Sonny Rollins

Sonny Rollins ranks among the most lasting tenor saxophonists from the bebop and hard bop periods while also counting as one of the supreme jazz saxophonists across any era. His flowing, harmonically inventive lines and approachable tone have shaped countless musicians who followed. Known to many as “Newk,” he gained early experience alongside such bop figures as Bud Powell and Miles Davis before working with Max Roach & Clifford Brown. Once 1956’s Saxophone Colossus appeared, critics hailed him as the leading tenor voice in jazz. The following year he released Way Out West and A Night at the Village Vanguard, two groundbreaking recordings made without piano, and thereby secured a singular standing that endured for the rest of his career. Several original pieces, among them “Oleo” and “Doxy,” entered the standard repertoire.

He withdrew from performing on two occasions early in his path. The initial hiatus, stretching from 1959 to 1961, found him practicing on the Williamsburg Bridge and led to the 1962 return album The Bridge. Between 1969 and 1971 he traveled to Jamaica and India on a spiritual quest. Upon reemerging he displayed a transformed approach and, in certain respects, a different tonal character, as heard on 1978’s Don’t Stop the Carnival. Throughout the 1990s and the opening decades of the twenty-first century he served as one of jazz’s senior figures, demonstrating an unbroken link between the music’s past and its present. Grammy recognition arrived for 2000’s This Is What I Do and 2005’s Without a Song: The 9/11 Concert, along with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Respiratory difficulties prompted his final withdrawal from the stage in 2012.

Theodore Walter Rollins entered the world in New York City on September 7, 1930; an older brother played violin. Piano lessons began at age nine yet soon ended, and he took up the alto saxophone during high school before switching to tenor afterward and performing locally. In 1948 he recorded with vocalist Babs Gonzales, then with Bud Powell and Fats Navarro; his earliest composition, “Audubon,” was captured by J.J. Johnson. Shortly afterward he moved through ensembles directed by Tadd Dameron, Chicago drummer Ike Day, and Miles Davis in 1951, while also cutting his own dates with Kenny Drew, Kenny Dorham, and Thelonious Monk.

The decisive step came in 1956 when he joined the celebrated group of Max Roach & Clifford Brown, after which he assembled his own historic pianoless trio featuring bassist Wilbur Ware or Donald Bailey and drummer Elvin Jones or Pete La Roca. Those 1957 Village Vanguard sessions brought accolades from DownBeat and Playboy. Most of his work appeared on Prestige and Riverside, though sessions also surfaced on Verve, Blue Note, Columbia, and Contemporary Records, all contributing to his steadily ascending profile. Landmark albums such as Tenor Madness (with John Coltrane), Saxophone Colossus (with longtime associate Tommy Flanagan), and Way Out West (with Ray Brown and Shelly Manne), together with projects involving the Modern Jazz Quartet, Clark Terry, and Sonny Clark, cemented his status as a major figure. He earned the nickname “Newk” because of his resemblance to Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Don Newcombe.

Seeking a deeper, more spiritual route amid the commercial pressures of the period, he left the scene from 1959 to 1961, traveling to Japan and India to study yoga and Zen. He reentered the music world in 1962 with the landmark, often revolutionary album The Bridge, recorded with guitarist Jim Hall for RCA Victor/Bluebird. A collaboration with trumpeter Don Cherry followed; further innovative recordings appeared on RCA Victor, MGM/Metro Jazz, and Impulse!, including a session with his idol Coleman Hawkins. Another departure occurred in 1968. By 1971 he returned with fresh energy and produced a series of successful Milestone releases that connected contemporary jazz with the fusion currents of the era, most notably the live recording The Cutting Edge from the 1974 Montreux Jazz Festival. Blending jazz with calypso, light funk, and post-bop, Rollins revived and sustained a thriving career. He participated in the Milestone Jazz Stars tour of 1978 alongside McCoy Tyner and Ron Carter and maintained momentum as a headliner and festival favorite.

Among his strongest Milestone albums from the later phase are Easy Living, Don’t Stop the Carnival, G-Man, Old Flames, Plus Three, Global Warming, This Is What I Do, and Without a Song: The 9/11 Concert. Working bands frequently included electric bassist Bob Cranshaw, trombonist Clifton Anderson, pianists Tommy Flanagan and Stephen Scott, keyboardist Mark Soskin, guitarists Bobby Broom and Jerome Harris, percussionist Kimati Dinizulu, and drummers Jack DeJohnette, Perry Wilson, Steve Jordan, and Al Foster. He established his own imprint, Doxy, which issued Sonny, Please in 2006.

Well into his eighth decade he continued performing, with documentation appearing on the three-volume Road Show series released through Doxy and Okeh. In 2010 he received the National Medal of Arts. The next year Dick Fontaine’s documentary Beyond the Notes profiled him. Health concerns ended his public appearances in 2012. Holding the Stage, a companion to the Road Show recordings, emerged in 2016. The following year he stated that physical limitations had forced him to cease playing entirely and voiced regret that he had not fully realized his artistic goals.