WHO IS SONNY SIMMONS?

GENIUS, LEGEND, AND HUSTLER, Sonny Simmons is one of the last living icons of jazz. He’s collaborated with the likes of John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Albert Ayler, Sonny Rollins, Rhassan Roland Kirk, and Eric Dolphy. 

His story is at times as tragic as they come. Born the son of a preacher in Sicily Island, Lousianna, his first music lessons came playing the squeezebox in his father’s ministry. By thirteen he’d graduated to the cor anglais (English Horn) and later to alto and tenor saxophone. He confronted racism as a child in the pre-civil rights South, as an adolescent in the Oakland of the Black Panther Party, and as the black husband of white trumpet player Barbara Donald. Their marriage was so controversial in the jazz world that the two were unofficially blacklisted and unable to find paying gigs. The strain eventually undid their union and left Sonny grief-stricken and homeless. 

He spent the next fifteen years on the streets of San Francisco, avoiding being recognized by assuming an alias, “Blackjack Pleasanton.” He became addicted to drugs, lost touch with just about anybody he ever knew, and was even rumored to be dead. But he never gave up on music. You can still hear stories of a homeless Simmons playing daily on the corner of Market and Van Ness in downtown San Francisco. 

After fifteen years of scraping and scuffling, he reemerged in top form when Warner Brothers executives lured him out of hiding with a record deal. At 76, Sonny still tours the U.S. and abroad, continues to produce critically-acclaimed albums, and shows no signs of slowing. His exuberance, and incurable optimism in the face of great tragedy will inspire you.