Sonny Rollins

From Musician Magazine, October 1994: The Song That Changed My Life

Here’s what Sonny told me:

Fats Waller, ‘I’m Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself a Letter”

‘When I heard that, I knew I was spiritually home. I was a youngster, it was the early 1930’s. It could have been live because I think Fats was on the radio sometimes. It was his rendition, and his inimitable jazz style and manner that, as Prez used to say, ‘tricked me.’ It was spiritual, that’s the only way I can describe it; it really got me.

My next choice: ‘It’s a Lowdown Dirty Shame’ by Louis Jordan and the Tympani Five. In addition to the music, which was an elemental blues, I went to school on 135th Street in Harlem, and Louis Jordan was playing right across the street. I’d pass the club and there was a picture of him in the window: the sax was all shiny, and Louis had on his cutaway tails. That picture reinforced my ambition.

Then there was Coleman Hawkins, ‘Lover Man’ with Oscar Pettiford on bass. By that time, I had become sort of a Coleman Hawkins disciple. That was one of his great jazz records, and an inspiring record to me as an aspiring musician. So all of these things sort of coalesce.’