Sonny Rollins on Steve Schapiro’s Unseen Photos of Jazz Giants
Miles, Red Garland. I mean, these pictures take me back into a time which will never be like that again. Everybody was working. Everybody was contributing. Everybody was being appreciated. Jazz was appreciated. Of course, many of these guys aren’t here anymore, and that’s emotional for me, too. Here I am, the last guy standing. And I’m sure that the habits I established around that time – healthy habits – were responsible for my good fortune. It’s hard for me to look through these pictures with anything but great feeling: Coleman Hawkins, Philly Joe Jones, Jimmy Heath, Pete La Roca. All these guys represent a family that’s special to me. I was lucky, because I always had a great family life with my wife at home. But these guys, you could say that they were a family, too. The photos that Steve Schapiro took of me at the Apollo have special meaning for me. I spent my life going to the Apollo. As a youngster, I used to go there every week and catch the …
