Nascido no Harlem, em 1930, ele viveu a glória e o inferno do estrelato jazzístico. Com apenas 25 anos já era um dos pilares do gênero, considerado exímio improvisador e paparicado por Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Coleman Hawkins. Gravou com Bud Powell, J.J. Johnson e dezenas de outros. Seu mitológico disco Saxophone Colossus (1957) é uma das pedras fundamentais do jazz moderno.
Mas veio o vício da heroína, que o obrigou a interromper a carreira nos anos 1950 – chegou a ser preso duas vezes e internado compulsoriamente para tratamento.
Na época posterior aos excessos, nos anos 1950 e 1960, Sonny tornou famoso um hábito inusual entre estrelas do jazz: costumava praticar tocando para os passantes na ponte de Williamsburg, que liga Manhattan ao Brooklyn. “Eu era um sujeito sensível e sabia que não podia praticar em casa, incomodando os vizinhos”, ele contou, em uma entrevista por telefone. “Eu podia ficar 14, 15 horas lá, fosse primavera, verão ou inverno.” Uma vez, um taxista o confundiu com um jogador dos Dodgers, Don Newcombe, cujo apelido era Newk, e Miles Davis, bonachão, ajudou a difundir pelo mundo do jazz esse apelido de Sonny, Newk, que é mais usado entre amigos.
Para se recuperar das drogas, o saxofonista fez um trajeto espiritual rumo aos ensinamentos mais ancestrais: foi estudar zen no Japão e viveu um tempo num mosteiro na Índia, a exemplo de John Coltrane, que o estimulou e emprestou livros para convencê-lo. “O que tento fazer com minha vida é dar a ela um significado”, afirmou.
Alguns dias depois daquilo, me chama um editor-executivo do jornal. “Você gostaria de ir a Nova York entrevistar Sonny Rollins?”.
Bom, gostaria não é o termo mais correto. Eu daria minha coleção de Ken Parker por isso.
O Summerstage Festival do Central Park é muito louco. Você fica ali deitado na grama enquanto os aviões passam sobre a cidade. Não há quase filas para a cerveja e ninguém empurra ninguém. Estava ali feito um caipira à beira do lago quando um tour manager me chamou (e aos colegas de viagem).
“Vocês gostariam de conhecer Sonny lá no camarim?”.
Éramos 5 em viagem, era um privilégio raro.
Afundado num sofazinho no interior do seu trailer-camarim, numa tarde infernalmente quente em Manhattan, o maior sax tenor vivo do jazz parecia cansado. A barbicha muito branca, um chapeuzinho de pescador, e ele nem sequer descolou as costas do sofá para cumprimentar os visitantes do distante país chamado Brasil. Pareceria descortesia, se Sonny Rollins não estivesse sendo tão solícito e se sua memória não fosse tão afiada.
“Faço aniversário no dia 7 de setembro. Não é a data nacional do Brasil?”, perguntou. Sonny acha que nós brasileiros temos o mesmo afeto pela nossa independência que os americanos têm pela sua. Numa cadeira à sua frente estava sentado ninguém menos do que Bill Saxton, saxofonista que tocou nas orquestras de Duke Ellington e Count Basie, e é talvez um dos maiores ativistas negros do Harlem.
Saxton distribuiu flyers que anunciavam seu show no bairro, às sextas-feiras, numa casa que ele mesmo abriu, o Bill’s Place.
Sonny Rollins me cedeu o lugar ao seu lado no sofá e continuou falando das coisas das quais se lembrava do Brasil: a vista de seu quarto no Hotel Nacional, em São Conrado, Rio, em 1985, um lugar de onde, ressalta, se podia “sentir claramente a força do Atlântico”. Iria voltar ao País após 23 anos.
Perguntei a Sonny se ele planejava tocar St. Thomas, o seu grande hit, no show que fará dali a minutos no gramado do parque. “É um pedido especial? Ok, vou tocar essa para você”, respondeu. Parecia um blefe. Apertou minha mão e piscou.
Sonny Rollins tocou com seu sexteto naquela tarde. Quando ele entrou no palco, via-se que ele anda com alguma dificuldade, que se movimenta como se tivesse as pernas pesadas. O público o olhava com admiração, reverente, mas dava pinta de que duvidava do fôlego de Sonny, ele não parecia em boa forma. Mas bastou o primeiro acorde da afro-caribenha Nice Lady, no entanto, para que todas as desconfianças desaparecessem.
Fui reencontrá-lo duas outras vezes na vida, a mais recente em New Orleans, em 2011. Sonny parece carregar toda a música do mundo em seu sax.
TRECHO DO LIVRO ‘O BISBILHOTEIRO DAS GALÁXIAS’ (LAZULI EDITORA), DE JOTABÊ MEDEIROS, LANÇADO EM 2013 E FINALISTA DO PRÊMIO JABUTI DE LITERATURA DE 2014
Theodore Walter “Sonny” Rollins morreu nesta segunda-feira, 25, em sua casa em Woodstock, New York, aos 95 anos.
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