Sonny Rollins, Tenor Sax Legend and Colossus of Jazz, Dies at 95
Sonny Rollins, the powerful and personal jazz tenor saxophonist whose improvisational sessions became legend and his compositions “St. Thomas,” “Oleo,” “Doxy,” “Rent-Up House” and “Airegin” standards, died Sunday. He was 95.
Rollins died at his home in Woodstock, New York, his family announced.
Widely recognized as one of the most important and influential musicians of all time, Rollins recorded 60-plus albums during his seven-decade career.
Along the way, he received a a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1972, induction into the Downbeat Jazz Hall of Fame in 1973, a Grammy for Lifetime Achievement in 2004, a Polar Music Prize in 2007, a National Medal of Arts from President Obama in 2010, Kennedy Center Honors in 2011 and the Jazz Foundation of America’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015.
Related Stories
TV
Grizz Chapman, '30 Rock' and 'The Cobbler' Actor, Dies at 52
Movies
Peter Helm, Actor in 'Inside Daisy Clover' and 'The Andromeda Strain,' Dies at 84
Rollins won two competitive Grammys, the first in 2001 for best jazz instrumental album, individual or group for This Is What I Do and the second in 2005 for best jazz instrumental solo on “Why Was I Born?,” from his live LP Without a Song: The 9/11 Concert on Milestone Records. The latter was recorded in Boston four days after the World Trade Center bombing, which Rollins witnessed from his apartment just blocks from the site of the tragedy.
Born in New York on Sept. 7, 1930, Theodore Walter Rollins grew up in Harlem, not far from the Savoy Ballroom, the Apollo Theatre and the home of his early idol, Coleman Hawkins. His parents were immigrants from the Virgin Islands.
After discovering Fats Waller and Louis Armstrong, Rollins, inspired by Louis Jordan, started on alto saxophone. But at age 16, trying to emulate Hawkins and mesmerized by bebop, he picked up the tenor sax. He began to model himself after Charlie Parker and soon came under the tutelage of Thelonious Monk.
In his Sugar Hill neighborhood, where his musical peers included Jackie McLean, Kenny Drew and Art Taylor, Rollins was the first to emerge, working and recording with the likes of Babs Gonzalez, J.J. Johnson, Bud Powell and Miles Davis before he turned 20.
In the early 1950s, Rollins reigned as the new young turk tenor on the scene, working with Miles, Monk and the Modern Jazz Quartet after serving time at Rikers Island for armed robbery and then using heroin. His artistic breakthrough came in 1954 when he recorded “Oleo,” “Airegin” (Nigeria spelled backward) and “Doxy” with a quintet led by Davis and featuring pianist Horace Silver.
He entered the Federal Medical Center in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1955, volunteering for an experimental methadone therapy that would break his heroin habit, then lived for a spell in Chicago.
Also in 1955, Rollins became a member of the Clifford Brown-Max Roach Quintet, his trademark a caustic, often playful style of melodic invention with a range of musical styles from ballads to calypso that spotlighted his gift for thematic improvisation. It was during this time that Sonny acquired the nickname “Newk,” for his resemblance to ace Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Don Newcombe.
Rollins began recording the first in a series of landmark albums under his own name in 1956. The songs “Valse Hot” introduced the now-common practice of playing bop in 3/4 time; “St. Thomas” initiated his interest in calypso; and “Blue 7” showcased his improvisatory skills.
Way Out West, from 1957, was Rollins’ first album with a trio featuring sax, double bass and drums (eliminating the piano), and it contained his inspired takes on such corny standards as “Wagon Wheels” and “I’m an Old Cowhand.”
“It Could Happen to You,” also from 1957, was the first in a series of solo recordings, while 1958’s Freedom Suite foreshadowed the political stance of jazz in the ’60s.
At the height of his fame in 1959, Rollins stepped away from performing in public for two years. “I felt I needed to brush up on various aspects of my craft,” he recalled. “I felt I was getting too much, too soon. I was going to do it my way.”
Returning to action in 1961 with The Bridge, Rollins put on live sets that showcased his marathon, epic stream-of-consciousness solos, riffing off melodies of popular songs with startling segues and dazzling variations. From 1962-66, he worked with Jim Hall, Don Cherry, Paul Bley and even his idol Hawkins, but, ever restless, he took yet another sabbatical in 1966, immersing himself in Eastern religion and yoga, specifically Zen Buddhism.
He performed in Japan and India, then signed with Milestone in 1972 for Next Album, working with Orrin Keepnews, then produced his own sessions with Lucille Rollins, his wife of 40 years and manager since 1971. She died in 2004.
His long association with Berkeley, California-based Milestone produced two dozen albums, including all-star ensembles featuring Jack DeJohnette, Stanley Clarke and Tony Williams and live recordings with label mates Ron Carter and McCoy Tyner.
In 1986, he was the subject of Robert Mugge’s documentary Saxophone Colossus, which featured an accompanying soundtrack, G-Man.
In June 2006, he was inducted into the Academy of Achievement — and gave a solo performance — at the International Achievement Summit in Los Angeles hosted by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.
Rollins released albums on his own Doxy Records label since ’06. The first on his imprint was 2001’s Grammy-nominated Sonny, Please — its title came from one of his wife’s pet phrases — his first studio recording since This Is What I Do. In 2007, he performed at Carnegie Hall to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his first performance there.
In 2008, he released Road Shows, Vol. 1, the first in a series of recordings from his audio archives. The second volume came out in 2011, featuring material recorded in Sapporo and Tokyo during a 2010 tour, as well as several tracks from his 80th birthday concert in New York, which included his first onstage encounter with Ornette Coleman on the 20-minute “Sonnymoon for Two.”
When he was saluted at the Kennedy Center, he said: “I am deeply appreciative of this great honor. In honoring me, the Kennedy Center honors jazz, America’s classical music. For that, I am very grateful.”
Rollins’ last public performance came in 2012. He moved to Woodstock in 2013 and that spring made a guest appearance on The Simpsons. A year later, he announced his retirement and was the subject of a Dutch TV documentary.
Among his last releases were volumes three and four of his Road Shows albums, which came out in spring 2016.
Survivors include his nephew, Clifton, and his nieces, Vallyn and Gabrielle. No public memorial is planned at this time.
In a 2005 New Yorker profile, jazz critic Stanley Crouch wrote of Rollins’ instrument in his hands: “With its brass body, its pearl-button keys, its mouthpiece and its cane reed, the horn becomes the vessel for the epic of Rollins’ talent and the undimmed power and lore of his jazz ancestors.”
THR Newsletters
Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day
Subscribe Sign Up
Схожі новини
Кремль залякує Україну "системними" ударами по Києву: в ISW сказали, чого добиваються росіяни
Мінімальні пенсії у червні: кому доплатять через вік та стаж
Росія атакувала інфраструктуру Полтавщини: з-під завалів дістали жінку
