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JULY 31, 2014
Sonny Rollins: In His Own Words
BY DJANGO GOLD



I started playing the saxophone when I was thirteen years old. There were some other kids on my block who had taken it up, and I thought that it might be fun. I later learned that these guys’ parents had forced them into it.

The saxophone sounds horrible. Like a scared pig. I never learned the names of most of the other instruments, but they all sound awful, too. Drums are O.K., because sometimes they’ll drown out the other stuff, but it’s all pretty bad.

Jazz might be the stupidest thing anyone ever came up with. The band starts a song, but then everything falls apart and the musicians just play whatever they want for as long they can stand it. People take turns noodling around, and once they run out of ideas and have to stop, the audience claps. I’m getting angry just thinking about it.

Sometimes we would run through the same song over and over again to see if anybody noticed. If someone did, I don’t care.

There was this one time, in 1953 or 1954, when a few guys and I had just finished our last set at Club Carousel, and we were about to pack it in when in walked Bud Powell and Charlie Parker. We must have jammed together for five more hours, right through sunrise. That was the worst day of my life.

We always dressed real sharp: pin-stripe suits, porkpie hats, silk ties. As if to conceal the fact that we were spending all our time playing jazz in some basement.
I remember Dexter Gordon was doing a gig at the 3 Deuces, and at one point he leaned into the microphone and said, “I could sell this suit and this saxophone and get far away from here.” The crowd laughed.

I really don’t know why I keep doing this. Inertia, I guess. Once you get stuck in a rut, it’s difficult to pull yourself out, even if you hate every minute of it. Maybe I’m just a coward.
If I could do it all over again, I’d probably be an accountant or a process server. They make good money.

Once I played the Montreux Jazz Festival, in Switzerland, with Miles Davis. I walked in on him smoking cigarettes and staring at his horn for what must have been fifteen minutes, like it was a poisonous snake and he wasn’t sure if it was dead. Finally Miles stood up, turned to his band, and said, “All right, let’s get through this, and then we’ll go to the airport.” He looked like he was about to cry.

I released fifty-odd albums, wrote hundreds of songs, and played on God knows how many session dates. Some of my recordings are in the Library of Congress. That’s idiotic. They ought to burn that building to the ground. I hate music. I wasted my life.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2014-08-03 21:30 by bv.

That was entertaining!

Are these quotes genuine?
Man I don't even wanna know what he thinks of the Stones...

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dcba
Are these quotes genuine?

The New Yorker is a highfalutin and well-respected magazine. Can't imagine this isn't real or is some kind of "humor" piece. The old man's just lost his mind. I'm sorry he feels this way, but I respect his honesty.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014-08-02 18:42 by tatters.

The latest status update on Sonny's Official Facebook page reads: "Hey folks, this was some guy's idea of a joke."

I saw him in concert about three years ago and he seemed as happy as could be.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2014-08-03 19:17 by LittleRockFitToTop.

"Jazz might be the stupidest thing anyone ever came up with. The band starts a song, but then everything falls apart and the musicians just play whatever they want for as long they can stand it. People take turns noodling around, and once they run out of ideas and have to stop, the audience claps. I’m getting angry just thinking about it."

kind of what a lot of us secretly think about jazz, but we would not be considered cool if we said it out loud. Thank you Sonny, for the perfect definition.

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tatters

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dcba
Are these quotes genuine?

The New Yorker is a highfalutin and well-respected magazine. Can't imagine this isn't real or is some kind of "humor" piece.

Look at the url - newyorker.com/humor

Music ruined my life too, that's why I hate it.

Cool dude, that Rollins. Sharp.

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71Tele
"Jazz might be the stupidest thing anyone ever came up with. The band starts a song, but then everything falls apart and the musicians just play whatever they want for as long they can stand it. People take turns noodling around, and once they run out of ideas and have to stop, the audience claps. I’m getting angry just thinking about it."

kind of what a lot of us secretly think about jazz, but we would not be considered cool if we said it out loud. Thank you Sonny, for the perfect definition.

You're right Tele, that's hysterical!

Some funny zingers there from Mr. Rollins, thanks Tatters.

Pretty sure these quotes were completely made up. Cheers, New Yorker.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014-08-02 21:21 by LittleRockFitToTop.

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LittleRockFitToTop
Pretty sure these quotes were completely made up. Cheers, New Yorker.

The webarticle has been posted in the "humor" category.

I forgot what I was going to say.... Ummm

Cool. These quotes bring the business down to what it is: people that make music.

All the craziness (like the bruto or nett grossing, or an Xth world stadium tour) is just a ridiculous dress up of that simple fact: adults playing tunes.

