Sonny became a day laborer for a period of get off smack. I am so happy he is still with us. It's a bitch of a drug to get off for a musician because in the beginning it does work. No one wants to admit it to it, but I am sorry, it does. It slows everything down, and allows you to be more free as a musician because you don't give a fuck about anything. But then it turns on you in a big, big way. There are other ways, meditation, etc. - to get you into that zone where things slow down. Kids need to learn that. You can keep in the zone for years and years and just get better and better.
Cannabis does similar work. I don't think it is anywhere in the same league as heroine in terms of risk, side effects, addictiveness, etc and there are a lot more therapeutic benefits to it, but it boils down to a similar situation, where if you are dependent on it for your everyday performance, there are some more fundamental issues you need to address. I use cannabis medicinally on an almost daily basis, not because I want to, though. I am actively working away from that relationship. I would rather be able to use it recreationally, but I don't really have that as much of an option right now because I depend on it medically. Nights when I can fall asleep and wake up feeling rested and pain free vs hung over without having had used cannabis are victories for me. However, it works for me in a similar way as I hear people talk about temporary use of anti-depressants: it reminds us of what the goal is, and allows us to more accurately steer toward that goal sober, and achieve those flow states sober (although given we produce some pretty powerful hallucinogens and pain killers in our body, the Terrence McKenna phrase "everyone is carrying" applies). We can and should say the same things about caffeine and nicotine, too.
@@ayoungethan Absolutely. For some reason I never took to cigarettes and cannabis. Don't know why. Opiates? Big time. It depends on the user. As folk artist James Taylor said," if you ever get high on a drug and it WORKS for tor you, be it the last time you ever take it. I knew once I took heroin it would be 17 year fight."
Yes, the incredibly powerful white smack of that day, was so easy to hook into you & so tough to kick.. No wonder SO MANY jazz greats climbed on her back to ride.
Heroin is deeply tied to music in general. Always has been. A funny thing happens when you use smack day in and day out... Everything becomes dull. Nothing really matters, and all feelings/emotions become detached. This has a side effect if you are already good at creating songs and melodies, because, it takes a WHOLE lot more to MOVE you. So you tend to toss aside everything, and constantly seek out the best. A song that was sub par, and may have tickled your ear a bit sober, won’t even keep you awake once you’re on that path, and so... it becomes a sort of sick communication process between you and the normal world. It’s the only emotion you have left.
artists are often unusual people, sensitive people, persceptive people... this makes them subject to being maligned, misunderstood, mistreated, etc by friends & family which causes TRAUMA which leads to substance abuse. so it's not that JAZZ goes with drug abuse, it's that TRAUMA leads to drug abuse, and artists are more likely to have sustained trauma i their lives.
He used to play under a part of the Williamsburg bridge to practice I heard. My mom told me he would play late at night and no one knew who or where it was coming from. He is a true craftsman
@@StevenPerren He was dependent on Wynton Marsalis for the music part of the documentary. That documentary should be called Wynton and Stanley Clark's version of Jazz History. Very very biased and NYC and New Orleans oriented. Chicago, KC, West Coast were given the short shrift.
@@VCT3333At the end of the documentary he referenced Wynton Marsalis as being a part of "the future" of jazz... I remember feeling ill at that point. What a waste.
John Richard Handy (still alive at almost 92), a friend of mine was in the business for over 70 yrs didn’t do drugs. I call him and maybe ask him one sentence…he goes on and on about the scenes back then. A living phenomenon!
It was my best friend for years, until it wasn’t. It was a bad relationship from the beginning but until it turned on me I didn’t see it. Good thing I saw it before it was too late. Many never have that chance. I thank NA for opening my eyes in the nick of time.
I’m glad to hear Sonny list smoking on the roll call of drug addiction. No doubt about it, nicotine is truly worthy of its place alongside heroin and alcohol.
A key thing here, he went to be a day labourer to get off the drug. He completely changed his life, there is something there, put addicts in a physical space where they use their brain and body to rewire themselves.
@E Bloom I immediately thought of Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock. I think they are both soka gakkai buddhist practitioners, too. It seems like drugs and spirituality displace each other, to a certain extent.
I always felt like the outcast among a lot of jazz musicians because I didn’t do that. My other passion besides playing jazz is training in boxing. Luckily, I managed to get a few in my jazz social circle to be interested in boxing and the health benefits of it as well. Didn’t hurt that many of their jazz heroes like miles, red garland, Charlie Christian and other jazz musicians who were also into boxing.
