Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Interview with Clifton Anderson

1999; Saint Louis University; Volume: 33; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/2901342

1945-6182

Herb Snitzer, Clifton M. Anderson,

Musicology and Musical Analysis

I met trombonist Clifton Anderson initially in Cambridge, Massachusetts; he was part of the Sonny Rollins band. I asked him if he would be open to meeting and chatting about jazz and culture, and we agreed to do this in New York City. The following exchange took place one glorious summer afternoon in 1991 in the courtyard of Lincoln Center. A Henry Moore sculpture residing behind us, like some large, quiet Buddha observing life as it moved through the courtyard, was our silent host. Snitzer: Well, we might as well begin this interview even though we're stuck in traffic on west whatever street this is, with horns blowing and cabbies cursing--a usual day in the Big Apple. So, Clifton, talk with me about your music and why you are a jazz performer. Anderson: Well, sure, but there is a lot that goes into that. Actually I started playing ... I guess you know I'm Sonny Rollins's nephew, and he really gave me my first trombone when I was seven years old. Snitzer: No, I didn't know that. Anderson: He gave me my first trombone after I went to see a movie, The Music Man, with Dick VanDyke, and there was a scene in there...seventy-six trombones lead the big parade, and I saw that and I was a kid and I immediately fell in love with the trombone, so my mother told Sonny and Sonny bought me a trombone, a little practice horn. I really didn't appreciate it at that time, and I guess I used it more against the wall. I then played drums, saxophone. I was musically inclined, but I just didn't have a focus yet, until I got into junior high school. At that point I met up with other kids, Bronx-Borough-wide, who could play the instrument, and they inspired me to take the trombone seriously. About the same time another friend of the family got me a J. J. Johnson recording, and I had never heard a trombone sound like that. I couldn't understand how he got a trombone to sound like that. At that time I also wasn't sure I really wanted to play jazz, although I listened to and enjoyed jazz and other music coming through my home. My father is an organist and my mother is a singer, so I had a lot of influences going on, and I also didn't really know the stature of Sonny. When I mentioned to people that Sonny was my uncle, they would freak out. I didn't recognize what a giant he is until I went to Music and Art High School and really started getting into jazz; there I met other young musicians that were involved with playing jazz, and as a result I started hanging out, listening to more and more of it. So the combination of Sonny and other musicians who were my peers really influenced me toward jazz. I went to a couple of Sonny's concerts at Carnegie Hall: a concert with Charles Mingus and a concert with Rufus Harley. Snitzer: Do you recall the year? Anderson: I don't really. It was years ago. I was maybe sixteen years old, maybe fourteen years old, and I went backstage and all the people were so enamored of Sonny. I could see the whole glitz and lifestyle was something I wanted to feel myself. I wanted to play music, and I wanted to be looked upon like I saw people looking at Sonny. And I also saw how the music made these people feel, and that was the most important thing for me. I recognized that everyone was so happy around Sonny. And I said, Wow, if I could do this, I would be really blessed. The interview resumed with us seated in the courtyard. Snitzer: Okay, so look, twenty-five years ago, you were eight years old; Sonny was making a lot of political music at the time. Did you recognize it as such? That was the year King was killed, Bobby Kennedy was killed, and lots of jazz musicians were upset with the whole social, cultural fabric of America. Did that intrude upon you? Anderson: Well, the Civil Rights Movement was something prominent in discussions in my home, so I was well aware of what was going on with the racial climate in the United States and around the world. …