Sonny Rollins
Sonny Rollins
Walter Theodore "Sonny" Rollins is an American jazz tenor saxophonist, widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. In a seven-decade career, he has recorded at least sixty albums as leader and a number of his compositions, including "St. Thomas", "Oleo", "Doxy", "Pent-Up House", and "Airegin", have become jazz standards...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionSaxophonist
Date of Birth7 September 1930
CityNew York City, NY
CountryUnited States of America
creativity dies laid maybe name people whose
I can name a lot of people whose productive, whose creativity dies when they got L.A. Maybe it's too laid back. It's too comfortable.
real creativity mean
I want to be connecting with the subconscious, if I can call it that, because there are not to many words to describe the real deep inner part of a human beingI want to be at that place where everything is blotted out and where creativity happens, and to get there I practice, you know I'm a prolific practicer, I still practice every dayYou have to have the skills, then you want to not think when you're playing, that's when you let whatever deep level of creativity, spirituality, I mean, you know these words are so inadequate these days but you want to get to this place where they exist.
against attacked both coming common conditions curriculum faced introduced jazz larger majority minority music popular portion social subculture topic ways
As the years went by and jazz got more popular and social conditions changed, you were able to have jazz as a topic introduced into the music curriculum in universities, ... I think that one thing that hip-hop and jazz have in common is that they are both coming out of the minority subculture and we've faced some of the same problems. They are attacked in different ways . . . but they are a minority in a majority culture, so they are unfortunately discriminated against by the larger portion of the majority community.
bit hostile people
I don't want to appear hostile, like I'm hostile to L.A. or that I feel that the people don't appreciate jazz. I don't think it's that. I think it's something more. It's something a little bit more complicated than that.
above enjoy great happy horn love meditation mentally playing puts type
I am always happy to be practicing. Period, ... I enjoy just playing my horn and going into the type of meditation that playing involves. It puts me mentally in a place that is always transcendent and above real life. I love playing just for myself. It's a great experience.
life seeking stop
Many jazz artists go to L.A. seeking a more comfortable life and then they really stop playing.
strongest various
I feel that L.A. has not always been my strongest base for support. That can be for various reasons.
cared margins
We were right on the margins of society. Who really cared about jazz?
europe jazz true work
There are a lot of jazz musicians, however, who do have to go to Europe and most of their work is in Europe. That's not true for me.
distinct fats giants honor included people worthy
It was a distinct honor because of the people inducted. Some were such giants of the music. I didn't really feel worthy to be included with Fats Waller.
island sort
'St. Thomas' is actually an island melody, sort of a traditional island melody, so all I did was sort of make my arrangement on it.
age coleman died few guys reached
A lot of guys died very early. Very few guys, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, very few of those guys reached my age of 67, which I am at the present.
creation jazz leading pinnacle sort toward trying
The whole creation of jazz is sort of leading toward the ultimate. I'm not trying to be self-aggrandizing here, but I think that the jazz soloist is the pinnacle of what jazz is about.
advanced appreciation beauty music people power recognize
So the people over there have a very advanced appreciation of music and they recognize the power and the beauty and the wonderfulness of jazz.