"I wanted to do this instrumentally, because that's who I am," he says. "I do everything through that prism. Now, it's quite possible that adding lyrics in some places may have been effective, but there's a danger in doing that. Things can get too preachy, and you don't want to preach at people. It's a very dangerous line to tread. When the record-label people asked me to write a little something for the cover, I did it, because I'd done something like that on Freedom Suite, and there was a precedent. But I want to make sure that I don't become an orator. I'm not interested in talking to people in that way, and lyrics, in my view, can be a way of cheating. I like to feel that in jazz improvisation, a very special space is created where you can get your message across within that. That was my challenge."
In some regards, Rollins doesn't quite achieve this goal: It's entirely possible to listen to the disc and not pick up the themes underlying it. But the CD as a whole is as consistently engaging as any that Rollins has produced during the Nineties. "Island Lady" turns on one of Rollins's brighter melodies, "Echo-Side Blue" is mournful in a singularly ravishing way, the title cut sports merrily dancing verses and a touch of kalimba, and "Change Partners" swings effortlessly enough to entertain strip-miners and Green Party members alike.
Rollins is modest about his ambitions for Global Warming: He characterizes the recording as "my little contribution to the cause." But he gets downright passionate when discussing the need to put preservation ahead of development. "There are two different ways of thinking and two different ways of reading the Bible," he says. "One group of people can read the Bible and think that it says that the earth is ours to exploit and to use. And another can read the same passage and think that it says the earth is here to take care of and not to ravage. These are fundamental differences that we need to discuss, but we're not discussing them, because the voices that can speak to these things are being blotted out by TV and all of the stupidness that passes for modern-day life. But I still have hope that grassroots people will eventually make politicians do something. And if I'm part of that, I'm happy."
In the meantime, Rollins is intent upon pushing himself for as long as he can. At an age when most musicians give themselves a break, he practices every day, even when he isn't planning to tour or record anytime soon. "I'm not setting out to come up with some specific thing when I'm practicing," he insists. "I'm just trying to have a facility over the instrument--to get really at home and have a general familiarity with the instrument to the extent that I'm able to do whatever comes into my mind. Well, you might say, 'Gee, you've been playing all your life. You ought to be familiar with it by now.' But that's the way it is. You never get complete mastery over an instrument. People like Segovia, they practiced every day. Musicians still have to bend the physical body and the mind to these rudimentary things every day to keep them in place. So practice is very necesary--and since I love to practice, it's no problem for me."
By keeping his chops up, Rollins hopes that he will be able to perform at a high level for years to come--and that's important to him for reasons that go well beyond vanity. "I want to represent myself well, but I also want to represent the period that I come from. I know that I have gotten a very formidable reputation over the years, so I feel I have to play for that. But I'm also playing for Monk and all those guys who aren't around to play for themselves anymore. When people see me, they expect to hear something good, and I feel an obligation to do that for them. But it's not a lot of pressure. I'm trying to be good anyway, so it's nothing outside of what I'm already doing. And performance is the pinnacle. That's where it all comes together. I can learn in one second on the stage what it might take me six months of practicing in the studio to do."
Many fledgling performers who've seen Rollins in concert over the years write to him for advice, and he tries to provide them with practical suggestions--"mainly about practicing a lot," he admits. But while he hasn't heard anything by such admirers to suggest that a new jazz day is just around the corner, he isn't concerned.
"I think that the whole concept of jazz is so vital that it will always be with us," he says. "The very idea of spontaneous improvisation is as young as a baby and as old as Methuselah. It's everything in one. Jazz has within it the seeds of eternity."
Sonny Rollins. 8 p.m. Wednesday, March 24, Boulder Theater, 2030 14th Street, $26.25-$36.50, 303-786-7030.
