WordMan
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Link here, but I assume it is behind a paywall: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive...on=click&module=Editors Picks&pgtype=Homepage
The NY Times writer David Marchese has a regular Interview column that is solid - I have read a few across a variety of folks from different backgrounds and Marchese has done his homework to ask thoughtful questions.
But he is a clearly a Sonny Rollins-Head. I will paste in a couple of questions here:
Quoting a specific passage on a bebop track to follow-up on a question asked of Rollins about playing for a higher cause vs arrogance:
Were you playing for a higher cause on something like “The Serpent’s Tooth” with Charlie Parker and Miles Davis? In your solo you quoted the melody of "Anything you Can Do I can do Better" That wasn’t intended as a provocation? If I was so stupid to have to implied that, then I was ignorant. I was in Miles’s band at the time and “Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better)” was just one of the riffs that we played. It had nothing to do with my attitude about Charlie Parker. I would never say that to him. But I take your criticism. I might have been a foolish young boy playing that to his guru. If there was a little of that, it was sophomoric. I was ignorant. I am still ignorant about many things.
Or check out this exchange on how Sonny approached a solo with Coltrane:
I’m also thinking about when you played with Coltrane on Tenor Madness.
There’s a part of that performance where you guys were trading fours and he played a lick and in response you played the same lick but with the notes reversed. That wasn’t meant as one-upmanship? David, I don’t believe I’ve mentioned this to many people. When I played with Coltrane, I had the impression — and back then it was true — that I was much more popular than him. I remember what Kamasi Washington said about “Tenor Madness”: “Sonny, you weren’t even really playing.” I wasn’t really playing. Coltrane was playing. I was only playing halfway, because I thought that I was the guy and that Coltrane was this young whippersnapper. That was my mind-set. It was immature.
So you were holding back to show your status? Exactly. I don’t want people to think that I’m saying, “Oh, wow, I could have played much better,” but that’s the story of “Tenor Madness.” My attitude on it wasn’t right.
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Good stuff. He goes on to discuss how he is not playing any longer due to his health but feels good because "he has most stuff figured out." I bet he does. Respect!
The NY Times writer David Marchese has a regular Interview column that is solid - I have read a few across a variety of folks from different backgrounds and Marchese has done his homework to ask thoughtful questions.
But he is a clearly a Sonny Rollins-Head. I will paste in a couple of questions here:
Quoting a specific passage on a bebop track to follow-up on a question asked of Rollins about playing for a higher cause vs arrogance:
Were you playing for a higher cause on something like “The Serpent’s Tooth” with Charlie Parker and Miles Davis? In your solo you quoted the melody of "Anything you Can Do I can do Better" That wasn’t intended as a provocation? If I was so stupid to have to implied that, then I was ignorant. I was in Miles’s band at the time and “Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better)” was just one of the riffs that we played. It had nothing to do with my attitude about Charlie Parker. I would never say that to him. But I take your criticism. I might have been a foolish young boy playing that to his guru. If there was a little of that, it was sophomoric. I was ignorant. I am still ignorant about many things.
Or check out this exchange on how Sonny approached a solo with Coltrane:
I’m also thinking about when you played with Coltrane on Tenor Madness.
There’s a part of that performance where you guys were trading fours and he played a lick and in response you played the same lick but with the notes reversed. That wasn’t meant as one-upmanship? David, I don’t believe I’ve mentioned this to many people. When I played with Coltrane, I had the impression — and back then it was true — that I was much more popular than him. I remember what Kamasi Washington said about “Tenor Madness”: “Sonny, you weren’t even really playing.” I wasn’t really playing. Coltrane was playing. I was only playing halfway, because I thought that I was the guy and that Coltrane was this young whippersnapper. That was my mind-set. It was immature.
So you were holding back to show your status? Exactly. I don’t want people to think that I’m saying, “Oh, wow, I could have played much better,” but that’s the story of “Tenor Madness.” My attitude on it wasn’t right.
************
Good stuff. He goes on to discuss how he is not playing any longer due to his health but feels good because "he has most stuff figured out." I bet he does. Respect!
