Sonny Rollins blindfold test

[Kevin Bresnahan]

12 hours ago, HutchFan said:

It reminded me of a story that I heard.  I don't recall all the details, but here's the gist of it.  The author Stephen King was interacting with some fans, discussing his books and books that he's enjoyed by other authors.  One of the fans asked King about George R.R. Martin, the author of the Game of Thrones series.  King talked about how much he enjoyed Martin's books.  But then the fans began to complain because it was taking Martin so long to complete the cycle.  The fans felt like they were "owed" the final few chapters.  But Stephen King wasn't having any of that and pushed back strongly.  King said, "George R.R. Martin is not your bitch."

Firstly, it was Neil Gaiman, not Stephen King. Secondly, screw George R.R. Martin. He's not anyone's bitch but he is an asshole. He blew off fans of his A Song of Fire & Ice (Games of Thrones) series so he could edit a bunch of short stories and write a bunch of his Wild Card books. Because of this, it took him over 11 years to continue the storylines of many of his characters in the Game Of Thrones series. I'll never buy another book of his again.

 

But back to Sonny Rollins...

[JSngry]

Boy, dude, you sure can carry a grudge!

[HutchFan]

2 hours ago, bresna said:

Firstly, it was Neil Gaiman, not Stephen King. Secondly, screw George R.R. Martin. He's not anyone's bitch but he is an asshole. He blew off fans of his A Song of Fire & Ice (Games of Thrones) series so he could edit a bunch of short stories and write a bunch of his Wild Card books. Because of this, it took him over 11 years to continue the storylines of many of his characters in the Game Of Thrones series. I'll never buy another book of his again.

 

But back to Sonny Rollins...

bresna, apologies for the error re: the author -- but the analogy remains. ... Of course, you have the freedom to decide to not buy any more George R.R. Martin books.  But Martin has the freedom to decide what he's doing next, even if it means failing to measure up to your (or others') expectations.

Likewise Sonny Rollins. 

I think the KingGaiman story is just another way of saying what Thelonious said: "The most successful artist is the person who is most fully himself."  ... I know that I'm not in any position to tell Sonny Rollins -- or any artist -- what they should do or be.  Because an artist's job is unlike almost any other occupation.

I can measure a heart surgeon's success by their patient's outcomes.

I can measure a sanitation worker's success by how reliably they pick up the garbage.

I can measure a lawyer's success by their rate of positive verdicts.

I can measure a basketball player's success by their points, assists, and rebounds.

But how do we meaure an artist's success? 

The relatively simple standards that we can apply to those other occupations can't even BEGIN to measure what constitutes artistic success -- because there's no universal agreement about what constitutes art itself!  There are traditions, and there are conventions.  And these are very important.  But there is no "playbook."  There is no step-by-step recipe. 

And that's precisely what makes art so exciting and wonderful and difficult.

 

... That's how I think about it, at least.  

 

[Dmitry]

If Sonny Rollins ever publishes an autobiography, I wonder how many pages the last 50 years of his life's work will occupy.

[jazzbo]

Enough pages that some will probably skim through them.

[danasgoodstuff]

9 hours ago, jazzbo said:

Enough pages that some will probably skim through them.

And then say something presumptuous and stupid about why they did.  Sonny's last 50 years are fine, at least as good as the back half of Armstrong's career.

[Gheorghe]

11 hours ago, Dmitry said:

If Sonny Rollins ever publishes an autobiography, I wonder how many pages the last 50 years of his life's work will occupy.

I hope much. As a 1959 born I came in touch with his music in the 70´s, though the first album I had was from the 60´s and had him with Don Cherry, Henry Grimes and Billie Higgins. I saw Rollins live also for the first time in the 70´s and enjoyed his Milestone albums from that time, and never in my live I will forget things like "Don´t Stop the Carneval" ... 

Only once in Miami a strange thing happened to us: We arrived early in April 2000 and learned the next day, that on the day of our arriving Sonny Rollins was playing in town. 
Too late for Sonny , but then James Moody was scheduled at "Van Dyke´s" on Lincoln Road,  and there we went. And during intermission, smokin a cigarette in front of the clubs, you know how it comes, you talk to other fans, and mention the missed Sonny Rollins event, and one of them who pretended he is from Switzerland but lives in Miami, said "I don´t like what Rollins did after 1975". Well, especially my wife was kinda puzzled, she said "we have now 2000 ......so don´t you thing you missed much, 1975 was ages ago....."