Staring at a blank wall can be interesting when stoned. Just replace "stoned" with "on heroin" or "on meth", and if it sounds bad, it is, even with weed. I quit one month ago and the physical withdrawals took weeks to stop. There's so much more that I'm finding that I'm appreciating in life, and the days feel so much longer, now that I am not numbing myself and dumbing myself down with weed. It may have a small place in my life in the future, but it's far from a harmless enhancer to life. It's insidious and it pulls you in, justifies its own presence in your life, and makes life fly by. The worst part is that it completely stifles dreaming. I love my dreams and I'm so glad they're coming back now.
Wish Lenny Breau RIP, whom Chet once told Tommy Emmanuel was the greatest guitar player walking the face of the earth, heard this message early in his life and took it to heart. God bless Sonny for sharing his wisdom.
You don’t really need drugs to make great jazz but you need real life experiences and to really be in touch with those experiences and drugs can put you through that and get you there but there are other ways as well.
Talent, studying, desire, and lots of practicing, makes a person a good or a great player, not drugs. Many of the bebop musicians from the 40s and 50s were drug users and many died too young because of it. All the drugs in the world won’t make you a great musician, first and foremost, you must have talent, because without it, you’ll never reach that high level of playing an instrument, like the great ones.
I wanted to hear his take after hearing about heroin slowing things down for musicians to be able to play faster, and when I heard tour de force I tought this album feels like… musicians on heroin
Take it from me. The drugs don't enhance your creativity they make life temporarily satisfying while but ultimately sacrificing everything. Sure I'm talking bout the hard stuff. It's escapism...induced medication and transcendental states. All these feelings and emotions are available in waking life without the accelerant. I pray the young curious artists out there don't succumb to the depravity of addiction. Explore life on its terms and your a better man for it. Bird was saddened by the influence he had on jazz n smack. God bless the countless youth in our country dependant on Opiates. May they find peace.
There are a number of reasons why musicians (in this case Jazz musicians) used drugs and alcohol in excess in the old days. When they were young, some of the older guys who they looked up to, whom they “idolized,” used drugs and drink alcohol to excess. (On the contrary, Miles Davis strictly prohibited and warned young musicians of the dangers from using drugs or drinking in excess because Miles knew where drug and alcohol abuse led to.) Also, years ago drugs were easily available to jazz musicians; heroin dealers were like goddamned buzzards circling the stage and catching the young musicians alone, whispering, “Hey, man, you sound great! Here, try some of this (heroin); no charge. Take a whiff, man, you’ll be playing even better. You’ll see. It’ll loosen you up. You’ll relax; not be so uptight, y’know?” And, yes, it did help the young jazz musicians relax; relax to the point that they couldn’t hardly get out of bed or if they made it to the stage they were lost. Their minds were numb, completely blank; they couldn’t play worth a shit. Pure gobbledygook. Heroin, especially, ended a lot of budding careers of promising young talent, and led them to addiction, a life of crime to acquire the drug, and the inevitable arrests, convictions, and imprisonments that followed. Drugs and alcohol absolutely DO NOT enhance talent or creative “juices” or improve a musician’s capability to “magically” (chemically) expand their repertoire with ideas they otherwise would not have dreamed of. No. Unfortunately heroin, alcohol, and other drugs and chemicals drain musicians of their talents, they suck them dry and leave them shells of their former selves. Even a “recreational drug” like marijuana, IF USED DAILY TO EXCESS makes a musician, an artist or a writer LAZY, APATHETIC TOWARDS HIS OR HER WORK. Finally, all the user wants to do is “kick back,” relax, and listen to the music they were at one time capable of playing. They watch commercial TV day or night, a sure sign of “dumbing down” after they quit or get kicked out of their band and begin hanging out with losers. Another wasted life...
Miles' situation was so sad. He spent a significant time in Paris where he realized for the first time that not all white people were the same. He was treated like a God. He sat in with the great philosophers and painters of the day who didn't give a crap about his color. Then he comes back to NYC and finds no work and is treated just like a regular African American at that time. It drove him into a great depression which is the real reason he got addicted. I am not saying that fellow musicians like Parker had an influence, but Miles was militantly defiant (and rightfully so) about his treatment in NYC after his experience in France.
@@MattSmith-iq1ld I would hesitate for labeling one thing as the “reason” for an addiction. Epsecially something so specific as a single trip experience. I think ultimately, it stems from the genetic makeup of all of us. Certain people, like myself, just have a chemical difference in the way our brains work, and get hooked on stuff instantly. Even stuff most people don’t have an actual problem with like nicotine, and weed. There are kids who vape to look cool, and the kids who start experimenting with drugs and alcohol at a young age like I unfortunately did. Setting myself up for nicotine addiction, and even being addicted to something as “trivial” as weed. I’m only 20 though, so I can’t really speak of the world with any semblance of confidence.
