By Victor Stabin • The Stabin Museum
A year ago, I was listening to a radio talk show hosted by Brian Lehrer Show WNYC. The topic was renaming the Williamsburg Bridge the Sonny Rollins Bridge after the jazz saxophonist considered by many to be the greatest jazz improvisationalist of his time.
A prolific artist, Rollins produced twenty-one albums in a seven-year period starting in 1953. Between a bout of substance abuse and life on the road as a jazz musician, the saxophonist was destined to burn out. His self-imposed hiatus took him to Brooklyn, steps from the Williamsburg where he rose each day to the freedom of playing from the bridge. Between the summer of 1959 and the end of 1961, Rollins could be heard wailing on his saxophone from atop the Williamsburg Bridge for up to 16 hours a day.
In the United States, major pieces of infrastructure like bridges, tunnels and highways tend to be named after people of statewide or national political prominence such as former governors, mayors or presidents.
One of the first things I noticed when I visited Italy for the first time was the currency was designed with images of artists: Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo Da Vinci, Caravaggio, Bellini (the opera composer), Bernini (the sculptor) and more.
Before moving to Jim Thorpe in 2003, I spent my first 48 years in New York City. Since leaving, the city has been changing the names of bridges and highways to continue the trend of celebrating politicians. The 59th Street Bridge was renamed the Edward B. Koch Bridge. Koch was the mayor of New York City from 1978 to 1989 and was known for balancing the city budget, instating the “pooper scooper” law, and fighting some rather unglamorous battles with black community leaders.
When I heard the 59th Street Bridge was going to be renamed, I immediately thought it should be called the Paul Simon Bridge. Simon wrote “The 59th Street Bridge Song”- AKA Feelin’ Groovy when he was 23 years old and is an American original, a national treasure, and a nice Jewish boy from Queens.
If he was born in Italy they would probably have a city renamed after him.
The WNYC radio segment inspired me to offer my talents to the Sonny Rollins Bridge renaming project. I created two images: a portrait of Sonny with the bridge in the foreground and a Saxophone suspended over the bridge. My unique spin on the poster was influenced by my roots as a native Brooklynite, my love of jazz and a color pallet inspired by vintage fruit crate labels of the early 1950’s.
I have been listening to Sonny Rollins since I was a teen in New York City. In a way, Sonny’s break from the jazz scene in the late 50’s early 60’s to ‘woodshed’ with his sax from the Williamsburg Bridge mirrors my path in leaving NYC to move to a small PA town in the mountains to work on my artistic vision.
I really wanted Sonny to see the work, rumor had it that he lives in Woodstock NY. I called the Woodstock Postmaster and asked if it Sonny lived there. He informed me that 10,000 people live in Woodstock and he personally didn’t know who Rollins was, but assured me his carriers would know. If Sonny did not live there, they would return the posters. As a footnote, he told me the office just returned a letter to Janis Joplin.
Drumroll…
Sonny loved the posters! He signed the two and sent them back to me.
WOW!
The image of Sonny playing in front of the moon will be sold as a limited edition set of posters and the bridge in the saxophone was designed to be a T-Shirt. All profits will be put into a high school scholarship fund for jazz musicians studying at Lehigh Valley Charter Arts in Bethlehem.
All this and more are on display at the Stabin Museum located at 268 W Broadway in Jim Thorpe. Inquiries may be made at 570-325-5588.
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