A BRIDGE TO THE 21ST CENTURY:

The Present Moment: Sonny Rollins at the Summit (Gary Giddins, October 7th, 2002, Village Voice)

"Give yourself a gift," Marcus Aurelius advised, "the present moment." Aldous Huxley populated his island paradise Pala with parrots that fly around squawking, "Here and now, boys, here and now!" All the wise men agree-the key to a healthy life is alertness: a refusal to smother the brief candle with ruminations or apprehensions, an avowal to wake up and keep waking up. In art, the existential dilemma translates into devotion to the elusive light of inspiration, a challenge enacted nowhere with greater clarity and urgency than in jazz-where the composer composes in the arena, without benefit of eraser, white-out, tape dubs, or retakes-and by nobody with a more exhilarating sense of adventure than jazz's finest living practitioner, Sonny Rollins.

Brothers Judd's jazz correspondent, Glenn Dryfoos (who, many of you will be unaware, failed his driver's test), refers to this article as: "Our greatest jazz writer reviewing the greatest living jazz musician." Posted by Orrin Judd at October 8, 2002 6:28 PM