Collection: Sonny Fortune

Sonny Fortune played alto saxophone with a powerful, clear tone that carried the Coltrane lineage into funkier, more electric settings without losing its own voice. Born in Philadelphia, he moved to New York in 1967 and sought out Elvin Jones on Coltrane’s advice. Over the next few years he worked with Jones, Mongo Santamaria and McCoy Tyner, and in 1974 he replaced Dave Liebman in Miles Davis’s band, staying until the spring of 1975. His first record under his own name, Long Before Our Mothers Cried (Strata-East, 1974), was followed by Awakening and Waves of Dreams on Horizon and a run of Atlantic albums that included Serengeti Minstrel (1977). He kept recording through the 1980s and 1990s, including Four in One (Blue Note, 1994), a set of Thelonious Monk compositions, and he died in 2018 aged 79.