Jacquet. I was listening to Bird all the time, but these were my guys" he says.