Ask Mr. Rollins
Photo: Albert Brooks
Each month here on his website, Sonny Rollins will answer three questions from visitors. Please email your questions for Mr. Rollins. If your question is chosen, you will receive a free MP3 download from Sonny's immortal London Sessions.
May, 2010
Colin Shapiro, student, musician, and jazz fan from Madison, Wisconsin: Last year, I lost my younger brother in a tragic accident. I am a musician and my brother's death has definitely affected my playing. Some days, I find it difficult to play at all, but other days, his memory gives me incredible musical inspiration. Has the loss of your wife (or anyone else who was close to you) directly affected your playing in a significant way? If so, how?
Mr. Rollins: Sounds like you’re going through a very normal state of grieving. You say you were unable to practice because of your brother’s death, that’s normal. And you’ve been inspired, that’s good. But every day is not going to be the same, sometimes you’ll be depressed, sometimes you'll be inspired. Time will make things a little better. It’s always a good idea not to get too consumed with death.
The truth is that life is short for everyone, and when we feel comfortable in this life, we must understand that it’s not forever. It’s universal.
Playing music allows you to get closer to the essence. The death of a loved one, like your brother, or my late wife Lucille, is not a terrible thing. Death is really very misunderstood in many societies. But it’s part of the journey, and goes hand in hand with life.
Ralph Locher, Pediatrician / Jazz fan whose been listening to Sonny ever since first hearing him in the mid seventies: There have been tremendous changes in culture and music in the 60 years that you’ve been engaged in the art and practice of making music. With iPods, computers and the visual component of MTV the way the listener approaches music is different. From your perspective as a musician how has your audience change over the course of your career? Thanks for a lifetime of joy.
Mr. Rollins: As far as technology, I usually leave these matters to my web director, a fellow named Bret Primack, who has everything under control. But in terms of playing, I’m seeking asomething more comprehensive, an ideal that transcends time and space, and the audience itself. That hasn’t change since I’ve started playing.
Pamela and Nathan: How did Don't Stop the Carnival become a favorite song?
Mr. Rollins: I heard this song, what you would call a traditional Caribbean song that been adapted, when I was young. It's something that's very lively, and appeals to my own lively side. I'm what some people call a deep thinker, a serious person, but I have another side, as well. I like to tell jokes. In fact, when I was a kid, I used to play practical jokes on people so my nickname was Jester. This song has a bright, infectious melody and a good beat, something that people love to dance to and it makes them feel happy. And so I began using it as my theme, to conclude concerts. I don't like it any more than many other songs, but I have garnered quite a bit of fan approval from playing it. But the truth is I have no favorite songs, because there as so many that I love.
April, 2010
Trumpeter Randy Sledge: What was the influence Clifford Brown had on your playing, and can you say something about Clifford Brown, the man. I love your playing and listen to Plus 4 daily.
Clifford Brown
Mr. Rollins: Mr. Brown was a revelation to me in that he didn't fit the stereotype. His fantastic playing was not enveloped in an over the top personality. Rather, he was a humble and conscious individual and musician. This had a huge effect on my personally. It is beyond my abilities to assess the musical impact this may have generated in own playing. Thank you for Plus 4.
Tom Ferrara, a New Yorker who's been listening to Sonny for over thrity years: After 60 plus years playing music, where do you finding your inspriration from when it comes to writing new music.
Mr. Rollins: I find it in same place I find the inspiration to improvise, which is in the normal course of what I do and don't ask me where that is, because I just don't know. I can say that as a composer and Jazz player, I'm very cognicient of various comtemporary developments occuring in the music all the time.
David Mehlsen, a 17 year old tenor saxophonist from Aarhus, Denmark, who loves Sonny Rollin: What do you consider to be your greatest gig, based on your own performance, the feelings involved, the venue, etc.
Mr. Rollins: I'm not generally satifised with my performances but over my long career, I've fortunately had some that I was encouraged by and was pleased with. I keep coming back to a night at Bill Graham's now defunct nightclub, Wolfgang's in San Francisco. We had just played the Olympics in LA to a sparse crowd. Bobby Hutcherson was on the gig in LA, but he didn't come to Wolfgang's that next night. So Bobby was there, but the musical spirits did show up that night and they touched me.
March, 2010
Mervyn Sayers, Ireland: Hey Sonny,I read in an interview a while back that your still chasing that 'something' an that's one of the reasons why you still practice every day. I remember you saying that you get a taste of it a few times a year when you perform. Do you think that you're now getting closer to that 'something' now? ("Something" as in a kind of spiritual magic that I think is very hard to explain, I myself only got a taste of it a hand full of times but, it tastes so good that it's worth chasing.)
