"Like Sonny" is a tribute composition written by John Coltrane in honor of Sonny Rollins, recorded in November 1959 for the album Coltrane Jazz. The piece features a 24-bar ABA form in E-flat, performed at a moderate swing tempo around 153 BPM with Wynton Kelly on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Jimmy Cobb on drums. Coltrane's three-chorus tenor saxophone solo reveals his deep admiration for Rollins's approach to thematic development and melodic storytelling, while still maintaining his own increasingly distinctive voice. Kelly contributes two characteristically polished choruses, followed by a rare featured solo from Chambers, who takes two eloquent choruses on acoustic bass, demonstrating the melodic authority that made him one of the most recorded bassists in jazz history. The composition's structure and harmonic language reflect the middle ground between hard bop convention and the modal experimentation Coltrane was simultaneously pursuing. The interplay among the musicians is particularly notable, with each soloist building on what came before to create a cohesive narrative arc. Like Sonny captures Coltrane paying homage to a peer while clearly establishing his own artistic identity, making it one of the most personally revealing tracks on the album.
