The Notebooks of Sonny Rollins

January 29, 2024
Music critic and short story writer Reese (Blue Notes) celebrates tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins with this evocative if occasionally enigmatic collection of the 93-year-old jazz legend’s personal notes spanning from 1959 to 2010. Individually precise, yet somewhat loosely arranged into four broad sections, Rollins’s undated jottings break down his practice routine in commentary that can be mundane or surprisingly philosophical (“Today—cheeks must be puffed out the same degree when playing high or low C”; “Remember speed is relative, in that a thorough knowledge of a given passage will ultimately produce speed—so go slowly”). Intermingled throughout are shopping and reading lists, breathing exercises, and notes on cat diets. Later entries recount overseas tours, or feature letters to Bill Clinton and Michelle Obama championing arts initiatives and scholarships. Though some readers may wish for more organizational cohesion, a sense of the artist’s complicated internal life and nearly religious dedication to his craft comes through powerfully and poetically: “When I play my horn I can never play the same note in the same way twice. Just like life. Every moment is a new beginning. Even if I’m playing the same song it’s different each time I play it. That’s why they call jazz... the greatest and most challenging music in the world.... It’s the music of the heavens.” This will be a boon for Rollins’s myriad admirers.

February 1, 2024
A welcome peek into the mind of the great jazz musician. Reese, author of Blue Notes: Jazz, Literature and Loneliness, delves into the tenor saxophonist's substantial archives in the New York Public Library, unearthing these fascinating notebooks. Divided into four chronological sections covering nearly 50 years, they capture how Rollins' thinking about a wide range of subjects evolved. With entries starting in 1959, after two incarcerations, kicking his heroin addiction, and the beginning of his years-long practice sessions on the Williamsburg Bridge, these slight, diary-like bits and pieces reveal an incredibly curious and philosophical musician--"What I am is jazz phrasing"--with a strong work ethic. He's very concerned with physical and breathing exercises, his health, practicing fingering and other technical aspects involved in playing the sax, his "proclivity for impatience," his belief that "jazz is a free planet where everything is happiness and love," and a passion for lists. "I must try to desist from lusting after women," he adds. All of these ideas are in service of making him a better person and musician. Rollins sees himself in harmony with the music, and the sax "can achieve any color within the orchestra." The entries seem well thought out, as if he hoped they would eventually be read by others, especially music students. He occasionally brings up social matters: "'Race' is synonymous to color! I am of the gold race." On jazz's "essence," creative improvisation, he writes, "This then is man in his finest hour--portraying nature." Rollins is devoted to yoga and avoids eating bitter candy, which affects his breathing. He consistently praises his instrument--"It is yesterday, today, and tomorrow all in one form--the almighty saxophone"--and he bemoans the "wasteful exploitation of energy resources." The last entry, from 2010: "No matter how you feel, get up, dress up, and show up." Heady musical and philosophical stuff.

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Starred review from February 1, 2024

Ninety-three-year-old saxophone great Rollins compiles excerpts from his notebooks, split into four chronological sections, which span from 1959 to 2010 and discuss everything from intricate music theories to the broad capabilities of the saxophone and the best posture and embouchure for playing. Edited by Reese (Blue Notes), the book also details Rollins's strict exercise and dietary routines, his musical influences (including Coleman Hawkins), the pitfalls of the cutthroat music business, his balanced opinion of pop stars like the Crusaders and the Rolling Stones, and his favorite films and books. He warns about the perils of climate change and social injustice, underscores his goal of racial harmony, blasts the toxic U.S. consumer culture, and delineates the multiracial origins of jazz. As a devotee of Eastern religion, he emphasizes how improvisatory music is a reflection of life and a means to connect to a divine cosmic essence. Through his notebooks, Rollins emerges as a driven, humble, thoughtful, dedicated, persistent, and spiritual soul in search of a higher force through music. VERDICT Illuminating diary entries by a jazz legend; highly recommended reading for fans, musicians, and general audiences.--Dr. Dave Szatmary

Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2024
Saxophone virtuoso Rollins began keeping notebooks in 1959, when he famously stepped away from public performances to perfect his skills and clarify his intentions during long solo sessions on the Williamsburg Bridge. In this expertly edited volume, we read Rollins' instructions to himself about how to stand and how to breath. He records his exercise regime and determination to stop smoking, describes in detail his practice routines, references his extensive reading, and celebrates jazz as "a vigorously hybrid product which is All American" and "a free planet where everything is happiness and love." He praises the saxophone for its range and expressiveness and describes improvisation, writing of one night: "I dreamed with the music." Rollins is a seeker of oneness and growth ("Let the inside me be me.") and believes: "Music is a divine revelation." He writes of performances around the world and musicians he reveres, and protests "the dispiriting commercialism, the corporate greed, the ecological desecration, the enduring racialism and denial of same." Rollins' thoughtful notebooks chart the discipline and evolution of a deeply spiritual and enduring artist.

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