Rollins is a revered figure in the jazz world, known for his improvisational skills and influence, ranking alongside greats such as John Coltrane and Charlie Parker.
NEW YORK — Tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins, an insatiable genius whose bold, unique tone and constant experimentation kept him at the forefront of jazz for more than 50 years, died Monday at age 95.
Rollins died at her home in Woodstock, New York, spokesperson Terri Hinte told The Associated Press. She did not mention a specific cause of death but said he had spent much of the past few years at home due to various medical issues.
From his early days as a teenage prodigy to his more measured solo works and free jazz experiments, Rollins was revered for his improvisational skills. He is one of the last great saxophonists of the bebop era and, along with John Coltrane and Charlie Parker, one of the most influential saxophonists of his era.
Rock fans were introduced to his music on the Rolling Stones’ 1981 album Tattoo You, which featured Rollins’ wistful saxophone solo in the ballad “Waiting on a Friend,” which he wrote after watching Mick Jagger dance.
Despite his lasting success, Rollins was never satisfied with his art, occasionally taking long breaks from playing and constantly adopting eclectic new styles.
He always refers to himself as “a work in progress” and says he’s not one of those artists who focuses on just one way of playing.
While his early bebop work was most popular with fans, Rollins never looked back, saying that even listening to the flaws on his older recordings was “unbearable.”
“I don’t consider myself a musician who has learned as much as I want to learn,” he told The Associated Press in 2007.
achieve immortality
During the 1990s and 2000s, Rollins released a series of critically acclaimed albums. He maintained a rigorous practice regimen and continued touring into his 80s. Pulmonary fibrosis (thickening and damage to the lungs) eventually forced him to retire. He gave his last concert in 2012 and stopped playing altogether in 2014.
While he misses the adoration of the crowd, he misses the actual competition even more.
In 2020, he told The New York Times: “I had done a couple of concerts in the open air earlier in the afternoon. I was able to look up to the sky and feel a communion; I felt like I was part of something. Not a crowd. But something bigger.”
His 2001 album “This is What I Do” earned him a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album. In 2006, he won the Best Jazz Instrumental Solo Award again for “Why Was I Born?”
“Why Was I Born” is included on the album Without a Song: The 9/11 Concert, a live recording of a show in Boston four days after the September 11 attacks. Rollins evacuated his apartment a few blocks from Ground Zero and, at the urging of his wife and manager, Lucille, continued to perform concerts. She died in 2004.
His survivors include nephew Clifton Anderson and nieces Vallyn Anderson and Gabrielle DeGroat.
Meet the greats
Rollins got his first big break as a teenager when he was asked to join Thelonious Monk’s band. He was soon jamming with Miles Davis and Bud Powell, who introduced him to the recording world before he even graduated from high school.
But like many jazz musicians of the late 1940s and early 1950s, Rollins’ rising star was all but eclipsed when he took heroin at age 19. As his drug addiction worsened, Rollins was imprisoned twice — for 10 months in 1950 and three months in 1953 — and eventually found himself living on the streets of Chicago. In 1954, Rollins was admitted to a hospital in Lexington, Kentucky for medical treatment.
When he was detoxing from drugs, he left with a spiritual awakening.
“I started to have a deeper appreciation for life,” he told The Associated Press in 2007. “That’s when my consciousness awakened.”
After his discharge, he returned to Chicago and signed as a member of the Max Roach-Clifford Brown Quintet. In 1956, he recorded his solo album “Saxophone Colossus”. His spare, hard-bop sound announced his status as one of jazz’s top saxophonists and remains one of his most influential works.
Over the next two years, Rollins took a different approach, switching to a piano-less trio on three more landmark albums: “Way Out West,” “A Night at the Village Vanguard” and “Freedom Suite.”
Then, at the height of his popularity, Rollins fell into seclusion, spending the next two years practicing alone in a lonely alcove on the sidewalk of the Williamsburg Bridge over the East River.
“The thing I’m most proud of in my career is my ability to rise above things like popularity,” he told The Associated Press in 2007, “and do what my heart told me to do.”
During his absence, jazz shifted from the fast-paced, tightly woven bebop music to the more frenetic and chaotic free jazz. When Rollins chose to return to singing in 1961, he embraced a new sound, a move that divided his fans. In the mid-Sixties, Rollins toured Europe, switching back and forth between traditional and avant-garde styles. He contributed original music to the soundtrack of the 1966 British film Alfie, which made Michael Caine a star.
It was during a trip to Japan that Rollins discovered Zen Buddhism, which triggered another lengthy sabbatical that lasted until the early 1970s.
a living legend
He was now considered a legend and gained mainstream recognition when he chose to record again in 1972. That year he received a Guggenheim Fellowship and the following year was inducted into the Pessimism Hall of Fame. He appeared on “The Tonight Show” and began playing in concert halls instead of nightclubs.
Theodore Walter Rollins was born on September 7, 1930 in Harlem into a musical family. His father, a Navy petty officer, played the clarinet, his sister played the piano, and his brother was a violinist.
When he was 8, his parents insisted that he take piano lessons, but, as he recalls, “it didn’t work out.” Instead, he said, he would rather play baseball outside. But by the age of 11, Rollins was fascinated by the saxophone and convinced his parents to buy him one – an alto.
He struggled to afford lessons and was largely self-taught, but Rollins quickly became an all-star, switching to tenor saxophone and playing in clubs at night.
He left behind many unreleased recordings and said he had no intention of leaving instructions on what to do with them.
“I’m not going to have any say in what’s going on after I leave this planet, so I’m not worried about that,” he told The New York Times in 2020. “And, gosh, I struggle with my music; I don’t have to struggle with it anymore. Thank God.”
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