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Sonny Sharrock

Warren Harding Sharrock (August 27, 1940 - May 25, 1994) was an American jazz guitarist. He was married to singer Linda Sharrock , with who he sometimes recorded or performed.

Sharrock began his musical career singing doo wop in his teen years. He collaborated with Pharoah Sanders in the late 1960s, and played with Herbie Mann and with Miles Davis. Sharrock was known for his incisive attack and for his use of saxophone-like lines played loudly on guitar; he had in fact wanted to play tenor saxophone from his youth, but his asthma prevented this, and Sharrock said repeatedly that he still considered himself "a horn player with a really fucked up axe." [1] http://www.martinos.org/~reese/joetest/articles/articles_v01_j.html

Sharrock was semi-retired for much of the 1970s, until coaxed into performing by bassist Bill Laswell. Sharrock flourished with Laswell's help, noting in a 1991 interview that "the last five years have been pretty strange for me, because I went twelve years without making a record at all, and then in the last five years, I've made seven records under my own name. That's pretty strange." [2] http://www.joemcphee.com/jny/sharrock/schaefer.html

Laswell would often perform with the guitarist, and produced many of Sharrock's recordings, including the solo Guitar and the well-received Ask The Ages, which featured John Coltrane's bandmates Pharoah Sanders and Elvin Jones. One writer described Ask The Ages as "hands down, Sharrock's finest hour, and the ideal album to play for those who claim to hate jazz guitar." [3] http://www.trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=sonny_sharrock

He was a member of the punk/jazz band Last Exit. During the late 1980s he recorded and performed extensively with the New York-based improvising band Machine Gun as well with as his own groups.

Sharrock is perhaps best known today for the soundtrack to the Cartoon Network program Space Ghost: Coast to Coast.

Discography

  • 1969 Black Woman
  • 1970 Monkey-Pockie-Boo
  • 1975 Paradise
  • 1986 Guitar
  • 1987 Seize the Rainbow
  • 1987 Dance With Me, Montana
  • 1989 Live in New York
  • 1989 Faith Moves (duo with Nicky Skopelitis)
  • 1990 Highlife
  • 1991 Ask the Ages
  • 1996 Space Ghost Coast to Coast



Last updated: 02-21-2005 12:23:06