Walter Theodore "Sonny" Rollins (born September 7, 1930) is an American retired

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

tenor saxophonist who is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. In a seven-decade career, Rollins recorded over sixty albums as a leader. A number of his compositions, including " St. Thomas", " Oleo", " Doxy", and " Airegin", have become jazz standards. Rollins has been called "the greatest living improviser". Due to health problems, Rollins has not performed publicly since 2012 and announced his retirement in 2014.

Early life

Rollins was born in New York City to parents from the

Virgin Islands The Virgin Islands () are an archipelago between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and northeastern Caribbean Sea, geographically forming part of the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean, Caribbean islands or West Indie ...

. The youngest of three siblings, he grew up in central

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater ...

and on Sugar Hill, receiving his first alto saxophone at the age of seven or eight. He attended Edward W. Stitt Junior High School and graduated from Benjamin Franklin High School in East Harlem. Rollins started as a pianist, then switched to

alto saxophone The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgians, Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in the key of E♭ ( ...

after being inspired by

Louis Jordan Louis Thomas Jordan (July 8, 1908 – February 4, 1975) was an American saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and bandleader who was popular from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as "Honorific nicknames in popular music, the King ...

and finally switched to

tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (whi ...

in 1946, influenced by his idol Coleman Hawkins. During his high school years, he played in a band with other future jazz legends Jackie McLean, Kenny Drew, and Art Taylor.

Later life and career

1949–1956

After graduating from high school in 1948, Rollins began performing professionally; he made his first recordings in early 1949 as a sideman with the bebop singer Babs Gonzales (trombonist J. J. Johnson was the arranger of the group). Within the next few months, he began to make a name for himself, recording with Johnson and appearing under the leadership of pianist Bud Powell, alongside trumpeter Fats Navarro and drummer Roy Haynes, on a seminal " hard bop" session. In early 1950, Rollins was arrested for armed robbery and spent ten months in Rikers Island jail before being released on parole; in 1952, he was re-arrested for violating the terms of his parole by using heroin. Between 1951 and 1953, he recorded with

Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th century music, 20th-century music. Davis ado ...

, the Modern Jazz Quartet,

Charlie Parker Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz Saxophone, saxophonist, bandleader, and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of beb ...

, and Thelonious Monk. A breakthrough arrived in 1954 when he recorded his famous compositions "Oleo", "Airegin", and "Doxy" with a quintet led by Davis that also featured pianist Horace Silver, these recordings appearing on the album '' Miles Davis with Sonny Rollins''. In 1955, Rollins entered the Federal Medical Center, Lexington. While there, he volunteered for then-experimental methadone therapy and was able to break his heroin habit, after which he lived for a time in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, briefly rooming with the trumpeter Booker Little. Rollins initially feared sobriety would impair his musicianship, but then went on to greater success. Rollins briefly joined the Miles Davis Quintet in the summer of 1955. Later that year, he joined the Clifford Brown– Max Roach quintet; studio albums '' Clifford Brown and Max Roach at Basin Street'' and '' Sonny Rollins Plus 4'' document his time in that band. After the deaths of Brown and band pianist Richie Powell in a June 1956 automobile accident, Rollins continued playing with Roach and began releasing albums under his own name on Prestige Records, Blue Note, Riverside, and the Los Angeles label Contemporary. His widely acclaimed album '' Saxophone Colossus'' was recorded on June 22, 1956, at Rudy Van Gelder's studio in New Jersey, with Tommy Flanagan on piano, former Jazz Messengers bassist Doug Watkins, and his favorite drummer, Roach. This was Rollins's sixth recording as a leader and it included his best-known composition " St. Thomas", a Caribbean calypso based on "Hold Him Joe" a tune sung to him by his mother in his childhood, as well as the fast bebop number "Strode Rode", and "Moritat" (the Kurt Weill composition also known as " Mack the Knife"). A long blues solo on '' Saxophone Colossus'', "Blue 7", was analyzed in depth by the composer and critic Gunther Schuller in a 1958 article. In the solo for "St. Thomas", Rollins uses repetition of a rhythmic pattern, and variations of that pattern, covering only a few tones in a tight range, and employing

staccato Staccato (; Italian for "detached") is a form of Articulation (music), musical articulation. In modern notation, it signifies a note of shortened duration, separated from the note that may follow by silence. It has been described by theorists and ...

