Sonny Rollins Jazz Quotations

I enjoy playing clubs. I still enjoy the closeness of the nightclub venue. However, after a certain period of time and after playing around some of the clubs in New YorkI felt that jazz should be presented in a more prestigious atmosphere.

There are a lot of jazz musicians, however, who do have to go to Europe and most of their work is in Europe. That's not true for me.

As the years went by and jazz got more popular and social conditions changed, you were able to have jazz as a topic introduced into the music curriculum in universities, ... I think that one thing that hip-hop and jazz have in common is that they are both coming out of the minority subculture and we've faced some of the same problems. They are attacked in different ways . . . but they are a minority in a majority culture, so they are unfortunately discriminated against by the larger portion of the majority community.

The whole creation of jazz is sort of leading toward the ultimate. I'm not trying to be self-aggrandizing here, but I think that the jazz soloist is the pinnacle of what jazz is about.

I don't think jazz should try to change. I think jazz is varied enough and there is so many different kinds of jazz. So jazz doesn't need to change.

Music represents nature. Nature represents life. Jazz represents nature. Jazz is life.

Jazz is the type of music that can absorb so many things and still be jazz.

Jazz never ends... it just continues.

I'm not supposed to be playing, the music is supposed to be playing me. I'm just supposed to be standing there with the horn, moving my fingers. The music is supposed to be coming through me; that's when it's really happening.

I feel that Jazz improvisation is the ultimate. You have to create on the spot, the essence of this music.

Many jazz artists go to L.A. seeking a more comfortable life and then they really stop playing.