Sonny Rollins Interview (page: 6 / 8) Greatest Living Jazz Soloist	Print Interview

A lot has been written about the so-called sabbaticals that you have taken, this willingness to turn your back on your career, and not perform in public for a period of time, like when you went to practice on the Williamsburg Bridge. How do you explain these breaks in your career?

Sonny Rollins: I have always been a person that has had a strong sense of right and wrong, a strong spiritual guide or guardian angel or belief maybe, I don't know how to explain it, but a conscience maybe. There was always something inside of me that was talking to me all the time. When something talks to me, like the thing with the drugs, I realized something said, "Yeah," and it finally came to me, "This is not the way to go." I just have that in me, and when I find something that I want to do, I block out everything else, and I would do it. It's the sense of right and wrong, so it doesn't matter to me that people were saying, "How can you leave the music? Because they won't accept you back if you go away. You will lose your edge," and all. This was inconsequential to me, because I had an idea that I wanted to improve my self, my musical arsenal, if you will. So I do what I want to do, and that's that. I am very strong about that, and this has held me in good stead, just listening to the inner voice. This is what I do, and I am happy about it, that I have that much determination, if you want to call it that. That's what I have done all my life, and the sabbaticals were the same.
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I went away from music for certain reasons. The bridge was the one you mentioned. That was sort of self-improvement.

I realized I wasn't sounding as good as my reputation was, so I wanted to kind of get to that point where I wouldn't be ashamed to go on the bandstand, which happened to me one time on a job I was playing with... Elvin Jones, at that time, was the drummer playing with me. We used to go around, had a big sign, "Sonny Rollins is coming to town," everybody was there, but I didn't sound good, and I knew I wasn't playing up to what I should be. So I said, "Okay, I am getting out of here. I am going to go and woodshed," as they say, and get myself together.
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So I do things like that, if I feel that there is some reason to do it. Anyway, that was the bridge and other things.

How did you end up practicing on the Williamsburg Bridge in New York City? Could you even hear yourself while you were out there?

Sonny Rollins: Well you know, that was an accident. I lived down on the Lower East Side, and experienced some of the problems with trying to play a horn with neighbors, so I had to find someplace to practice. I practiced in the house because I had to practice, but I felt guilty sometimes, because I'm a sensitive person, and I know that people need privacy in the apartments. So anyway, I just happened to be walking on Delancey Street one day. That was the neighborhood I was in. I had moved down to the Lower East Side, and we had a small apartment there. It was a nice time. I had a lot of friends there. I was welcomed really in the neighborhood by the people on the Lower East Side at that time. Anyway...

I was walking along Delancey Street and I just happened to look up and see these steps. I wasn't thinking about anything, so I just walked up there and I walked up the steps, and there, of course, was the bridge, and it was this nice, big expanse going over. There was nobody up there. So I walked, I started walking, I said, "Wow. This is what I have been looking for. This is a private place. I can blow my horn as loud as I want." Because the boats are coming under, and the subway is coming across, and cars, and I said, "Wow, this is perfect," and it was just serendipity. Then, I began getting my horn and going up there, and it was a perfect place to practice. Every now and then somebody would come across, but it was perfect. I would go up there at night, I would go up there in the day, I would go up there, I would be up there 15, 16 hours, you know, and I lived nearby.
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