The Colossus in the Catskills

Sonny Rollins

There’s an interesting reflection by jazz tenor saxophone titan Sonny Rollins in today’s Wall Street Journal that focuses on his move this year from bucolic Germantown across the Hudson River to Woodstock, an upstate New York town best known for its reputation as an artists' colony and being the namesake for the music festival held in nearby Bethel.

Creativity wasn’t the lure for Rollins, though it has been for many other jazz musicians who reside in the area.
It seems the 1880s farmhouse he had in Germantown for 40 years had gotten too drafty for his 82-year-old bones.

I grew up in Woodstock but we left for other family opportunities between the demise of (most) beatniks and arrival of the hippies who had equivalent impacts on the community.

 

It’s still a charming place and I miss its splendor, laid-back atmosphere and the abundance of trout fishing in so many nearby Catskill Mountains rivers and streams. The latter is something I’ll not find here in southern Florida.

Kudos to Marc Myers for putting together the WSJ’s Rollins reflection, which triggered fond memories and life’s six degrees – or less – of separation.