I was going to write exsctly the same thing. Perfect comment. But it's interesting your comment got only 20 likes in 3 years ... indicating that so few people actually get what you said.
Sonny Rollins: heroin worked. Internet warrior: no it didn’t. Gotta say internet warriors: you are amusing. Don’t get me wrong. I am no advocate of addicting drugs, or of drug use in general. All the pitfalls you list are very real. That said, if you have talent plus an “artistic vision” that you’ve not been able to express, it’s utterly clear that drugs can help you break on through.
And old head once told me what has more power you or a bag of dope it opened my eyes to the reality of those who gave power over themselves to the dope. I now believe he was sent by the Holy Spirit to help me not fall to far away.
I don't need to be a jazz artist to know that anyone who uses/abuses coke, heroin, etc., won't have much of a life worth living, no matter how good the music sounds.....I don't think we need to go down the list of jazz tragedies, all behind addictions.....especially heroin, cocaine, alcohol
Jazz doesnt pay unless youre really good at getting well paying gigs. Otherwise youre always working some shit day job or side hustle and the only solace is drink and dope
It could just be that tortured souls make the greatest artists. All that internal pain brings out beauty. Or maybe….They had tremendous God-given talent, success came too easily to them, they thought they were bullet-proof, and hey, heroin and cocaine are awesome trips the first few times you try them. Just maybe, MAYBE, we could consider what the consequences are of being GIVEN something without having to work too hard for it? If you’ve only climbed one or two rungs of that ladder, falling off really doesn’t look like a big deal. When you’ve climbed six or eight rungs and look down, you appreciate how much work you put into getting up that high, and you DON’T want to risk falling. It’s true of writers, actors, singers, musicians, athletes-anyone we overpay and over-glorify.
Richard Wagner, Mozart, Bach or Strauss didnt use drugs and didnt dig themselves holes. They were millions time more talented and millions times greater artists than any jazz musician could imagine
@@Jamie-js3qw I’m sure there was a lot of alcohol involved, as well. My line of thinking is that addictive mind-altering substances all come up and lead down the same road. Faulkner and Hemingway were notorious drunks-it supposedly numbed their pain. Athletes go for highs. Musicians and singers ride the roller coaster.
"The 'Go-withs' ; 'Q: What goes with A Party? A: Wine, Women and Song (&Drugs)' - don't fall victim to "The Go-withs". My Pop and Rollins' Contemporary- Archie Bunn Musician/Trombone.
To be any type of artist is a difficult life in the modern world. But please don‘t forget that before modern times, way before, the Shaman took substances to bring them closer to their god. Many, many artists feel and have experienced this effect for themselves. And, let us not forget all the catholic priests that become alcoholics. 😉 (I know, I know. Cheep shot.)
@@jenisereedus sorry to say, but my great-aun t was a roadie w/ Basies's band and she was emphatic that all those dudes were on smack, Basie included. Maybe he never went hardcore and became an addict, but he used just like the rest
@@broaderrange5870 , not sure about that, haven’t read about The Count using in any of his biographies, and that’s something always highlighted unfortunately. The band members is another story, but not him nor Ellington.
I ❤️ Sonny without qualification but why are we asking jazz musicians about drugs as if they are experts? We don’t need another cautionary tale about drugs from the crowd of people who want alcohol served to them by 21 year old waiters at restaurants.
The difficulty once you get to a certain level, is that you want to be the best you can be, you NEED to be the best you can be. And to be the best you can be, you need to be in a certain state of mind, just as Sonny says. So that becomes the struggle. It's magical when it works, but it's hell to deal with the pressure.
Allan holdsworth always drank and smoked. Was an alhoholic. Never impeded on his untouchable talent. He got wore out cause jazz lost its popularity to like hair metal and shitty 90s music.
Yea and I’d like everyone to have housing + food + healthcare + education before we spend any money on wars. People use because they are stressed + depressed, not to “connect to spirit” 🙄
Bullshit, then what? He is talking about musicians here and the lifestyle they lead, and the Welfare State isn't going to change that. Hell Micheal Jackson was one of the richest musicians on the planet, yet he died from a drug overdose. Same for Prince and so many others. Stop with the "if only the Taxpayer supported them"
Jazz musicians with a whole host of different circumstances in daily life may or may not have used because they're were depressed, but they certainly did use because it made playing jazz.. possible. Price paid and not for everyone or even very many. Some people die climbing mountains for entertainment ect.
