Sonny Rollins: “John Coltrane Was Like A Preacher”
The saxophone god reflects on a life collaborating with jazz’s greatest legends in the new issue of MOJO.
A GENIUS IN HIS own right, and one of the saxophone’s greatest and most durable voices, Sonny Rollins reflects on a life at jazz’s cutting edge in our new magazine.
The subject of this month’s MOJO Interview, the author of landmark solo recordings over seven decades, Rollins was also a star collaborator with Miles Davis, Charlie Parker and Ornette Coleman and opens up in the latest MOJO magazine (June 2016 / #271, on sale now) about these genre-defining relationships.
He reserves special praise for fellow saxophone god John Coltrane.
“The first time we played together was with Miles Davis, at the Audubon Ballroom [in New York]. It was a great gig, and we became friends after that. It was brotherhood; it was love,” he tells MOJO's David Fricke.
“He was like a preacher in a way. Coltrane didn’t waste time. He didn’t do things frivolously. Everything he did was important. Whenever we got together, it was always a communion, talking about things that mattered. There was no jive. It was always meaningful. It was a great boon to me, to get a level of closeness with him.”
Get MOJO now for the full interview, including his thoughts on jazz, how Rollins ended up playing on The Rolling Stones' Tattoo You album and much more.
PHOTO: John Abbott