A.G. Mohan and Sonny Rollins

Claudia posted  A.G. Mohan's lesson on Sahanavavatu, a peace chant. Love this chant, Ramaswami taught it to us and I finish my practice with it every morning and evening (though supposedly it's one your supposed to start your studies with). Wonderful to hear the recording of Krishnamacharya chanting it in the lesson, pop over to Claudia's post Krishnamacharya Singing A Peace Invocation and have a listen.

Didn't want to steal her post but I can't help it, every time I see A. G. Mohan I'm reminded of Sonny Rollins

Sonny is a hero of mine, one of the reasons I picked up the saxophone. He's also I believe a Buddhist and famously took his second sabbatical from Jazz to practice yoga and meditation.

Yep. Sonny is a yogi.

I was lucky enough to see him in London a few years ago. He shuffled out onto stage in a suit and sneakers, slightly bent over, must have been in his late 70's. I was afraid that booking the tickets had been a mistake, that he was now too old, a shadow of his past self but then he started to play. Oh Sonny you beautiful man, he was phenomenal, his big tenor floating this way and that, it's as if he isn't holding it so much as wafting it this way and that, keeping it somehow in reach of his fingers. Big powerful sound, long improvisations, one solo went on for forty minutes, clever, coherent, inventive still.

So here he is the big man around the time I saw him



...after he came back from that second yoga sabbatical, playing Alfie here, one of the tunes I tend to test my sax repairs



and back in the day.



...back to A. G. Mohan, everyone knows about his wonderful book on Krishnamacharya right?

Amazon Link