[Casa Valdez]

I just posted a fascinating letter that Sonny Rollins wrote to Coleman Hawkins after seeing him play at the Village Gate.

Sonny Rollins' letter to Coleman Hawkins

 

[drwhippet]

Thanks for sharing that; I think I read it somewhere else before. It really says just as much about what it takes to succeed in anything that's hard and worthwhile in life--not just music.

 

[DTExpress]

Thats great. The always eloquent Sonny.

 

[hgiles]

Cool!

 

[jlima]

Fascinating!

 

[DenisJ]

That's so beautiful. This man is incredible. A true giant.
Thank you.

 

[Tony5175]

Thank you for sharing.

 

[Dan Forshaw]

Yes thanks again for sharing, we all could learn a great deal from this, especially;

'But certain it is that character, knowledge and virtue are superior to 'MUSIC'

Amen to that Sonny

 

[soybean]

There have been many young men of high potential and demonstrated ability who have unfortunately not been 'MEN' in their personal and offstage practices and who soon found themselves devoid of the ability to create music.

This sounds like a reference to the heavy drug use of that era. Thanks for posting this fascinating letter.

 

[Smooth Sop Berator]

Here's a link to the last thread that was posted about this:

http://forum.saxontheweb.net/showthread.php?93185-Sonny-Rollins?s=

 

[Rackety Sax]

Fawning.

 

[mascio]

Thanks for the post David, and thanks to Smooth Sop for the link to the older thread. This letter, in both threads, has elicited some well formed and heartfelt responses from the membership.

 

[piwikiwi]

This sounds like a reference to the heavy drug use of that era. Thanks for posting this fascinating letter.

It's quite ironic that Coleman Hawkins was drinking himself to death in when sonny wrote this letter.

 

[Jazz House]

Sonny is a good writer.


Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk

 

[drwhippet]

It's quite ironic that Coleman Hawkins was drinking himself to death in when sonny wrote this letter.

Yeah, but he still nearly made it to the age of 65. Not bad for a jazz musician who would have seen and been tempted by it all.

I guess in that department he ended up besting his old rival, Lester Young, who drank himself to death far earlier at the age of 49.

And lucky for us that Hawk didn't die in his 40s because as we all know he ended up having so much more to say....

 

[WarrenScottRobertson]

Sonny Rollins' letter to Coleman Hawkins

Extremely eloquent of Mr Rollins, a great read, thank you!