A jazz master plays the bridge

At 28, Sonny Rollins was already a giant of modern jazz, says John Fordham in The Guardian (U.K.). Having grown up playing saxophone with Thelonious Monk in Harlem, he’d reached stardom himself by the 1950s. But in 1959, he dropped off the radar. He didn’t stop playing his sax, though. For two years, he swapped New York’s smoky jazz clubs for the fresh air atop the Williamsburg Bridge. “I knew I was dissatisfied,” says Rollins, 91. One day, “I just happened to be out walking and I saw some steps and I thought, Let’s see what’s up there. And when I got to the top, I just saw all this fantastic open space. No one was up there.” He played behind pillars where most people couldn’t see him, apart from a few crossing the bridge on foot. “And not many of them would stop to talk. I guess mostly they thought, Who’s that crazy guy?” He loved that secret getaway so much that he played there night and day, rain or shine, for up to 15 hours at a stretch. “I’d come down to go to the bathroom, or I’d go to a bar I liked where I might have a cognac, but then I’d go right back up. If it was cold, I’d play with gloves on. It was so wonderful to be so close to the sky up there, any time of year.”

Schwarzenegger’s secret son

Joseph Baena could have ended up resenting his famous father, said Andrew Heffernan in Men’s Health. The product of a 1997 affair between Arnold Schwarzenegger and his housekeeper, Baena was a 13-year-old growing up in Bakersfield, Calif., when his grandmother told him the truth. His initial reaction? “Cool!” But later that year—during Schwarzenegger’s final year as governor of California—the news became public and reporters descended on Bakersfield. “I was in the eighth grade,” he recalled. “I get called out of class to leave. And my mom’s there, and she’s like, ‘We gotta go—everyone is finding out about you and who your father is.’” After hiding out in Texas, he returned to school feeling conspicuous and self-conscious, unsure of whom to trust. But joining the swim team helped him rebuild his confidence, and around his 18th birthday, he and Schwarzenegger started working out together. “I was so nervous,” he said. “I was being observant, trying to see what he was doing.” Today, Baena, 24, is also a bodybuilder and actor with a distinct resemblance to his father. Reluctant to trade off Schwarzenegger’s reputation, he kept his last name but regularly seeks his father’s advice. “I’m happy about my relationship with my dad. But I’m more happy that I am finding joy in what I’m doing.”