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Posted on Mon, May 3, 2010 : 5:32 a.m.

Local youngster, fascinated by jazzman Sonny Rollins, gets to meet his hero

By Roger LeLievre

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Sonny Rollins and Noah Garfield.

photo courtesy of Catherine Marquardt

Chances are, at age 2½, Ann Arbor youngster Noah Garfield may be jazz great Sonny Rollins’ youngest fan.

Noah’s even met the musical icon.

Just before Rollins’ first concert of his 80th birthday tour this April in Detroit, Noah’s mom, Catherine Marquardt, wrote to Rollins’ webmaster Bret Primack about the possibility of Rollins meeting her son.

“I was just amazed they said yes. They were really nice people. … I think they were highly entertained by the story.”

Marquardt and her son, as well as her husband, Mike Garfield, who live on Ann Arbor's near west side, met Rollins after sound check. “He was very gracious,” Marquardt said of the saxophone great. “He said he had read my letter and was very touched by that. … Sonny signed his CDs for him.”

That her son seems to have developed such a fascination for Rollins and his music comes as a surprise to Marquardt and her husband.

“We’re pretty shocked by it. It’s all self-driven,” Marquardt said. “It’s not like we’re great jazz fans and tried to get him interested in jazz. We found this kids’ book (“This Jazz Man”by Karen Ehrhardt) about different jazz musicians, and at some point he wanted to know what their names were and what the instruments were.

“We played him what little jazz we had and he just loved it. For the first few months, he listened to just 2 Sonny Rollins CDs over and over again. Finally we went to the library because we thought we might expand his horizons. That’s mostly what he wanted to listen to. He knows all the other jazz musicians, and he will occasionally listen to them, but it is mostly Sonny Rollins.”

Although Marquardt played a bit of clarinet in high school, and was a performance major at Oberlin Conservatory, she said she hasn’t played in years (she teaches German at the University of Michigan). Neither is her husband musical (he is director of the Ecology Center).

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photo courtesy of Catherine Marquardt

“We weren’t playing jazz around the house. He liked it all on his own,” she said of Noah, adding that they bought a toy saxophone for their son and it is a constant companion. “He only blows one note on it, but he carries it around and spins around and dances with it. It’s so funny — now he’s mimicking Sonny Rollins’ playing and watching his shadow in the mirror.”

Marquardt said she thinks her son’s interest has been fueled not only by Rollins’ music CDs, but by his 2 DVDs. “I think for him to be able to not just hear the music but to watch (Rollins) play, that’s a big thing. He knows all the musicians in the band and he imitates them as well. I got him a little guitar, I figured we might as well run with it,” she added. “At some point I happened on the ‘Saxophone Colossus’ DVD at the library, so for his first TV/DVD experience, we watched it. Noah wanted to see it all day every day so I finally limited him to one viewing per day.”

There’s no real explanation, Marquardt said, for her son’s fascination for the music.

“I guess we haven’t asked him,” she said. “He can’t articulate it.”

One thing Marquardt has noticed: Noah will have nothing to do with contemporary children’s music. “Whenever I turn any kind of kid’s music he doesn’t want to hear it. ‘Turn it off Mom,’ he says."

For now, Marquardt said, she and her husband are taking a wait-and-see approach.

“We’ve exhausted the library collection, we’re hitting up the university collections. I think we’ll just keep introducing him to different instruments and keep taking him to hear live music and see what happens. You never know. It could completely pass, or it could completely stick. I have no idea,” she said.

Roger LeLievre is a freelance writer who covers music for AnnArbor.com.

Comments

JAM

Mon, May 3, 2010 : 9:42 a.m.

My nephew was really into Queen Ida (zydeco) when he was 2. How that's he's 15, he's more into Green Day. Interesting, isn't it?