Mr. Rollins: That’s a very insightful question, this chap seems to have gotten it exactly right. The answer is yes and no. Yes in that it's closer into view, and I seem to be getting in command of what I’m trying to do. No, in that we live in an imperfect world and there are things that come up that we just can’t control. I feel I could get closer to that ‘something’ if I was able to play more steadily, but I can’t do that. I just don’t have the energy to play all the time. But the good news that I’m getting closer to it.
Peter Koopman, a 20 year old guitarist from Auckland, New Zealand hoping to move to Sydney, Australia soon to expand his musical horizons: I love the way your improvisations have a natural and logical line of development and flow, like sometimes you'll just play around the tonic and build things from that base. Just wondering how you approach/approached practising things like that, and how they'd make the transition from being an exercise to being music when you're playing. For that matter, how do you approach practising improvising in general? I'm mostly self taught and I'm trying to find new, more effective and musical ways to practise.
Mr. Rollins: When I practice myself, and I practice on a regular basis, I don’t really make it demarcation between practicing and improvising. There are certain things that require a rudimentary regime, and as musicians we must practice those. But what I try and do is incorporate everything, limit the line between practicing and playing. If this fellow is trying to incorporate the things he practices, these ideas into performance, he has to got to make a definite change in his practicing. I suggest he practice if he’s onstage, playing.
Dennis O'Neill, Executive Director of a not-for-profit community organization the University Village Association, Chicago: I remember seeing you at the Jazz Showcase in Chicago when it was up on Rush Street. I was not yet 18 and so I had to go with my father. Chicago's still a great town for music. My question is how does a musician learn to hear, which is crucial for improvisation, the way a visual artist, who paints or draws, learns to see? Is there any type of analogy between hearing and performing and seeing and painting or drawing and if so how did you learn to hear music when you started learning it as a child?
Mr. Rollins: First of all, I want to say that when I go to a museum and look at the great works for art and painting, I'm very inspired to play music, so I feel there's some definite connection between the visual arts and music.
As for how develop one's ears and be open to the language of music, the answer is simply to listen. I suggest you listen to quite a bit of music, lots of different types of music, in fact. The gentlemen has probably done this already, so I encourage him to go further, to listen to his favorite artists and more, focusing on different styles of music. I can't recommend anything, because music sounds different to everyone. If I said, check Anton Webern, that might be too much, so I say, try lots of sounds. Choose the ones you can relate and that's what's going to help you develop your audio appetite. I was very fortunate growing up, hearing lots of music, including Stride piano. So I'm telling you, my friend, to do the same thing. Store it all up in your head and you'll get enough music going to be able to draw from it when you have to.
February, 2010
Hans Becker/Munich, Germany: I hope you can plan on releasing a Road Shows Vol.2 CD. Perhaps you could include the unbelievable, incredible 40 minute version from Sonny Please that you played in Munich, in December 2008 in the Philharmonie. I've heard you did a 40 minute version of this tune in Berlin some days before the Munich concert, also. My question is, do you lose your sense of time when you start improvising in concert?
Mr. Rollins: Yes. The whole process of improvation is one of leaving the conscious world, the world of everyday normality and duties, the things we human being have to deal with in this area where we find life conscounsess existing in, so improvising is all about getting away from that, trying to find the truth, beneath all of the accoutrements, which comprise daily life. So the answer is, yes I do try to get to another place, a completely other dimension without the constraints of time.
J. Fugard/Port Elizabeth, South Africa: How do you decide which countries to visit when you perform? You have quite a number of fans in South Africa and we'd love to hear you perform live here.
Mr. Rollins: It's not always my decision, where I play, I have responsiblities, I have obligations to my business associates, that often take precedent, athough I would say, however, I certainly would love to play in South Africa if the business arrangements were correct; I know I have some fans there. But it's not always that simple. I'm still just a Jazz muscician and we can't always make those kinds of decisions on our own.
I'd like every country in the world, I've never been the Soviet Union, a couple of cities, I'd like to play would be St. Petersberg and Moscow. I know I have a lot of fans there. I'd like to go to Mongolia, as well.
Murray Resin/Paramus, New Jersey: Is there any contemporary music that inspires you?
Mr. Rollins: Well to be quite frank about it, I do not categorize music. All types of music inspires me, be it gypsy music or just about any world music. Of course not all European classical music, or not even all Jazz; it's a matter of agreement to my ears. I am inspired by all kinds of sounds, even music from Mongolia. It depends on how it stirs me.
There's only good music of any type, and bad music of any type. But I must say, I'm not really a listener to contemporary music, just music that sounds good to me, without category.