and semi-detached notes. This is interrupted by a sudden flourish, utilizing a much wider range before returning to the former pattern. (Listen to the music sample.) In his book ''The Jazz Style of Sonny Rollins'', David N. Baker explains that Rollins "very often uses rhythm for its own sake. He will sometimes improvise on a rhythmic pattern instead of on the melody or changes." Ever since recording "St. Thomas", Rollins's use of calypso rhythms has been one of his signature contributions to jazz; he often performs traditional Caribbean tunes such as "Hold 'Em Joe" and "Don't Stop the Carnival", and he has written many original calypso-influenced compositions, such as "Duke of Iron", "The Everywhere Calypso", and "Global Warming". In 1956, he recorded '' Tenor Madness'', using Davis's group – pianist

Red Garland William McKinley "Red" Garland Jr. (May 13, 1923 – April 23, 1984) was an American modern jazz pianist. Known for his work as a bandleader and during the 1950s with Miles Davis, Garland helped popularize the block chord style of playing in jazz ...

, bassist

Paul Chambers Paul Laurence Dunbar Chambers Jr. (April 22, 1935 – January 4, 1969) was an American jazz double bassist. A fixture of rhythm sections during the 1950s and 1960s, he has become one of the most widely-known jazz bassists of the hard bop er ...

, and drummer

Philly Joe Jones Joseph Rudolph "Philly Joe" Jones (July 15, 1923 – August 30, 1985) was an American Jazz drumming, jazz drummer. Biography Early career As a child, Jones appeared as a featured tap dancer on ''The Kiddie Show'' on the Philadelphia radio stat ...

. The title track is the only recording of Rollins with

John Coltrane John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the Jazz#Post-war jazz, history of jazz and 20th-century musi ...

, who was also a member of Davis's group. At the end of the year Rollins appeared as a sideman on Thelonious Monk's album '' Brilliant Corners'' and also recorded his own first album for Blue Note Records, entitled '' Sonny Rollins, Volume One'', with Donald Byrd on trumpet, Wynton Kelly on piano, Gene Ramey on bass, and Roach on drums.

1957–spring 1959

In 1957, he married his first wife, actress and model Dawn Finney. That year, Rollins pioneered the use of bass and drums, without piano, as accompaniment for his saxophone solos,Ratliff, Ben. "Sonny Rollins Strips for Action." ''The New York Times,'' Late Edition (East Coast). September 16, 2007. ''ProQuest.'' August 13, 2014. a texture that came to be known as "strolling". Two early tenor/bass/drums trio recordings are '' Way Out West'' and '' A Night at the Village Vanguard'', both recorded in 1957. ''Way Out West'' was so named because it was recorded for California-based Contemporary Records (with Los Angeles drummer Shelly Manne), and because it included country and western songs such as " Wagon Wheels" and " I'm an Old Cowhand". The Village Vanguard album consists of two sets, a matinee with bassist Donald Bailey and drummer Pete LaRoca and an evening set with bassist Wilbur Ware and drummer

Elvin Jones Elvin Ray Jones (September 9, 1927 – May 18, 2004) was an American jazz drummer of the post-bop era. Most famously a member of John Coltrane's quartet, with whom he recorded from late 1960 to late 1965, Jones appeared on such albums as ''My Fa ...

. Rollins used the trio format intermittently throughout his career, sometimes taking the unusual step of using his sax as a rhythm section instrument during bass and drum solos. Lew Tabackin cited Rollins's pianoless trio as an inspiration to lead his own. Joe Henderson, David S. Ware, Joe Lovano, Branford Marsalis, and Joshua Redman led pianoless sax trios. While in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

in 1957, Rollins met alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman and the two of them practiced together. Coleman, a pioneer of

free jazz Free jazz, or free form in the early to mid-1970s, is a style of avant-garde jazz or an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventi ...

