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As Planet Green's Instrumental clearly demonstrates, there is fresh green passion permeating music these days. When it comes to jazz legend Sonny Rollins, well...he's always been ahead of this time. He was part of the innovative be-bop movement that included--among many others--Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, and he has spoken out for the environment as far back as his 1957 album, Freedom Suite.
WATCH VIDEO: Focus Earth—Greening The Music Industry
Born in 1930, the young Rollins cultivated his prodigious musical skills while also being exposed to politics by his activist grandmother, Miriam Solomon. She took him along to protest the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, the incarceration of the Scottsboro boys, and the harassment of singer Paul Robeson. For him, the bond between music and activism has never been broken. "Jazz has always had a social message to it and this is a vital part of the music," says Rollins. "My view of what has made it relevant, besides the beauty of the thing itself, is that it has prospered because it's had to fight for survival."
After Rollins's mother died in 1959, he went into seclusion for two years--famously practicing only on NYC's Williamsburg Bridge. As someone who understands what it's like to lose one's mother, I'd say it's not exactly a stretch to view this time period as deepening Rollins's connection to the planet he calls home. Mother Nature, if you will. He came back stronger than ever.
Still innovating and agitating in 1998, Rollins released Global Warming, which featured a song called "Mother Nature's Blues." In the ensuing years, the ardent environmentalist has declared:
"This is a finite planet. How much oil can we take out of the earth? How much fish can we take out of the sea before we reach the end? I think that the abuses have been so horrendous that people are finally beginning to realize that we can't keep it up. People have to wake up in time to change this profligate lifestyle which we enjoy ... I think we are in the midst of this period where we are committing this suicide on the planet and everybody is just using up all of our natural resources like a bunch of insane people. That's what I worry about more than I worry about jazz. What I am more concerned about is whether our whole civilization will be around in the next 25 years."
This from a man who once said: "I don't smoke, I don't drink, I don't have hobbies, because music is everything for the remaining time I have on this earth." But we know better. The eco-passion of Sonny Rollins remains as vibrant as his saxophone playing--and the planet desperately needs both.
Upcoming Eco-Music Event:
Sonny Rollins and his band will play a benefit concert for the Clearwater organization December 6 at the Tarrytown Music Hall. Ticket proceeds will support the environmental organization founded 40 years ago by Fishkill resident and folk singer Pete Seeger.
"It's all about creation and surprise," Rollins concludes. "It just needs to be appreciated and watered like flowers. You have to water flowers."
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