by John MacCalkies
Nothing might seem to earmark Sonny Rollins' "Global Warming" project from many of his other more recent recordings, since it blends uplifting calypso beats with modal blues and at least one typically hoary standard, "Change Partners."
In fact he revisits a couple of funky head arrangements from his seventies and eighties periods, including "Island Lady" and the title tune, which is a revamping of "Kilauea," his tribute to the Hawaiian volcano. Only "Clear-Cut Boogie" is more sinister, the persistent, cascading final motif functioning as Rollins' wake up call to the ecologically irresponsible. On the CD's cover, he cuts a raffish dash, sporting a cravat and shades which must have the glare-prevention rating of welding goggles, de rigeur in view of the pollution-spewing power station subliminally evident in the background of the photograph. The music on the disc has a life-affirming positivity that inclines one to sit back and bask at the prospect of the depletion of the ozone.
But Rollins is not a dilettante and his environmental concerns mirror those he had for the issue of civil rights at the time of 1958's "Freedom Suite." This casts light on a persona whose originality is predicated on a dogged integrity that has resisted seduction by the status quo, a characteristic regarded as "eccentric" in expedient mainstream society.
"What I mean when I talk about living lightly on the planet is that human beings have an obligation to respect the environment," he says. "Not cut down all the trees, dump garbage in the ocean, foul the air- take more out than can be given back."
Rollins vilifies consumer culture and television: "It's an affront to my intelligence to be told what I have to buy and, as in these sitcoms, when to laugh." The latter comment is telling because Rollins never laughs on cue, he listens generously to questions put to him and ruminates a balanced response. Because of his predilection for jovial, gregarious musicianship and occasionally oddball choices of material, it has been assumed that Rollins is a deadpan comedian. In actuality he is more interested in defining political correctness when such a concept is clearly out of fashion. After all, few people are up in arms this side of the ballpark about the clumsy bombing of Yugoslavia.
Whilst we bemoan the machinations of the armaments industry, Rollins reveals he is reading David Korten's "When Corporations Rule the World." He is also au fait with the political analyses of Noam Chomsky and Michael Parenti and recommends Howard Zinn's "People's History of the United States," since it corrects some of the falsehoods fostered in school, where much history taught is "fiction designed to produce citizens who don't ask questions."
Things are painted in black and white?
Sonny reprimands: "That is an unfortunate metaphor to use, especially in this country, because it upholds the assumption that black people are bad and white people are good, and there's plenty of grey out there."
Rollins' wife Lucille teases him for carrying "all these doomsday books" with him to read on the road but without the availability of intelligent writings he claims he would go crazy. Lucille co-produces his recordings and has been his staunch ally for years. They originally met in Chicago, which Rollins refers to the city as his second home. He took refuge here in the mid fifties, after completing the program at a federal narcotics hospital in Kentucky.
"I didn't play much when I first got here, though this was a twenty-four-hour music town. I wanted to stay away from the environment until I got my mental strength back, I did menial jobs, trucking, working as a janitor."
This visit, his group features a couple of personnel changes. Electric bassist Bob Cranshaw couldn't make it, though Rollins stresses "he's still on board". In place is John Lee, known for his work with Dizzy Gillespie. The other new face is Perry Wilson. Rollins demands anchorage by a strong drummer during his rhythmically audacious peregrinations and has had the good fortune to perform with such as Tony Williams, Al Foster, Art Blakey and Shelly Manne. A successful collaboration in the mid eighties was with Marvin "Smitty" Smith, (check the irrepressible "G Man"). Drum duties on "Global Warming" were shared by Idris Muhammad and Wilson. Auditioning a new drummer was hard, since although pyrotechnical players abounded, Rollins discovered few could hold a secure beat. "It's lamentable that this is often lacking in today's so-called jazz drummers." Wilson, however, draws on experience in the R'n'B field playing with the OJays, and evidently cuts the mustard.
Sonny Rollins plays May 21 at the Symphony Center, 220 South Michigan, (312)294-3000.
copyright 1999 New City Communications, Inc.