, stopped using a pianist in his own band two years later. By this time, Rollins had become well-known for improvising based on relatively banal or unconventional songs (such as " There's No Business Like Show Business" on '' Work Time'', " Toot, Toot, Tootsie" on '' The Sound of Sonny'', and later " Sweet Leilani" on the Grammy-winning album '' This Is What I Do''). Rollins acquired the nickname "Newk" because of his facial resemblance to Brooklyn Dodgers star pitcher Don Newcombe. In 1957, he made his

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...

debut and recorded again for Blue Note with Johnson on trombone, Horace Silver or Monk on piano and drummer Art Blakey (released as '' Sonny Rollins, Volume Two''). That December, he and fellow tenor saxophonist

Sonny Stitt Sonny Stitt (born Edward Hammond Boatner Jr.; February 2, 1924 – July 22, 1982) was an American jazz saxophonist of the bebop/hard bop idiom. Known for his warm tone, he was one of the best-documented saxophonists of his era, recording over ...

were featured together on

Dizzy Gillespie John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie ( ; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improvisation, improviser, building on the virtuosic style of Roy El ...

's album '' Sonny Side Up''. In 1958, he appeared in Art Kane's '' A Great Day in Harlem'' photograph of jazz musicians in New York; he is the last surviving musician from the photo. The same year, Rollins recorded another landmark piece for saxophone, bass and drums trio: '' Freedom Suite''. His original sleeve notes said, "How ironic that the Negro, who more than any other people can claim America's culture as his own, is being persecuted and repressed; that the Negro, who has exemplified the humanities in his very existence, is being rewarded with inhumanity." The title track is a nineteen-minute improvised bluesy suite; the other side of the album features hard bop workouts of popular show tunes. Oscar Pettiford and Max Roach provided bass and drums, respectively. The LP was available only briefly in its original form, before the record company repackaged it as ''Shadow Waltz'', the title of another piece on the record. Following '' Sonny Rollins and the Big Brass'' (''Sonny Rollins Brass/Sonny Rollins Trio''), Rollins made one more studio album in 1958, '' Sonny Rollins and the Contemporary Leaders'', before taking a three-year break from recording. This was a session for Contemporary Records and saw Rollins recording an esoteric mixture of tunes including " Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody" with a West Coast group made up of pianist Hampton Hawes, guitarist Barney Kessel, bassist Leroy Vinnegar and drummer Shelly Manne. In 1959 he toured Europe for the first time, performing in Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, and France.

Summer 1959–fall 1961: The Bridge

By 1959, Rollins had become frustrated with what he perceived as his own musical limitations and took the first – and most famous – of his musical sabbaticals. While living on the

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Historically, it w ...

of Manhattan, he ventured to the pedestrian walkway of the Williamsburg Bridge to practice, in order to avoid disturbing a neighboring expectant mother. Today, a fifteen-story apartment building named "The Rollins" stands on the Grand Street site where he lived. Almost every day from the summer of 1959 through the end of 1961, Rollins practiced on the bridge, next to the subway tracks. Rollins admitted that he would often practice for 15 or 16 hours a day, no matter what season. In the summer of 1961, the journalist Ralph Berton happened to pass by the saxophonist on the bridge one day and published an article in '' Metronome'' magazine about the occurrence. During this period, Rollins became a dedicated practitioner of

yoga Yoga (UK: , US: ; 'yoga' ; ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines that originated with its own philosophy in ancient India, aimed at controlling body and mind to attain various salvation goals, as pra ...

. Rollins ended his sabbatical in November 1961. He later said "I could have probably spent the rest of my life just going up on the bridge. I realized, no, I have to get back into the real world." In 2016, a campaign was initiated that seeks to have the bridge renamed in Rollins's honor.

Winter 1961–1969: Musical explorations

In November 1961, Rollins returned to the jazz scene with a residency at the Jazz Gallery in

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village, or simply the Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the north, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the s ...

