Sonny Rollins Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• Jazz is an endless source of ideas, because you can use anything. You can play operatic arias. You can incorporate them into jazz. You can play gypsy music and incorporate it into jazz. You can European classical and you can incorporate it into jazz. You can use anything and jazz it up, as they used to say.

  Sonny Rollins

  Play, Ideas, Use

  Source: www.pbs.org

  6 Copy quote

• I'm fortunate that I'm making a living at it now because I'm not equipped to do anything else.

  Sonny Rollins

  Music, Jazz, Making A Living

  4 Copy quote

• I am interested in my music lasting only while I'm alive. I'm not writing for the future.

  Sonny Rollins

  Writing, Alive, Lasting

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• My mother came from St. Thomas. I heard that melody and all I did was actually adapt it. I made my adaptation of sort of an island traditional melody. It did become sort of my trademark tune.

  Sonny Rollins

  Mother, Islands, Tunes

  9 Copy quote

• I guess I'm fortunate that I'm still around and I emphasize 'I guess', because you never can tell what musicians would be playing had they been around as long as I have.

  Sonny Rollins

  Long, Musician, Would Be

  7 Copy quote

• America is deeply rooted in Negro culture: its colloquialisms; its humor; its music.

  Sonny Rollins

  America, Culture, Rooted

  4 Copy quote

• Even the most jingoistic person would have to admit that even American cultural music comes from Europe. That's what classical music is, real European music.

  Sonny Rollins

  Real, Europe, Classical Music

  7 Copy quote

• I think what we need is a more welcoming mode from the people who put on a hundred million country-western shows on television. How about a monthly jazz show?

  Sonny Rollins

  Country, Thinking, People

  7 Copy quote

• Many jazz artists go to L.A. seeking a more comfortable life and then they really stop playing.

  Sonny Rollins

  Music, Artist, Jazz

  7 Copy quote

• I think the problem starts with the general appreciation of the music in the larger society.

  Sonny Rollins

  Appreciation, Thinking, Problem

  8 Copy quote

• You had many jazz musicians who lived in the United States, who had a hard time being accepted over here and had to play in sort of these inferior type dives.

  Sonny Rollins

  Hard Times, America, Play

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• Jazz has an audience all around the globe and has had for many decades, I think speaking of the United States, let's say that what we need is more of an official recognition.

  Sonny Rollins

  Thinking, Sea, United States

  7 Copy quote

• I am a person who thinks about the music first in trying to achieve something musically valid.

  Sonny Rollins

  Thinking, Trying, Firsts

  4 Copy quote

• Charlie Parker stuck out in my mind.

  Sonny Rollins

  Mind, Stuck, Charlie

  4 Copy quote

• I don't want to appear hostile, like I'm hostile to L.A. or that I feel that the people don't appreciate jazz. I don't think it's that. I think it's something more. It's something a little bit more complicated than that.

  Sonny Rollins

  Thinking, People, Appreciate

  4 Copy quote

• I have seen great jazz musicians die obscure and drinking themselves to death and not really being able to get any work and working in small, funky jazz clubs.

  Sonny Rollins

  Drinking, Musician, Clubs

  7 Copy quote

• Europeans really provided many venues over there and hailed the jazz artists, and a lot of musicians went over there and stayed over there for a long time. A lot of them moved over there, lived over there, and died over there.

  Sonny Rollins

  Artist, Long, Musician

  7 Copy quote

• There was a period which I refer to as the 'Golden Age of Jazz,' which sort of encompasses the middle Thirties through the Sixties, we had a lot of great innovators, all creating things which will last the world for a long, long time.

  Sonny Rollins

  Creating Things, Long, Age

  7 Copy quote

• I feel that L.A. has not always been my strongest base for support. That can be for various reasons.

  Sonny Rollins

  Support, Reason, Feels

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• I think as long as people are around and can hear a record and hear people like Lester Young on a recording, there will always be a great inspiration for somebody to try to create jazz.

  Sonny Rollins

  Inspiration, Thinking, Long

  61 Copy quote

• I enjoy playing clubs. I still enjoy the closeness of the nightclub venue. However, after a certain period of time and after playing around some of the clubs in New YorkI felt that jazz should be presented in a more prestigious atmosphere.

  Sonny Rollins

  Atmosphere, Clubs, Jazz

  11 Copy quote

• There have been many great musicians that, Clifford Brown is one great example, I mean he died very early, 25.

  Sonny Rollins

  Mean, Musician, Example

  4 Copy quote

• I've played with all of the heavyweights in the modern jazz, progressive jazz movement. I've been fortunate enough to play with them, a who's who. All of those guys, I've been fortunate enough to have performed with.

  Sonny Rollins

  Play, Guy, Heavyweights

  52 Copy quote

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