Lol, yeah I am tired of people acting like nicotine and caffeine and alcohol aren't "drugs" just because they are so heavily normalized and legal. Alcohol is about the least interesting drug you can find, with terrible therapeutic benefit and massive risk potential and adverse health consequences. It is highly toxic and wrecks the body (we metabolize it into formaldehyde). If we were legalizing drugs based on balanced merit and risk, alcohol would be way more illegal than mushrooms or cannabis.
@@ayoungethan alcohol isn't actually metabolized into formaldehyde. The chemical is called acetaldehyde, which is structurally similar, but they are different chemicals.
Psychologically drugs turn off your insight and self awareness, next minute you are in the "gutter" acting like an aresehole in an ego tunnel without windows
Jazz musician are nothing special, Jazz musicians, rock musicians, artists it's all the same, Sonny. Why don't classical musicians are the same problem?
Nah it’s not all the same, different goals in each genre, requires, they each require different skills to be great, though many commonalities, but different forms of expression
@@deacon8754 since you asked...i am retiref. I owned and operated a pljmbing buskness forv48 years. Many times when destitute people had a clogged basement a leaking pipe or a faucet that was shot i would head out to my truvk to " write them a bill" but instead would drive away without charging them. I got countless thanm you letters.....which i valued MORE than the cash.......suck on that. And as a plumber....well...that's pretty much unheard of.
Sonny became a day laborer for a period of get off smack. I am so happy he is still with us. It's a bitch of a drug to get off for a musician because in the beginning it does work. No one wants to admit it to it, but I am sorry, it does. It slows everything down, and allows you to be more free as a musician because you don't give a fuck about anything. But then it turns on you in a big, big way. There are other ways, meditation, etc. - to get you into that zone where things slow down. Kids need to learn that. You can keep in the zone for years and years and just get better and better.
Cannabis does similar work. I don't think it is anywhere in the same league as heroine in terms of risk, side effects, addictiveness, etc and there are a lot more therapeutic benefits to it, but it boils down to a similar situation, where if you are dependent on it for your everyday performance, there are some more fundamental issues you need to address.
I use cannabis medicinally on an almost daily basis, not because I want to, though. I am actively working away from that relationship. I would rather be able to use it recreationally, but I don't really have that as much of an option right now because I depend on it medically. Nights when I can fall asleep and wake up feeling rested and pain free vs hung over without having had used cannabis are victories for me. However, it works for me in a similar way as I hear people talk about temporary use of anti-depressants: it reminds us of what the goal is, and allows us to more accurately steer toward that goal sober, and achieve those flow states sober (although given we produce some pretty powerful hallucinogens and pain killers in our body, the Terrence McKenna phrase "everyone is carrying" applies).
We can and should say the same things about caffeine and nicotine, too.
I strongly recommend Kenny Werner's Effortless Mastery to anyone interested in exploring drug-free flow states
@@ayoungethan Absolutely. For some reason I never took to cigarettes and cannabis. Don't know why. Opiates? Big time. It depends on the user. As folk artist James Taylor said," if you ever get high on a drug and it WORKS for tor you, be it the last time you ever take it. I knew once I took heroin it would be 17 year fight."
Wayne Shorter realized this from the beginning and he stayed for a long time and never broke down
@@maegnificantMy hero Wayne Shorter!🙏❤️🔥
Very interesting and tragic the relationship between Jazz and heroin. The Jazzmen were junkies long before Rock stars started riding the horse.
Yes, the incredibly powerful white smack of that day, was so easy to hook into you & so tough to kick.. No wonder SO MANY jazz greats climbed on her back to ride.
Heroin is deeply tied to music in general. Always has been. A funny thing happens when you use smack day in and day out... Everything becomes dull. Nothing really matters, and all feelings/emotions become detached. This has a side effect if you are already good at creating songs and melodies, because, it takes a WHOLE lot more to MOVE you. So you tend to toss aside everything, and constantly seek out the best. A song that was sub par, and may have tickled your ear a bit sober, won’t even keep you awake once you’re on that path, and so... it becomes a sort of sick communication process between you and the normal world. It’s the only emotion you have left.
@@paaao Well said.
@@BrownSugarBaby1992 good point
Ok
Sonny got through all this, a truly great man and musician
I used to play jazz on drugs.
At least it sounded like jazz when i was on drugs.
This sage, his message, a lifesaver, a soul saver.
Just saw how Sonny is still alive! What a man!
artists are often unusual people, sensitive people, persceptive people... this makes them subject to being maligned, misunderstood, mistreated, etc by friends & family which causes TRAUMA which leads to substance abuse. so it's not that JAZZ goes with drug abuse, it's that TRAUMA leads to drug abuse, and artists are more likely to have sustained trauma i their lives.
