Why did you happen to go there? Did you think you had to be heard in New York? When did you go east for the first time?Ĭhris Strachwitz: In ’63. We had a group going at that time so we managed to stick it out.Ĭhris Strachwitz: I see. The Prince and I, this is Prince Lasha here. I was offered work by several of them but I wouldn’t take it because I was involved. Johnson, and quite a few fellows, Charlie Mingus and all the greats that came to the coast during the period that I was here, we always got together and played a little bit. Such as Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, J. Sonny Simmons: There was quite a number of musicians coming from the east. You remember anybody in particular that inspired you out here? You said when you were 10 you came out here and then you stayed here until you went. Sonny Simmons: You meant before I went back east?Ĭhris Strachwitz: Yeah. He was the only one that really stayed heavy up on me, you know what I mean? It’s like he was God.Ĭhris Strachwitz: Then you played out here …… before you went east?Ĭhris Strachwitz: You want to mention any of the people out here that maybe influenced you? Sonny Simmons: Oh, yeah, I had plenty of idols but all of them fade except one. When you started to play horn, did you have any idols that you were listening to at the time? I was going to dedicate the rest of my life to just that.Ĭhris Strachwitz: I see. No, I knew that that’s what I was going to do. We had the tambourine, horns, hand drums, strap drums, all different kinds of makes of drums that the people had created themselves on this island, which we lived.Ĭhris Strachwitz: Was your ambition always been to play music or did you ever think about doing anything else? Sonny Simmons: We had all types of instruments.
This was African music.Ĭhris Strachwitz: Was it mostly drums or did you have horned instruments? It was all surrounded with music.Ĭhris Strachwitz: What kind of music was it? Was it that French stuff? They’d deal in voodoo and witchcraft and all that. All the peoples would get together and they would go into this spot, their favorite spot and they would have festivities of music and of voodoo. In fact on this island, it was a tribal-like thing on the weekends. Sonny Simmons: Yeah, they was very musical peoples. I knew that I would be dedicated then.Ĭhris Strachwitz: Did your parents play music at all? I knew then that it was the driving force inside of me which drove me to express music. I heard quite a bit of music when I was between the ages of 4 and 5.
I’ve been venturing out all over the earth all this time up until now where we at today here, discussing about this next album which we’re going to make.Ĭhris Strachwitz: Did you hear any music when you were little that you remember affected you? I was born there and I came to California when I was 10. It’s a little body of land surrounded by water, called Sicily Island, Louisiana. Sonny Simmons: Right, right off the gulf, right. Sonny Simmons: I was born August 4, 1933, in the state of Louisiana in an island called Sicily Island, Louisiana. I am what I am.Ĭhris Strachwitz: You’re self-taught, are you? You just taught you everything.
It’s an ordained divine gift which I’ve inherited and I think that’s why I am what I am today. Sonny Simmons: I can say in regards to that, that I’m not a musician by profession but by nature. How did you get into it? Where do you want to start? We have tried to correct as many as possible, but if you discover errors while listening, please send corrections to Strachwitz: Sonny Simmons, Wondering if there’s anything to begin with that you might like to say about your music. Due to the challenges of transcribing speech – especially when it contains regional accents and refers to regional places and names – some of these interview transcriptions may contain errors. A Note About the Transcriptions: In order to expedite the process of putting these interviews online, we are using a transcription service.