Jazzman Rollins to jam for Clearwater

Chris Serico • The Journal News • Dec. 3, 2009 • Photo: John Abbott

To any jazz afficionado, Sonny Rollins is synonymous with one of his most celebrated albums, “Saxophone Collosus.” But to Rollins — a two-time Grammy winner who’s performed with Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane and Miles Davis — his work isn’t done.

“I’m a real perfectionist,” says Rollins, 79. “I still practice every day. I’m still looking for my own lost chord, so to speak.”

The harmony he seeks transcends music. For his first regional show in more than two years, he will perform Sunday afternoon at Tarrytown Music Hall to raise money and awareness for Hudson River Sloop Clearwater.

“If you want to save the planet and all these things, it comes down to the individual,” he says. “The individual has a moral, ethical responsibility to not despoil the space around him.”

Musician-activist Pete Seeger launched a music festival more than 40 years ago in an effort to clean up the river and build a sloop called the Clearwater. That boat, a floating classroom and a symbol of grassroots action, remains afloat and symbolizes the efforts of the Beacon nonprofit to protect the environment and champion social justice.

Rollins, who famously practiced his tenor sax while sitting on the Williamsburg Bridge over the East River from 1959 to 1961, has enjoyed a view of the Hudson from the barn window of his Columbia County farmhouse since 1972. A long-time member of the Natural Resources Defense Council and Greenpeace, Rollins feels a natural kinship with Seeger.

“I’ve never had an opportunity to meet him, but I’ve followed him and his work and agree and know that he’s a principled person,” says Rollins, who named his 1998 album “Global Warming.” “To live in a society and to stand up for civil rights and human rights and all these things, it’s not easy.”

Clearwater spokesman Tom Staudter says Sunday’s event is the charity’s first concert devoted exclusively to jazz.

“It’s super special,” Staudter says. “He’s the greatest living jazz artist on the planet and a real environmentalist. Having his support means a lot to this organization. We’re just very grateful for his generosity.”

Adds Rollins: “Jazz is America’s classical music, so I’m glad that … they finally got around to jazz.”

Born in Harlem to parents who were natives of the Virgin Islands, Walter Theodore Rollins was 7 when he saw a cousin’s saxophone, which had been like a “treasure” under his bed.

“It was gleaming gold in a red velvet case, really a beautiful-looking object,” Rollins recalls.

Another cousin hooked Rollins up with a woodwind of his own.

“I’m really happy to have ended up playing saxophone — perhaps that’s good because I’m not qualified for anything else,” he says with a laugh.

Even as a teen, Rollins’ skills caught the attention of Thelonious Monk, with whom he got to play before turning 20.

“He expressed an interest in my style and sort of took me under his wing,” Rollins says.

Rollins drew early inspiration from the saxophone stylings of Monk, Louis Jordan, Coleman Hawkins and Charlie Parker. Over time, he’d perform with all of them, and develop a friendly rivalry with John Coltrane, with whom he recorded the title track for his 1956 album, “Tenor Madness.”

“(Initially), I couldn’t really absorb any of his many wonderful stylistic things he had developed,” Rollins says. “But as years have gone by, I’ve been able to absorb some of his great contributions to jazz and culture. He’s one of the all-time greats. I’m also happy that we were good personal friends as well as musical buddies.”

After releasing dozens of albums for other labels, Rollins launched his own, Doxy, in 2005. The debut release, Rollins’ “Sonny, Please,” earned a Grammy nomination.

His follow-up, “Road Shows, Vol. 1,” comprises seven live tracks recorded in seven different countries over a 27-year span. There was hope he’d earn one or more Grammy nods for it when they were announced Wednesday, the same day he was slated to perform at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

Regardless of The Recording Academy’s votes, Rollins has loftier goals.

“I’m still stupid enough to believe that jazz music, and my jazz music, can reach enough people that it will make a difference, and really establish jazz as a much higher place in the public domain,” he says. “I believe that if I can get to that point … people will have more of an appreciation not only of me, but of the music itself. And then I’ll be able to contribute something more to this wonderful art form. That’s my dream, of doing that; it’s a living dream.”