Sonny Rollins Quotes

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

Without a Song: The 9/11 Concert. - Sonny Rollins

What I can say is that for may years jazz musicians had to go to Europe, for instance, to be respected and to be sort of treated not in a discriminatory way. I don't think there is anything controversial about me saying that. This is just a fact. - Sonny Rollins

What I am more concerned about is whether our whole civilization will be around in the next 25 years. - Sonny Rollins

We were right on the margins of society. Who really cared about jazz? - Sonny Rollins

Very much so. When I was in India at an ashram, my teacher told me, `When you are playing your horn, that's meditation.' And that is a way of worship. - Sonny Rollins

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

The whole creation of jazz is sort of leading toward the ultimate. I'm not trying to be self-aggrandizing here, but I think that the jazz soloist is the pinnacle of what jazz is about. - Sonny Rollins

That's a pretty tall order... I don't want to sound too grandiose or that I can represent jazz [in its entirety]. But as one of few remaining people from that period [the heyday of bebop during the '40s and '50s], I want to represent myself and the kind of musicians from that period, so that people who are new to the music can say, 'These people were good; they aren't just a bunch of old moldy figs.' - Sonny Rollins

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