; in March, 1962, he appeared on Ralph Gleason's television series '' Jazz Casual''. During the 1960s, he lived on Willoughby Street in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, New York. He named his 1962 "comeback" album '' The Bridge'' at the start of a contract with RCA Victor. Produced by George Avakian, the disc was recorded with a quartet featuring guitarist Jim Hall, Ben Riley on drums, and bassist Bob Cranshaw. This became one of Rollins's best-selling records; in 2015 it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Rollins's contract with RCA Victor lasted through 1964. Each album he recorded differed radically from the previous one. The 1962 disc '' What's New?'' explored Latin rhythms. On the album '' Our Man in Jazz,'' recorded live at The Village Gate, he explored avant-garde playing with a quartet that featured Cranshaw on bass, Billy Higgins on drums and Don Cherry on cornet. He also played with a tenor saxophone hero, Coleman Hawkins, and free jazz pianist

Paul Bley Paul Bley, Order of Canada, CM (November 10, 1932 – January 3, 2016) was a Canadian jazz pianist known for his contributions to the free jazz movement of the 1960s as well as his innovations and influence on trio playing and his early live per ...

on '' Sonny Meets Hawk!'', and he re-examined jazz standards and Great American Songbook melodies on '' Now's the Time'' and '' The Standard Sonny Rollins'' (which featured pianist

Herbie Hancock Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American jazz musician, bandleader, and composer. He started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. Hancock soon joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he helped to redefine the role of ...

). In 1963, he made the first of many tours of Japan. In 1965, he married Lucille Pearson, born on July 25, 1928, in Kansas City, Missouri. She eventually became his very effective manager/producer. They moved (partially, then completely) from New York City to Germantown, New York, where she died November 27, 2004. In 2007, recordings from a 1965 residency at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club were released by the Harkit label as ''Live in London''; they offer a very different picture of Rollins's playing from the studio albums of the period. (These are unauthorized releases, and Rollins has responded by "bootlegging" them himself and releasing them on his website.) Upon signing with Impulse! Records, he released a soundtrack to the 1966 film '' Alfie,'' as well as '' There Will Never Be Another You'' and '' Sonny Rollins on Impulse!'' After '' East Broadway Run Down'' (1966), which featured trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, bassist Jimmy Garrison, and drummer

, Rollins did not release another studio album for six years. In 1968, he was the subject of a television documentary (in the series Creative Persons), directed by Dick Fontaine, entitled ''Who is Sonny Rollins?''

1969–1971: Second sabbatical

In 1969, Rollins took another two-year sabbatical from public performance. During this hiatus period, he visited

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

for the first time and spent several months studying

, meditation, and Eastern philosophies at an

ashram An ashram (, ) is a spiritual hermitage or a monastery in Indian religions, not including Buddhism. Etymology The Sanskrit noun is a thematic nominal derivative from the root 'toil' (< Powai, India, a district of

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

1971–2000

He returned from his second sabbatical with a performance in Kongsberg, Norway, in 1971. Reviewing a March 1972 performance at New York's Village Vanguard night club, ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'' critic Whitney Balliett wrote that Rollins "had changed again. He had become a whirlwind. His runs roared, and there were jarring staccato passages and furious double-time spurts. He seemed to be shouting and gesticulating on his horn, as if he were waving his audience into battle." The same year, he released '' Next Album'' and moved to Germantown, New York. Also in 1972, he was awarded a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

in composition. During the 1970s and 1980s, he also became drawn to R&B, pop, and

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

rhythms. Some of his bands during this period featured electric guitar, electric bass, and usually more pop- or funk-oriented drummers. In 1974, Rollins added jazz bagpiper Rufus Harley to his band; the group was filmed performing live at Ronnie Scott's in London. For most of this period Rollins was recorded by producer Orrin Keepnews for Milestone Records (the compilation ''Silver City: A Celebration of 25 Years on Milestone'' contains a selection from these years). In 1978 he, McCoy Tyner, Ron Carter, and Al Foster toured together as the Milestone Jazzstars. In June of that year he joined many other major jazz artists in a performance for President

