Memories of Sonny Fortune – interview with Marty Khan

Harrison spoke to Sonny's then manager Marty Khan, who also produced the sessions in Van Gelder Studios, and he reflects on the session itself, Rudy Van Gelder, the personnel in the group and Sonny's career

TH: Can you give me a little background on yourself?

MK: I started out taking saxophone lessons from Bill Barron. A few years later (1972) I started playing at Studio Rivbea every Sunday night with Sam Rivers’ Orchestral Explorations. Quickly I became the section leader of the Bb section, and began studying privately with Sam. I gave up playing in 1975 and moved into the business side. I became a manager and producer (George Russell, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Sam Rivers, Anthony Braxton, World Saxophone Quartet, Sonny Fortune, John Zorn and so many more – visit www.outwardvisions.com for all the details) and all the things that kept me from becoming the kind of musician I wanted to be were the ideal qualities that would make me a good manager and producer.

TH: So how did you get into working with Sonny?

MK: From around 1975 I started working with Sonny. We booked him occasionally on our touring programme which we started in 1976. When he signed to Atlantic records, he would contact me about the deal. We booked him from 1976 until the late 1980s. I just loved the cat man, we were very close we were like brothers; and then when the Blue Note thing came along, it was a situation in which he really knew he needed more formal management, which was when we formalised it. From that point on, from 1994 on, I managed him until 1999.

TH: So by the time you came to record From Now On, this was the third session for Blue Note. How did you prepare for the dates?

MK: Whenever we did a date, we did a week in a club called Sweet Basil. We’d do a week in the club, work the music live, take a day off, rehearse and then go into the studio on the following day. We would do 6 nights at Sweet Basil; 2 sets a night for four nights, and 3 sets for two nights. I would be there for every second of every set and when Monday morning would come around, I would actually be depressed that there wouldn’t be any more! I mean that’s how bad Sonny was!

TH: Right, so for From Now On, do you remember anything special about the day of the recording?

MK: When we recorded this album, it was the most intense snowstorm in New York in about 30 years. I mean there was like 28 inches of snow out there, and we had to get out to Jersey for the session. So, coming home from one of the sessions took us two and a half hours!

TH: That sounds like a pretty stressful start to the session. Did that cause any problems?

MK:  Not at all man! Sonny’s got this kind of... you know the jazz world may define who the masters are, but the musicians know who the masters are; everybody always subordinated themselves to Sonny’s vibe. Nobody was late, even though the snow was intense. It comes down to Sonny man, the respect that they had for Sonny. Cats give their all, all the time when somebody is at that level. They were there to make it count for every second. The other thing is... You gotta understand Rudy’s studio. The first time I walked in there, I understood what a devout Catholic feels like when they walk into St. Peter’s Basilica. The room is overwhelming. When you walk in that room man, you know the spirits that are in that room? I mean, all of Coltrane’s Impulse albums, virtually every Blue Note album, most of the Prestige albums were done in that room. You cannot walk into that room and not be cooled out. There’s a magic in there. Once you were in there, you didn’t even know what was happening outside. The first time I walked in there, I was just walking through the room man, just picking up the vibe, and at one point my kneed buckled. I mean literally buckled, I almost hit the ground. I went back to Rudy and I said “when Trane used to record, where did he stand?” He said “right there!” There was no tension in that session at all; it was a perfect vibe all the time.

TH: How was it to work with Rudy Van Gelder?

MK: It was one of the great privileges of my entire career as a producer. I produced over thirty albums, but man, getting to work with Rudy three times...its mind blowing when you work somebody at that level. I mean, the first session we did with Rudy, the session started at 11. We were listening to playback of the first track at 11:25! I’d never experienced anything like that in my life. I loved working with Rudy so much. To me From Now On is the peak of all the albums I’ve worked on in my life without question.

TH: Were you present for the entire session?

MK:  Of course yeah, absolutely, I’ve never produced an album where I wasn’t there for the entire session. It’s the old style you know; it’s the Alfred Lion style. You’re involved in it from the beginning, to the end. Sonny and I would speak on the phone maybe six or seven times a day, just talking about sequencing. Everything was hammered out; I was involved in all of Sonny’s stuff from beginning to end.

TH: That’s incredible! Does that mean you got involved in directing the music itself?

MK:  My job was to take care of everything involving the session, not the music. And this is what I say in my book Straight Ahead about the producer’s role; as the producer you only get involved in the music when the artist asks you for something. I don’t take any control; I don’t think that’s the producer’s job, not when you’re dealing with an artist like Sonny anyway. In the end I was actually able to contribute more to this album than to any other album I did.

TH: You worked with Sonny for a long time, what was it about him that you found so inspirational?

MK:  You know man, here’s the thing. On one of these gigs, on a Thursday night, the music was fantastic. The audience was receptive but they didn’t go wild. Later that night we were hanging out at this bagel joint uptown like always, and he was shaking his head saying, “I don’t know man, I gotta figure this out. The audience weren’t with me, people can think that something’s going on when nothing’s going on, but they can’t think that nothing’s going on when something’s going on. This is on me.” The next day he practised for like three hours, called a rehearsal with the band and then we went in that night. The music was so unbelievable, I’m getting chills right now just thinking about it more than 20 years later! The music was so powerful, so intense, the audience was berserk, screaming and hollering and jumping up and down. I just remember Sonny standing with his two feet planted the way Sam Rivers used to plant them with his horn like a gun almost. If he had an option of playing for one night in a concert hall, or six nights in the same city for the same fee, he would take the six nights in the club because it meant he would get to play for six nights instead of one. This, to me, epitomises what Sony Fortune was about as an artist.

Some notes about the original recording:

Lineup: Sonny Fortune (as), Eddie Henderson (t), Joe Lovano (ts), John Hicks (p), Santi Debriano (b), Jeff "Tain" Watts (d)

Recorded: March 11, 1996 & March 12, 1996 at Van Gelder Studios for Blue Note

Released: 1996

Tom Harrison Quintet dates:

Gig Date: Tom Harrison Quintet @ London Jazz Festival, 20th November 2016, Spice of Life

Lineup: Tom Harrison (as), Quentin Collins (t), Robert Mitchell (p), Conor Chaplin (b), Dave Hamblett (d)

Tickets: www.efglondonjazzfestival.org.uk