Sonny Sharrock was born Warren Harding Sharrock on August 27, 1940 in Ossining, New York. He began his musical career singing doo-wop in his teen years. One of few guitarists in the first wave of free jazz in the 1960s, Sonny was known for his incisive, heavily chorded attack, his highly-amplified bursts of wild feedback, and for his use of saxophone-like lines played loudly on guitar.

He collaborated with Pharoah Sanders and Alexander Solla in the late 1960s, appearing first on Sanders's 1966 effort, “Tauhid”, made several appearances with flautist Herbie Mann and also…