deathmtn

Sonny was no threat to anyone—especially other musicians—he never threatened to become “successful.”

Sonny was a genius. He turned us on to Bird and Diz. But he was weird—and for a while, a vegetarian. None of us had seen anything like that before. There was nothing in which Sonny was average.

Once when Duke Ellington was in town, Sonny took his book of arrangements backstage to show him. They talked for over an hour,
Ellington gracious and regal in his black silk dressing gown. At one point the Duke pulled out his own arrangements. He saw that Ellington also used dissonance in his writing, only it never seemed dissonant. Sonny was thrilled to see his own ideas confirmed.

I couldn’t explain it. My people kept saying, “Why are you unhappy? You never seem to be happy.” And that was true. I had this touch of sadness in the midst of other people’s parties; other people were having a good time, but I would have a moment of loneliness and sadness. It puzzled me, therefore I had to analyze that, and I decided I was different, that’s all. I must have come from somewhere else. I wasn’t just born; I had been somewhere before I was born.

I’m not a human. I never called anybody “mother.” The woman who’s supposed to be my mother I call “other momma.” I never call anybody
“mother.” I never called anybody “father.” I never felt that way.