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...

on the South Lawn of the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

. It was also during this period that Rollins's passion for unaccompanied saxophone solos came to the forefront. In 1979 he played unaccompanied on '' The Tonight Show'' and in 1985 he released '' The Solo Album'', recorded live at the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

in New York. He also frequently played long, extemporaneous unaccompanied cadenzas during performances with his band; a prime example is his introduction to the tune "Autumn Nocturne" on the 1978 album '' Don't Stop the Carnival''. By the 1980s, Rollins had stopped playing small nightclubs and was appearing mainly in concert halls or outdoor arenas; through the late 1990s he occasionally performed at large New York rock clubs such as Tramps and The Bottom Line. He added (uncredited) sax improvisations to three tracks by the Rolling Stones for their 1981 album '' Tattoo You'', including the single, " Waiting on a Friend" and the long jam "

Slave Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

". That November, he led a saxophone masterclass on French television. In 1983, he was honored as a "Jazz Master" by the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1986, documentary filmmaker Robert Mugge released a film titled ''Saxophone Colossus''. It featured two Rollins performances: a quintet concert at Opus 40 in upstate New York and a performance with the

Yomiuri Shimbun The is a Japanese newspaper published in Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, Fukuoka, Fukuoka, and other major Japanese cities. It is one of the five major newspapers in Japan; the other four are ''The Asahi Shimbun'', the ''Chunichi Shimbun'', the ''Ma ...

Orchestra in Japan of his ''Concerto for Saxophone and Symphony'', a work composed in collaboration with the Finnish pianist and composer Heikki Sarmanto. In 1993, the Sonny Rollins International Jazz Archives opened at the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...

. New York City Hall proclaimed November 13, 1995, to be "Sonny Rollins Day". Several days later, Rollins gave a performance at New York City's Beacon Theatre that reunited him with musicians with whom he played as a teenager, including McLean, Walter Bishop Jr., Percy Heath, Connie Henry, and Gil Coggins. In 1997, he was voted "Jazz Artist of the Year" in the '' Down Beat'' magazine critics' poll. The following year, Rollins, a dedicated advocate of

environmentalism Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology, and social movement about supporting life, habitats, and surroundings. While environmentalism focuses more on the environmental and nature-related aspects of green ideology and politics, ecolog ...

, released an album entitled ''

Global Warming Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes ...

''.

2001–2012

Critics such as Gary Giddins and Stanley Crouch have noted the disparity between Rollins the recording artist, and Rollins the concert artist. In a May 2005 '' New Yorker'' profile, Crouch wrote of Rollins the concert artist: Rollins won a 2001 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album for '' This Is What I Do'' (2000).GRAMMY Award Winners
''Grammy.com'', accessed September 29, 2009 On September 11, 2001, the 71-year-old Rollins, who lived several blocks away, heard the World Trade Center collapse, and was forced to evacuate his

Greenwich Street Greenwich Street is a north–south street in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan. It extends from the intersection of Ninth Avenue (Manhattan), Ninth Avenue and Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District, Manha ...

apartment, with only his saxophone in hand. Although he was shaken, he traveled to

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

five days later to play a concert at the Berklee School of Music. The live recording of that performance was released on CD in 2005 as '' Without a Song: The 9/11 Concert'', which won the 2006 Grammy for Jazz Instrumental Solo for Rollins's performance of " Why Was I Born?" Rollins was presented with a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement in 2004; that year also saw the death of his wife, Lucille. In 2006, Rollins went on to complete a Down Beat Readers Poll triple win for: "Jazzman of the Year", "#1 Tenor Sax Player", and "Recording of the Year" for the CD '' Without a Song: The 9/11 Concert''. The band that year featured his nephew, trombonist Clifton Anderson, and included bassist Cranshaw, pianist Stephen Scott, percussionist Kimati Dinizulu, and drummer Perry Wilson. Sonny Rollins at Stockholm Jazz Fest 2009