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71Tele
"Jazz might be the stupidest thing anyone ever came up with. The band starts a song, but then everything falls apart and the musicians just play whatever they want for as long they can stand it. People take turns noodling around, and once they run out of ideas and have to stop, the audience claps. I’m getting angry just thinking about it."

kind of what a lot of us secretly think about jazz, but we would not be considered cool if we said it out loud. Thank you Sonny, for the perfect definition.

Ha ha, so true! That's the strength of jazz, but also its weakness

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bye bye johnny

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tatters

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dcba
Are these quotes genuine?

The New Yorker is a highfalutin and well-respected magazine. Can't imagine this isn't real or is some kind of "humor" piece.

Look at the url - newyorker.com/humor

Yeah, I see that. Hmmmmm. Okay, so maybe this was intended to be funny in an ironic, New Yorker magazine sort of way, but the question remains, Did he actually say these things or didn't he? I really don't know, but would they be able to attach his name to it if he hadn't said them? Of course, even if he did say them, I assume they're being taken out of context and were said in various interviews over a period of many years. Or maybe it really is completely made up. Hopefully, somebody will get to the bottom of this soon ....



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2014-08-02 22:34 by tatters.

Those comments were not made by Sonny Rollins. As noted above, they've been refuted on his "official" Facebook and Twitter - "Hey folks, this was some guy's idea of a joke."

Django Gold writes for The Onion. He tweeted this message:

"Dear @sonnyrollins, thanks for having a sense of humor. More importantly, thanks for your music. You are the king."

[twitter.com]

Thank God for that. I was thinking, surely that isn't what SONNY ROLLINS thinks jazz is???

Fictitious quotes. Still pretty funny, and still pretty close to the truth, as far as being what many of us really think about jazz



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014-08-02 23:27 by tatters.

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DandelionPowderman

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71Tele
"Jazz might be the stupidest thing anyone ever came up with. The band starts a song, but then everything falls apart and the musicians just play whatever they want for as long they can stand it. People take turns noodling around, and once they run out of ideas and have to stop, the audience claps. I’m getting angry just thinking about it."

kind of what a lot of us secretly think about jazz, but we would not be considered cool if we said it out loud. Thank you Sonny, for the perfect definition.

Ha ha, so true! That's the strength of jazz, but also its weakness

I laughed when it came to that quote...beauty.

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tatters
still pretty close to the truth, as far as being what many of us really think about jazz

Well, true, but probably not Sonny Rollins!

I love Miles comment! Miles the guy....

2 1 2 0

ROLLINS: “A friend of mine, who was also a good friend of the Stones, told Charlie Watts, who’s a big jazz fan, about me so they came to see me one night in New York,” Rollins said. “A couple of weeks later Mick Jagger calls me up and asks me to play on the record. I didn’t know much about them, but my wife liked them. She was a big influence on doing that. I had heard of them, but I wondered why would I do it? It was a big challenge and I figured, OK, let me see if I can do it and make it come out like a whole so it doesn’t sound like I’m from Mars, but holistic. I went into the studio with Mick Jagger and laid down the tracks for the record. Subsequently when I listened to it I thought I had accomplished that.”

Later, after the record came out and it was a hit, Rollins found himself in a supermarket shopping when he heard something naggingly familiar.

“They had this music playing in the supermarket so I’m thinking, ‘Gee, there’s something funny about [the way this sounds], and then I think, ‘Hey, wait a minute, that’s me.’ I realized it was the Stones record and that was me playing on it.”

From: [www.iorr.org]

The sad thing is this article will probably turn up for years now as an example of what Sonny Rollins felt late in life.

The even sadder thing is the supposed humorist wasn't responsible for the offending parts of LIFE.

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tatters

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dcba
Are these quotes genuine?

The old man's just lost his mind. I'm sorry he feels this way, but I respect his honesty.

"The band starts a song, but then everything falls apart and the musicians just play whatever they want for as long they can stand it. People take turns noodling around, and once they run out of ideas and have to stop, the audience claps. I’m getting angry just thinking about it."

then he must've had some kind of lucid moment here. not to offend
any jazzfans, but that is at least one way to see it.

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71Tele
kind of what a lot of us secretly think about jazz, but we would not be considered cool if we said it out loud. Thank you Sonny, for the perfect definition.

Might be difficult to judge Sonny Rollins' lucidity from that piece in The New Yorker, as he said exactly NONE of those things.

Writer Django Gold attached Rollins' name to the "quotes" in his satire.

We're only a few posts into this thread and already people are having to have it spelt out that THIS. IS. A. JOKE. FOLKS.

I hope Mr Rollins gave his permission because this one is going to come back and bite him for years.