By 1971, he'd come back with a renewed sense of vigor and pride and put out a string of successful records for the Milestone label that bridged the gap between the contemporary jazz and the fusion jazz of the time, the most memorable being his live date from the 1974 Montreux Jazz Festival, The Cutting Edge. Rollins struck up a working relationship with trumpeter Don Cherry recorded a handful of innovative LPs for the RCA Victor, MGM/Metro Jazz, and Impulse! labels made a record with his hero Coleman Hawkins, and left the scene again in 1968. He left the music business until 1962, when he returned with the groundbreaking, and in many ways revolutionary recording The Bridge with guitarist Jim Hall for the RCA Victor/Bluebird label. He also acquired the nickname "Newk" for his facial resemblance to Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Don Newcombe.īut between 19 he sought a less superficial, more spiritual path to the rat race of the times, visiting Japan and India, studying yoga and Zen. Pivotal albums such as Tenor Madness (with John Coltrane), Saxophone Colossus (with longstanding partner Tommy Flanagan), and Way Out West (with Ray Brown and Shelly Manne), and collaborations with the Modern Jazz Quartet, Clark Terry, and Sonny Clark firmly established Rollins as a bona fide superstar. Awards came from DownBeat and Playboy magazines, and recordings were made mainly for the Prestige and Riverside labels, but also for Verve, Blue Note, Columbia, and Contemporary Records - all these factors coincided with Rollins' steadily rising star. In 1956 Rollins made his biggest move, joining the famous ensemble of Max Roach & Clifford Brown, then formed his own legendary pianoless trio with bassist Wilbur Ware or Donald Bailey and drummer Elvin Jones or Pete La Roca in 1957, recording sessions at the Village Vanguard. Soon thereafter, Rollins quickly made the rounds with groups led by Tadd Dameron, Chicago drummer Ike Day, and Miles Davis in 1951, followed by his own recordings with Kenny Drew, Kenny Dorham, and Thelonious Monk. In 1948 he recorded with vocalist Babs Gonzales, then Bud Powell and Fats Navarro, and his first composition, "Audubon," was recorded by J.J. At age nine, he took up piano lessons but discontinued them, took up the alto saxophone in high school, and switched to tenor after high school, playing local engagements. Rollins stopped performing in public in 2012 due to respiratory issues.īorn Theodore Walter Rollins in New York City on September 7, 1930, he had an older brother who played violin. He won Grammys for 2000's This Is What I Do and 2005's Without a Song: The 9/11 Concert, and a Lifetime Achievement Award.
As one of jazz's elder statesmen in the '90s and early 21st centuries, he proved an unbreakable connection between the music's historical lineage and modernity. After returning, he had changed his style and, to a degree, his tone, as evidenced by 1978's Don't Stop the Carnival. Between 19 he went on a spiritual sojourn to Jamaica and India. Rollins retired twice early on: the first time, from 1959 through 1961 (when he practiced his horn on the Williamsburg Bridge), resulted in 1962's comeback album The Bridge. Several of his own compositions, including "Oleo" and "Doxy," are jazz standards. A year later, after Way Out West and A Night at the Village Vanguard (two pioneering pianoless trio dates), he entered a class of his own - a reputation he never relinquished. After 1956's classic Saxophone Colossus was released, he was heralded as jazz's top tenorist. Nicknamed "Newk," he served early apprenticeships with bop masters from Bud Powell and Miles Davis to Max Roach & Clifford Brown. His fluid and harmonically innovative ideas and easily accessible sound have influenced generations of players.
Sonny Rollins is the most enduring tenor saxophonist of the bebop and hard bop eras, but also one of the greatest jazz saxophonists of all time.
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