Sonny Rollins at Stockholm Jazz Fest 2009

After a successful Japanese tour Rollins returned to the recording studio for the first time in five years to record the Grammy-nominated CD '' Sonny, Please'' (2006). The CD title is derived from one of his wife's favorite phrases. The album was released on Rollins's own label, Doxy Records, following his departure from Milestone Records after many years and was produced by Anderson. Rollins's band at this time, and on this album, included Cranshaw, guitarist Bobby Broom, drummer Steve Jordan and Dinizulu. During these years, Rollins regularly toured worldwide, playing major venues throughout Europe, South America, the Far East, and Australasia; he is estimated to have sometimes earned as much as $100,000 per performance. On September 18, 2007, he performed at

in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of his first performance there. Appearing with him were Anderson (trombone), Bobby Broom (guitar), Cranshaw (bass), Dinizulu (percussion), Roy Haynes (drums) and Christian McBride (bass). Around 2000, Rollins began recording many of his live performances; since then, he has archived recordings of over two hundred and fifty concerts. To date, four albums have been released from these archives on Doxy Records and Okeh Records: '' Road Shows, Vol. 1''; ''Road Shows, Vol. 2'' (with four tracks documenting his 80th birthday concert, which included Rollins's first ever recorded appearance with Ornette Coleman on the twenty-minute "Sonnymoon for Two"); ''Road Shows, Vol. 3''; and ''Holding the Stage'', released in April 2016. In 2010 Rollins was awarded the

National Medal of Arts The National Medal of Arts is an award and title created by the United States Congress in 1984, for the purpose of honoring artists and Patronage, patrons of the arts. A prestigious American honor, it is the highest honor given to artists and ar ...

and the Edward MacDowell Medal; in the fall of the same year he celebrated his 80th birthday with a concert at New York's Beacon Theatre that included a guest appearance by Ornette Coleman. The following year he was the subject of another documentary by Dick Fontaine, entitled ''Beyond the Notes''. Rollins has not performed in public since 2012, and retired in 2014, due to recurring respiratory issues caused by pulmonary fibrosis.

2013–present

In 2013, Rollins moved to Woodstock, New York. That spring, he made a guest television appearance on ''

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening, James L. Brooks and Sam Simon for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It is a Satire (film and television), satirical depiction of American life ...

'' in " Whiskey Business" and received an honorary Doctor of Music degree from the

Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a Private university, private performing arts music school, conservatory in New York City. Founded by Frank Damrosch as the Institute of Musical Art in 1905, the school later added dance and drama programs and became ...

in New York City. In 2014 he was the subject of a Dutch television documentary entitled ''Sonny Rollins-Morgen Speel Ik Beter'' (transl: ''Tomorrow I'll Play Better''). He made a public appearance in June of that year introducing saxophonist Ornette Coleman at an all-star tribute performance to Coleman in Brooklyn, NY. In October 2015, he received the Jazz Foundation of America's lifetime achievement award. In the spring of 2017, Rollins donated his personal archive to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, one of the research centers of

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second-largest public library in the United States behind the Library of Congress a ...

. Later that year, he endowed the "Sonny Rollins Jazz Ensemble Fund" at

Oberlin College Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1833, it is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational lib ...

, in "recognition of the institution's long legacy of access and social justice advocacy." In February 2023, Rollins sold his music catalogue to Reservoir Media. In April 2024 ''The Notebooks of Sonny Rollins'' was published, derived from notebooks he maintained from 1959 onwards.

Artistry and influences

Rollins' tone has been described as "biting and clear." As a saxophonist he had initially been attracted to the jump and R&B sounds of performers like

, but soon became drawn into the mainstream tenor saxophone tradition. The German critic Joachim-Ernst Berendt described this tradition as sitting between the two poles of the strong sonority of Coleman Hawkins and the light flexible phrasing of

Lester Young Lester Willis Young (August 27, 1909 – March 15, 1959), nicknamed "Pres" or "Prez", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and occasional clarinetist. Coming to prominence while a member of Count Basie's orchestra, Young was one of the most i ...