He used to play under a part of the Williamsburg bridge to practice I heard. My mom told me he would play late at night and no one knew who or where it was coming from. He is a true craftsman
pretty sure it was the brooklyn bridge
The DUMBO archway? Good acoustics and nearby apartments. I don't any residences are in earshot of the Brooklyn Bridge.
Why was he not interviewed by Ken Burns for Jazz? Him and so many others were still alive while he made that and he dropped the ball fucking hard
Ken burns did not understand jazz
@@StevenPerren
He was dependent on Wynton Marsalis for the music part of the documentary. That documentary should be called Wynton and Stanley Clark's version of Jazz History. Very very biased and NYC and New Orleans oriented. Chicago, KC, West Coast were given the short shrift.
@@VCT3333Wynton’s involvement did arguably more harm than good.
@@VCT3333At the end of the documentary he referenced Wynton Marsalis as being a part of "the future" of jazz... I remember feeling ill at that point. What a waste.
I just heard a jazz fusion quartet and what they were missing was drugs
care to elaborate on that?
@@FilipPandrc Remember Amy Winehouse at the start of her career?
Yes, maybe sanitized people create sanitized music.
It's sad that so many are destroyed by using drugs. 😪
John Richard Handy (still alive at almost 92), a friend of mine was in the business for over 70 yrs didn’t do drugs. I call him and maybe ask him one sentence…he goes on and on about the scenes back then. A living phenomenon!
The Giants, like Sonny Rollins and so many others, were great in spite of the burden of drugs or alcohol.
Everybody wanted to be like Bird.
Thats true greatness! Not saying the word that many would like to hear.. 🙏❤️
Sonny is the coolest
🆒️
The model for”Bleeding gums Murphy”.
A beautiful soul.
It was my best friend for years, until it wasn’t. It was a bad relationship from the beginning but until it turned on me I didn’t see it. Good thing I saw it before it was too late. Many never have that chance. I thank NA for opening my eyes in the nick of time.
I’m glad to hear Sonny list smoking on the roll call of drug addiction. No doubt about it, nicotine is truly worthy of its place alongside heroin and alcohol.
A key thing here, he went to be a day labourer to get off the drug. He completely changed his life, there is something there, put addicts in a physical space where they use their brain and body to rewire themselves.
true. change the environment . behaviours and inner belief and one can change their lives
I think Kenny Werner has contributed immensely toward this goal with his Effortless Mastery project.
Dizzy was possibly the only great jazz musician of note that could balance his personal and musical lives...
Eric Dolphy also
Clifford brown
@E Bloom I immediately thought of Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock. I think they are both soka gakkai buddhist practitioners, too. It seems like drugs and spirituality displace each other, to a certain extent.
Can we add John McLaughlin, Chick Corea, and Roland Kirk? Airto and Flora? Toots Thielmans? How about Duke Ellington?
Ornette made it happen too and Haden. Contrane's sidemen. Many.
I always felt like the outcast among a lot of jazz musicians because I didn’t do that. My other passion besides playing jazz is training in boxing. Luckily, I managed to get a few in my jazz social circle to be interested in boxing and the health benefits of it as well. Didn’t hurt that many of their jazz heroes like miles, red garland, Charlie Christian and other jazz musicians who were also into boxing.
Listen to the Giant. He’s a key player in the history of jazz. He knows…..
Well said.
I dunno man, jazz is pretty sweet when I’m stoned.
😂😂
Staring at a blank wall can be interesting when stoned. Just replace "stoned" with "on heroin" or "on meth", and if it sounds bad, it is, even with weed. I quit one month ago and the physical withdrawals took weeks to stop. There's so much more that I'm finding that I'm appreciating in life, and the days feel so much longer, now that I am not numbing myself and dumbing myself down with weed. It may have a small place in my life in the future, but it's far from a harmless enhancer to life. It's insidious and it pulls you in, justifies its own presence in your life, and makes life fly by. The worst part is that it completely stifles dreaming. I love my dreams and I'm so glad they're coming back now.
Of course that just shows how pathetic you are to need drugs to enjoy music to the fullest
I agree with Sonny Rollins. Unfortunately, musicians in other genres of music get caught up in this unfortunate lifestyle, and we lose them too soon.😢
Wish Lenny Breau RIP, whom Chet once told Tommy Emmanuel was the greatest guitar player walking the face of the earth, heard this message early in his life and took it to heart. God bless Sonny for sharing his wisdom.
