The other day I wrote about Sonny Rollins’ 1950s favourite practice space: the Williamsburg Bridge. Today on eBay I noticed an unusual album cover for his 1956 recording, Saxophone Colossus.
Rather than the typical black & blue silhouette of Rollins playing his tenor, this album cover shows him practicing on the Williamsburg Bridge.
Source: books_music_superstore_oz
This photo is really quite famous. As a matter of fact, Rollins has a copy of the original black and white photo on his website. It’s on the FAQ page, in the section where he talks about how he came to practice on the Williamsburg Bridge.
As far as the album itself is concerned, because the seller didn’t provide any information—other than it contains 2 LP’s—I did some Googling. It turns out that this set contains the LP’s, Saxophone Colossus and Tenor Madness. Once I knew this bit of information, I could barely make it out in the small print contained in the gold box in the lower right corner.
Sonny Rollins is now in his 80s, and is still actively performing and touring all over the world. Despite his exemplary playing skills and stellar career, Rollins still practices regularly.
Rollins is a role model for all of us. He shows us that no matter how long we’ve been playing, or how good we are, there’s always room for improvement, and that practicing is the way to get there.
