Sonny Rollins Special

The living saxophone legend Sonny Rollins interviewed at 79, gives a fascinating insight into almost 60 years of experience playing and performing. To Sonny, jazz is obviously a way of thinking and approaching things, rather than a dictated musical form. If you want to understand a bit more about jazz there is no better way than listening to one of the greats telling how it is. The ability to transform a collective experience by making music is obviously intrinsic to his philosophy. "One performance on stage is worth 6 months practising at home".

Sonny also talks candidly about drug addiction, and reflects upon the artists' aspiration to leave the mundane nature of reality behind, by transcending to a beautiful place. Whether fuelled by alcohol, heroin, cocaine or cannabis Sonny discusses the trade off that drug use entails, where initial increases in creativity are ultimately transient, as the user spirals into a destructive pattern of addiction and diminishing returns. A noteworthy example being Charlie Parker turning up so late and gassed for a gig that Dizzy is heard on record asking "where the h**l have you been?"

With almost 60 years experience on the scene, Sonny contemplates how "getting into the zone" is where it's at. Sonny studied yoga in India where he often worried about being able to meditate, but his guru explained that when he played his horn he was actually meditating.

Ultimately Sonny's message seems to be that while true jazz may come from concentration on the transcendant nature of experience, it is connection via the true subconscious that requires the practise and  skill to tune into the experience and allow deep levels of creativity and spirituality to emerge. Enjoy!