You don’t really need drugs to make great jazz but you need real life experiences and to really be in touch with those experiences and drugs can put you through that and get you there but there are other ways as well.
So many great musicians that died young or were psychologically altered because of taking these drugs... I agree with Rollins
W SONNY 💪🏾😤
thank you, Sonny, we need to encourage musicians to get high off the music, not on drugs
drugs have been used for over 5000 years. who are you to stop that ? some internet junky? lmaooo the irony in that
@@taylorham9532aww the addict is angry 😂
@@nathanakpe4897 🤣
Dudes skin is glowing how old is he here
I don't play any instrument but boy-oh-boy I live like a jazz musician
Mr. Rollins’ contribution to three tracks on The Rolling Stones 1981 album “Tattoo You”is outstanding.
I remember being on acid jamming on some blues with a friend, we ended up accidentally inventing jazz.
"No Junk, No Soul"
Sonny WHO?! MUSTA BEEN MY GRANDPA'S GENERATION.
We Love you Nuke!
When music thrills you for real, no drugs are needed.
When you get the jazz you get the smack
Now about those giant brass balls in the background...
Talent, studying, desire, and lots of practicing, makes a person a good or a great player, not drugs. Many of the bebop musicians from the 40s and 50s were drug users and many died too young because of it. All the drugs in the world won’t make you a great musician, first and foremost, you must have talent, because without it, you’ll never reach that high level of playing an instrument, like the great ones.
None of the great artists succeeded because of drugs and alcohol. They succeeded in spite of them.
MY FRIEND KENNY GOOCH(RIP)….JOHN COLTRANES DRUMMER SAID THE SAME EXACT THING TO ME!!!
Taking drugs to get their spirit out..wow..never heard it that way..poignant & true!
I guess this is the part of a longer interview. Anybody has a link?
I wanted to hear his take after hearing about heroin slowing things down for musicians to be able to play faster, and when I heard tour de force I tought this album feels like… musicians on heroin
Take it from me. The drugs don't enhance your creativity they make life temporarily satisfying while but ultimately sacrificing everything. Sure I'm talking bout the hard stuff. It's escapism...induced medication and transcendental states. All these feelings and emotions are available in waking life without the accelerant. I pray the young curious artists out there don't succumb to the depravity of addiction. Explore life on its terms and your a better man for it. Bird was saddened by the influence he had on jazz n smack. God bless the countless youth in our country dependant on Opiates. May they find peace.
There are a number of reasons why musicians (in this case Jazz musicians) used drugs and alcohol in excess in the old days.
When they were young, some of the older guys who they looked up to, whom they “idolized,” used drugs and drink alcohol to excess. (On the contrary, Miles Davis strictly prohibited and warned young musicians of the dangers from using drugs or drinking in excess because Miles knew where drug and alcohol abuse led to.)
Also, years ago drugs were easily available to jazz musicians; heroin dealers were like goddamned buzzards circling the stage and catching the young musicians alone, whispering, “Hey, man, you sound great! Here, try some of this (heroin); no charge. Take a whiff, man, you’ll be playing even better. You’ll see. It’ll loosen you up. You’ll relax; not be so uptight, y’know?” And, yes, it did help the young jazz musicians relax; relax to the point that they couldn’t hardly get out of bed or if they made it to the stage they were lost. Their minds were numb, completely blank; they couldn’t play worth a shit. Pure gobbledygook.
Heroin, especially, ended a lot of budding careers of promising young talent, and led them to addiction, a life of crime to acquire the drug, and the inevitable arrests, convictions, and imprisonments that followed.
Drugs and alcohol absolutely DO NOT enhance talent or creative “juices” or improve a musician’s capability to “magically” (chemically) expand their repertoire with ideas they otherwise would not have dreamed of. No. Unfortunately heroin, alcohol, and other drugs and chemicals drain musicians of their talents, they suck them dry and leave them shells of their former selves. Even a “recreational drug” like marijuana, IF USED DAILY TO EXCESS makes a musician, an artist or a writer LAZY, APATHETIC TOWARDS HIS OR HER WORK. Finally, all the user wants to do is “kick back,” relax, and listen to the music they were at one time capable of playing. They watch commercial TV day or night, a sure sign of “dumbing down” after they quit or get kicked out of their band and begin hanging out with losers. Another wasted life...
Miles' situation was so sad. He spent a significant time in Paris where he realized for the first time that not all white people were the same. He was treated like a God. He sat in with the great philosophers and painters of the day who didn't give a crap about his color. Then he comes back to NYC and finds no work and is treated just like a regular African American at that time. It drove him into a great depression which is the real reason he got addicted. I am not saying that fellow musicians like Parker had an influence, but Miles was militantly defiant (and rightfully so) about his treatment in NYC after his experience in France.