, which did so much to inspire the fleet improvisation of

bebop Bebop or bop is a style of jazz developed in the early to mid-1940s in the United States. The style features compositions characterized by a fast tempo (usually exceeding 200 bpm), complex chord progressions with rapid chord changes and numerou ...

in the 1950s. Other tenor saxophone influences include

Ben Webster Benjamin Francis Webster (March 27, 1909 – September 20, 1973) was an American jazz tenor Saxophone, saxophonist. He performed in the United States and Europe and made many recordings with Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Johnny Hodges, a ...

and

Don Byas Carlos Wesley "Don" Byas (October 21, 1912 – August 24, 1972) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, associated with swing and bebop. He played with Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Art Blakey, and Dizzy Gillespie, among others, and also l ...

. By his mid-teens, Rollins became heavily influenced by alto saxophonist

. During his high school years, he was mentored by the pianist and composer Thelonious Monk, often rehearsing at Monk's apartment.

Instruments

Rollins has played, at various times, a Selmer Mark VI tenor saxophone and a Buescher Aristocrat. During the 1970s he recorded on soprano saxophone for the album '' Easy Living''. His preferred mouthpieces are made by Otto Link and Berg Larsen. He uses Frederick Hemke medium reeds.

Discography

Decorations and awards

* Elected to the '' Down Beat'' Jazz Hall of Fame (1973) * Honorary Doctor of Arts from Bard College (1992) * Honorary Doctor of Music from

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the Methodi ...

(1998) * Honorary Doctor of Music from Long Island University (1998) * Honorary Doctor of Music from

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

(1999) * Honorary Doctor of Music from New England Conservatory of Music (2002) * Honorary Doctor of Music from

Berklee College of Music Berklee College of Music () is a Private university, private music college in Boston, Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern Music of the United ...

(2003) *

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

for lifetime achievement (2004) * Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement presented by Awards Council member Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (2006) *

Minneapolis, Minnesota Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

officially named October 31, 2006 after Rollins in honor of his achievements and contributions to the world of jazz * Polar Music Prize "for over 50 years one of the most powerful and personal voices in jazz" (2007) * Honorary Doctor of Music from Colby College(2007) * Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class (2009) * Honorary Doctor of Music from

Rutgers University Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...

(2009) *

(2010) * Miles Davis Award at the Montreal Jazz Festival (2010) * Elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

(2010) * Edward MacDowell Medal (2010) *

Kennedy Center Honors The Kennedy Center Honors are annual honors given to those in the performing arts for their lifetime of contributions to Culture of the United States, American culture. They have been presented annually since 1978, culminating each December in ...

on his 81st birthday (September 7, 2011) * Honorary Doctor of Music from the Juilliard School (May 2013)"7 to Be Presented With Honorary Degrees"

. Retrieved September 14, 2013. *Honorary Doctor of Music from the University of Hartford (2015)Steinberger, Barbara (April 20, 2015
"Commencement Speakers Will Bring a Global Perspective"
Unotes Daily.

References

External links

*
Sonny Rollins Biography and Interview on American Academy of AchievementDetailed Discography at Jazzdisco.orgSonny Rollins papers, 1910s-2015
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library.
Sonny Rollins audiovisual collection from his personal holdings
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library. {{DEFAULTSORT:Rollins, Sonny 1930 births Living people African-American jazz composers African-American woodwind musicians American jazz bandleaders American jazz tenor saxophonists American male saxophonists American people of United States Virgin Islands descent Bebop saxophonists Blue Note Records artists Contemporary Records artists Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Hard bop saxophonists Impulse! Records artists Kennedy Center honorees Milestone Records artists Jazz musicians from New York City Prestige Records artists Recipients of the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class RCA Victor artists United States National Medal of Arts recipients Verve Records artists 21st-century American saxophonists American male jazz composers American jazz composers Miles Davis Quintet members Okeh Records artists EmArcy Records artists 20th-century American saxophonists DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame members NEA Jazz Masters