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Sonny Greenwich (né Herbert Lawrence Greenidge), CM, guitarist, composer (born 1 January 1936 in Hamilton, ON). One of Canada's most intriguing jazz musicians, Sonny Greenwich divided his life between musical and spiritual pursuits — thus turning away from a potentially major career. Emulating jazz saxophonists John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins, Greenwich developed an original guitar style and created a highly personal body of music. Based in Toronto until 1968 and thereafter in and around Montreal, Greenwich performed only sporadically until the 1990s. He then became more active, collaborating with Wayne Shorter, Chick Corera, Suna Ra and Kenny Wheeler. Greenwich was nominated for four Juno Awards between 1994 and 1999 and was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 2005. His son, Sonny Greewnich Jr., is also a Juno-winning guitarist.
Early Life
Sonny Greenwich’s father, Herb Greenidge, was a jazz pianist in Hamilton until the early 1940s. He then took his family to Toronto, where he retired from music. Sonny, who also pursued an early career as a boxer, began playing guitar in his late teens. Around the age of 22 he joined an R&B band led by the pianist Conrad “Connie” Maynard.
Influenced by the tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins, Greenwich developed a unique style, with an emphasis on long phrases of single notes rather than a more harmonic approach. The saxophonist John Coltrane, the trumpeter Miles Davis, and the pianist Bill Evans were other early influences.
Performances
Turning exclusively to jazz by 1960, Sonny Greenwich appeared at such Toronto venues as the Cellar, the First Floor Club and the Bohemian Embassy with his own bands. He also performed locally with the tenor saxophonist Don “D.T.” Thompson and others. After playing in the US in 1966–67 with the US saxophonist John Handy, in the company of the bassist Don Thompson and the drummer Terry Clarke, Greenwich settled in Boucherville, near Montreal. Greenwich appeared at the Village Vanguard in New York for a week in 1968, leading a quartet completed by American musicians.
Greenwich's career thereafter was interrupted by other interests (including the pursuit of a personal religion similar to pantheism). He was also dogged by poor health related to a childhood head injury and recurring lung problems, and he had US immigration concerns. Although he was invited to join Miles Davis’s band after a week's audition at Toronto's Colonial Tavern in 1969, he was unable to secure the necessary documentation to work in the US.
Greenwich’s performance record was spotty during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s as he made occasional appearances in concerts and clubs in Montreal, Toronto, Quebec City, and Ottawa. He appeared at the FIJM several times and in 1987 performed at the New York club Sweet Basil, an event which was preserved on a recording for the Justin Time label, Live at Sweet Basil.
Recordings
Long known more by reputation than through personal exposure outside Canada, Sonny Greenwich reached a greater number of listeners from 1990 on. He formed his own label, Kleo, and released three recordings, Standard Idioms (1992), Hymn to the Earth (1994) and Spirit in the Air (1995). He then returned to Justin Time for Welcome Mother Earth (1995) and recorded with his son, the guitarist Sonny Greenwich Jr. (His band, Bootsauce, won the 1992 Juno Award for Best Dance Recording.) Sonny senior was featured on The Kenny Wheeler and Sonny Greenwich Quintet at the Montreal Bistro (1997), as well as a set of duets recorded with the pianist Paul Bley.
In 2000, Sackville Records released a set of 1979 duets with the guitarist Ed Bickert. In 2001, Cornerstone Records released Fragments of a Memory, a session originally recorded for the CBC Radio program Jazz Beat. In addition, Greenwich's 1967 recordings with the tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley were reissued internationally by Blue Note Records.
In his later years, Greenwich’s influences expanded beyond jazz to include the classical composers Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy and Paul Hindemith. It is reflective of Greenwich's open-minded approach to music and strikingly personal style that he also based guitar solos on the work of visual artists such as the cubist Paul Klee, and on natural elements such as birdsong.
Honours and Awards
As a result of his heightened profile in the 1990s and 2000s, Greenwich was the recipient of numerous awards and honours, including several Jazz Report Awards for best Canadian guitarist. Between 1994 and 1999, he received two Juno Award nominations for Best Contemporary Jazz Album and two nominations for Best Mainstream Jazz Album. In 2005, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada for his “rare ability to touch people through his innovative interpretation of classical and original compositions” and for being “One of Canada's finest ambassadors of jazz.”
(See also Jazz in Canada.)
A version of this article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada.