@@MattSmith-iq1ld I would hesitate for labeling one thing as the “reason” for an addiction. Epsecially something so specific as a single trip experience. I think ultimately, it stems from the genetic makeup of all of us. Certain people, like myself, just have a chemical difference in the way our brains work, and get hooked on stuff instantly. Even stuff most people don’t have an actual problem with like nicotine, and weed. There are kids who vape to look cool, and the kids who start experimenting with drugs and alcohol at a young age like I unfortunately did. Setting myself up for nicotine addiction, and even being addicted to something as “trivial” as weed. I’m only 20 though, so I can’t really speak of the world with any semblance of confidence.
Your last paragraph said it perfectly. All of what you said here is true, but drugs ruin talented, gifted, lives...period.
I was going to write exsctly the same thing. Perfect comment. But it's interesting your comment got only 20 likes in 3 years ... indicating that so few people actually get what you said.
Sonny Rollins: heroin worked. Internet warrior: no it didn’t. Gotta say internet warriors: you are amusing.
Don’t get me wrong. I am no advocate of addicting drugs, or of drug use in general. All the pitfalls you list are very real. That said, if you have talent plus an “artistic vision” that you’ve not been able to express, it’s utterly clear that drugs can help you break on through.
And old head once told me what has more power you or a bag of dope it opened my eyes to the reality of those who gave power over themselves to the dope. I now believe he was sent by the Holy Spirit to help me not fall to far away.
I don't need to be a jazz artist to know that anyone who uses/abuses coke, heroin, etc., won't have much of a life worth living, no matter how good the music sounds.....I don't think we need to go down the list of jazz tragedies, all behind addictions.....especially heroin, cocaine, alcohol
Jazz doesnt pay unless youre really good at getting well paying gigs. Otherwise youre always working some shit day job or side hustle and the only solace is drink and dope
weak minded mf
It could just be that tortured souls make the greatest artists. All that internal pain brings out beauty. Or maybe….They had tremendous God-given talent, success came too easily to them, they thought they were bullet-proof, and hey, heroin and cocaine are awesome trips the first few times you try them. Just maybe, MAYBE, we could consider what the consequences are of being GIVEN something without having to work too hard for it? If you’ve only climbed one or two rungs of that ladder, falling off really doesn’t look like a big deal. When you’ve climbed six or eight rungs and look down, you appreciate how much work you put into getting up that high, and you DON’T want to risk falling. It’s true of writers, actors, singers, musicians, athletes-anyone we overpay and over-glorify.
Richard Wagner, Mozart, Bach or Strauss didnt use drugs and didnt dig themselves holes. They were millions time more talented and millions times greater artists than any jazz musician could imagine
I'm going to check those facts, but I'm fairly sure they drank. Drinking is a drug. Opium could have been there. I will check.
@@Jamie-js3qw I’m sure there was a lot of alcohol involved, as well. My line of thinking is that addictive mind-altering substances all come up and lead down the same road. Faulkner and Hemingway were notorious drunks-it supposedly numbed their pain. Athletes go for highs. Musicians and singers ride the roller coaster.
Two words: Dave Brubeck
All actions have consequence.
Any drug you take will catch up to you. Whether its a long time or short time, its effects will get you. Moderation isn't the answer. Not starting is.
"The 'Go-withs' ; 'Q: What goes with A Party? A: Wine, Women and Song (&Drugs)' - don't fall victim to "The Go-withs". My Pop and Rollins' Contemporary- Archie Bunn Musician/Trombone.
Maybe you don't need all that to play good Jazz, but maybe you need it to play great Jazz?
Nice Work Sonny! WooF!!🐶🐶
From Wikipedia - (DOB Sept 7 1930) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonny_Rollins
His voice sounds a lot like Tito Puente when he talks.
Both are Harlemites🖤
I started listening to jazz and it turned me into a junkie!
To be any type of artist is a difficult life in the modern world. But please don‘t forget that before modern times, way before, the Shaman took substances to bring them closer to their god. Many, many artists feel and have experienced this effect for themselves. And, let us not forget all the catholic priests that become alcoholics. 😉 (I know, I know. Cheep shot.)
Sonny, YOU don't . . . yet hear i wisdom . . . and see two balls in balance on the right.
OASIS 2025!!!!!
Ian McKaye
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻♥️♥️♥️
It's not about jazz musicians, it maybe more to do with fame. Look at all the famous people who have dead young. Fame kills?
