Cornelius "Sonny" Fortune (May 19, 1939 – October 25, 2018) was an American jazz saxophonist. Fortune played soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone saxophones, clarinet, and flute.
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Fortune attended the Wurlitzer and Granoff music schools and performed with local R&B bands in his teens. Influenced early on by such players as Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins, and John Coltrane, Fortune was 18 before he decided to pursue a career in music exclusively. He played with the singer Carolyn Harris up to 1967 when he moved to New York City and quickly found work with several name artists, including drummer Elvin Jones and percussionist Mongo Santamaria, with whom he would play for two years.
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Around 1970 Fortune performed with Leon Thomas. He was also asked join McCoy Tyner's group and ended up performing with the legendary pianist from 1971 to 1973. During this time, Fortune also recorded with drummer Buddy Rich and even turned down an invitation to join Miles Davis' fusion ensemble, choosing to stick with Tyner. However, in 1974 Fortune finally accepted and replaced saxophonist David Liebman in Davis' group. Although he was only with Davis for a year, it was a fruitful time and Fortune appeared on several albums including Big Fun, Get Up with It, Agharta, and Pangaea. The last two recorded live in Japan.
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Fortune joined Nat Adderley after his brief tenure with Davis, then formed his own group in June 1975 and during the remainder of the decade released several albums including 1975's Awakening, 1977's Serengeti Minstrel with trumpeter Woody Shaw, and 1977's Waves of Dreams. Also during the '70s, he worked with cornetist Nat Adderley as well as the Elvin Jones Jazz Machine.
Although his own discography was sparse throughout the '80s, Fortune continued to perform, favouring a more commercially oriented style in his recordings than in his performances.. He joined the Coltrane Legacy Band in 1987 along with Tyner, Jones, and bassist Reggie Workman.
In the '90s Fortune's solo work kicked into high gear and he released several acclaimed records for Blue Note, including 1994's Four in One, 1995's A Better Understanding, and 1996's From Now On. He has also performed with Roy Brooks, Buddy Rich, George Benson, Rabih Abou Khalil, Roy Ayers, Oliver Nelson, Gary Bartz, Rashied Ali, and Pharoah Sanders, as well as appearing on the live album The Atlantic Family Live at Montreux (1977).
During the following years Fortune continued to perform around the world and released a steady stream of albums, including his 2000 tribute album In the Spirit of John Coltrane, 2003's Continuum, 2007's standards album You and the Night and the Music, and 2009's live album Last Night at Sweet Rhythm. It is at the Smoke, a club where he has often performed in recent years, that from July 13 to 15, 2018 Sonny Fortune delivered his last concert during several evenings which received a warm welcome precisely because of his unfailing commitment to jazz, which he had served so brilliantly throughout an exceptional artistic career.
He died in Manhattan on October 25, 2018 due to complications of a stroke. He was 79 years old.
(Edited from AllMusic, New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, Jazz Hot & Wikipedia.)