Sonny Rollins : Another Interview

Here's another interview with Sonny Rollins :

Vancouver Jazz Fest: Sonny Rollins' life-long search for excellence

By Marke Andrews, Vancouver Sun
June 26, 2009

VANCOUVER - Saxophonist Sonny Rollins doesn't take the Orpheum stage until 8 p.m. Monday, but he's told the venue that he needs the dressing room by mid-afternoon.

That's because he wants to practise for three hours before he takes the stage. And, if things go the way they did when he appeared here two years ago, he'll practise for another hour after the concert.

At 78, the man many consider the greatest living tenor saxophonist still feels he has room to improve. There's a famous Youtube clip of trombonist Clifton Anderson, who is Rollins's nephew, talking about wanting to quit music because his best solo was eclipsed by what his uncle did on the horn.

Rollins told him that at his stage in life, he has to play at a high level because he never knows when it will be his last chance to perform.

When asked about this, the saxophonist says he's not familiar with the clip - Rollins belongs to the generation that doesn't sit at a computer - but that the advice sums up his philosophy about performing.

"I feel every moment in life is precious, because you never know if it's going to be your last moment on Earth," he says over the phone from his home, a 150-year-old farmhouse in the Hudson River Valley. "I just gave that advice to a young student of mine the other day. I told him, `You have to play your absolute utmost, your absolute best, because just think if that becomes the last time you play.'"

This philosophy also explains why Rollins, who really has nothing to prove to the world, practises so much.

"I guess if you have no real interest in what you do and you just work until you retire and you're glad to get away from your job, which may be the case for the majority of people, you'd want to stay away from the office as much as possible," says Rollins. "My case is quite different. Music is a life-long pursuit. I'm still at it and I'm still trying to learn it all, which I'm sure is impossible. I'm trying to get closer to what I know I can do.

"My modus operandi is extensive preparation, and then when we're in the moment at a concert I don't have to think about my preparation," he says. "You can't improvise and think at the same time. I've tried it. I've tried to remember certain passages that I wanted to include, and it never works out because by the time I think of it the moment is gone."

Rollins has more than 70 recordings as a leader, a sizeable volume of work. However, the modest musician downplays the significance of his recorded legacy.

"I've been fortunate to outlive a lot of my contemporaries, and I had more opportunities for recording," says Rollins, who has taken a number of lengthy sabbaticals from recording and performing. "I guess it's a body of work, but it's certainly nothing I take pride in necessarily, because I feel there is more to be done.

"I've been recording since 1948, so it doesn't seem like that many albums."

At an age when many would slow down, Rollins has been accelerating his activities. Part of the reason for this was the 2004 of his wife of 40 years, Lucille.

"Since my wife is no longer here with me, I've sort of made a change in my life," Rollins says. "I asked my agent to get me more work, because I'm more lonely now. I'm working on my music, and as long as I'm healthy I want to try to compose and get some of this music out."

The sextet Rollins brings to the Orpheum Monday includes Clifton Anderson on trombone, Bobby Broom on guitar, Bob Cranshaw on bass, Kobie Watkins on drums and Victor Y. See Yuen on percussion.