Image if the giants never used “junk”..smh
Clifford Brown never used, neither did Wallace Roney, Benny Golson, Gigi Gryce, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and many others🙌🏿🎶
Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Tony Williams, Christian McBride, Donald Byrd, Ron Carter...❤️❤️❤️
@@jenisereedus sorry to say, but my great-aun t was a roadie w/ Basies's band and she was emphatic that all those dudes were on smack, Basie included. Maybe he never went hardcore and became an addict, but he used just like the rest
@@broaderrange5870 , not sure about that, haven’t read about The Count using in any of his biographies, and that’s something always highlighted unfortunately. The band members is another story, but not him nor Ellington.
I ❤️ Sonny without qualification but why are we asking jazz musicians about drugs as if they are experts? We don’t need another cautionary tale about drugs from the crowd of people who want alcohol served to them by 21 year old waiters at restaurants.
Lee Morgan was taken too soon
It’s a difficult life, going around getting high and playing jazz 😂
The difficulty once you get to a certain level, is that you want to be the best you can be, you NEED to be the best you can be. And to be the best you can be, you need to be in a certain state of mind, just as Sonny says. So that becomes the struggle. It's magical when it works, but it's hell to deal with the pressure.
Obviously you've never done it, so where does your opinion come from?
@@ThomasGilmore-fi6gb how do you know he hasn't?
I've played jazz professionally over 3 continents for most of my adult life. My experience is the foundation of my opinions.
Allan holdsworth always drank and smoked. Was an alhoholic. Never impeded on his untouchable talent. He got wore out cause jazz lost its popularity to like hair metal and shitty 90s music.
Also died sooner than he should have. He was pretty beat up at the end. Sad. I saw him at close to full throttle, it was astonishing
Yea and I’d like everyone to have housing + food + healthcare + education before we spend any money on wars. People use because they are stressed + depressed, not to “connect to spirit” 🙄
Is the alleviation of stress and depression NOT “connect(ing) to spirit”??
Bullshit, then what? He is talking about musicians here and the lifestyle they lead, and the Welfare State isn't going to change that. Hell Micheal Jackson was one of the richest musicians on the planet, yet he died from a drug overdose. Same for Prince and so many others. Stop with the "if only the Taxpayer supported them"
@@Gk2003m no
@@poisedforduty Michael Jackson was murdered
Jazz musicians with a whole host of different circumstances in daily life may or may not have used because they're were depressed, but they certainly did use because it made playing jazz.. possible. Price paid and not for everyone or even very many. Some people die climbing mountains for entertainment ect.
Sorry man but- you cant tell me i dont play better after a coffee and a joint haha
I don't do drugs and alcohol i smoke weed do LSD instead !
Hey, Louie Armstrong admitted to smoking weed every single day!! But as he was once quoted, "No heroin, that's serious stuff."
Hate to break it to you, but every chemical substance that brings on a "high" is a drug. Caffeine, even, is a drug.
@Bootsandcats Naahhh!
Lol, yeah I am tired of people acting like nicotine and caffeine and alcohol aren't "drugs" just because they are so heavily normalized and legal.
Alcohol is about the least interesting drug you can find, with terrible therapeutic benefit and massive risk potential and adverse health consequences. It is highly toxic and wrecks the body (we metabolize it into formaldehyde). If we were legalizing drugs based on balanced merit and risk, alcohol would be way more illegal than mushrooms or cannabis.
@@ayoungethan alcohol isn't actually metabolized into formaldehyde. The chemical is called acetaldehyde, which is structurally similar, but they are different chemicals.
The people who are into Jazz have to be under the influence...especially the audience.
if you need drugs to make music are you really that good?
Psychologically drugs turn off your insight and self awareness, next minute you are in the "gutter" acting like an aresehole in an ego tunnel without windows
Jazz musician are nothing special, Jazz musicians, rock musicians, artists it's all the same, Sonny. Why don't classical musicians are the same problem?
Nah it’s not all the same, different goals in each genre, requires, they each require different skills to be great, though many commonalities, but different forms of expression
Aaaaaahhhhh....it's sad old junkies like this that give jazz a bad name.
Dude is a legend, legends never die. where is your contribution to society?
@@deacon8754 since you asked...i am retiref. I owned and operated a pljmbing buskness forv48 years. Many times when destitute people had a clogged basement a leaking pipe or a faucet that was shot i would head out to my truvk to " write them a bill" but instead would drive away without charging them. I got countless thanm you letters.....which i valued MORE than the cash.......suck on that. And as a plumber....well...that's pretty much unheard of.