Thanks for that amazing interview. I watched it all the way through with delight. The man still practices every day. When you think about how hard it is for some people--most of us!--to get life right, to bring out the best that we've got in us, to find a way of developing and giving of ourselves over the long haul, to avoid the traps of addiction, excess, self-regard, etc., Rollins is a model. He's gotten it right. He's done that longer and more consistently than almost any public figure one can name. The man in this interview is honest, authentic, real. Great video. Life lesson with a wise man.
Saw Sonny Rollins and his band at Symphony Center in Chicago a few years ago. The man played for an hour straight with no more than a 20-25 second break between tunes, it was incredible. Then he took a break before they came out for a shorter second set.
I first discovered Sonny Rollins from the album "At Basin Street" by the Clifford Brown-Max Roach Quintet, which included a 25 year old Sonny Rollins on tenor sax, and Richie Powell on piano (Bud Powell's brother). Their music was a kind of a hard bop style. What a band! Below a couple of cuts from that album:
A couple of years ago I watched a YouTube video on Sonny's life. In it they returned to his childhood home with him. In Houston I believe?
It was on a suburban corner lot and kitty corner across the intersection was a JUKE JOINT. As a little kid he could be in his front yard and hear the blues emanating from it.
Could be from the same video posted above. If I find it I'll post it again. This thread no longer OT :)
Last Edited by on Jul 02, 2012 4:07 PM
This man and the people he collaborated with during his lifetime: like some of the very best musicians and artists who have ever lived they oftentimes surpassed a society and built a culture.
This would just be a very poor, mean little world without guys like this.
This is beautiful, glad I scrolled back a few pages to find it.
Really rings true with alot of things I've been feeling lately. I had something of a spiritual realisation a few days back, that, when you give of yourself, and transcend the ego and all earthly/material desires, that's when the truest most beautiful art comes through you. Selfless channelling of something higher.
It's a challenge, but a worthwhile one. The only worthwhile one, I'm beginning to think.
