Sonny Rollins Biography
One of the longest-serving jazz giants, Sonny Rollins ranks alongside his predecessors Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young in the pantheon of great tenor saxophonists. Combining Hawkins’ sonic muscle with Young’s fluid phrasing, Rollins is a flexible yet forceful improviser whose harmonically innovative ideas and powerful, charismatic sound have influenced countless players and won him his current status as jazz’s greatest contemporary saxophonist.
New York native Theodore Walter Rollins started out on piano and alto sax, before switching to tenor in his mid-teens. While in high school, he played in a band that also included future jazz greats Jackie McLean and Kenny Drew. In 1948, while still a teenager, Rollins made his recording debut with Babs Gonzales. He soon won attention in the jazz world for his recordings with J.J. Johnson, Fats Navarro, Bud Powell, Art Blakey, Tadd Dameron, Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk. In 1955, Rollins joined the legendary Max Roach-Clifford Brown Quintet, a position that would greatly enhance Rollins’ national profile.
By 1957, Rollins was recording exclusively as a leader, a status that he has maintained ever since. Such late-’50s releases as Tenor Madness (with John Coltrane), Saxophone Colossus and Way Out West established Rollins as a jazz superstar. He won acclaim for his own compositions, as well as his knack for turning even the most innocuous pop material into potent vehicles for his improvisations. He also pioneered the use of bass and drums (without piano) as accompaniment for his saxophone solos. Rollins briefly shocked the jazz world by retiring from music in 1959; during that period, he visited Japan and Indian, and studied yoga and Zen Buddhism.
Rollins returned to action with 1961’s The Bridge, the first of several albums recorded with guitarist Jim Hall. Rollins’ interest in the free jazz movement was reflected on the albums On the Outside and Our Man In Jazz, both featuring free jazz trumpeter Don Cherry. Rollins also explored Latin rhythms on What’s New, and collaborated with his hero Coleman Hawkins on Sonny Meets Hawk. Rollins recorded prolifically through the ’60s, but took another extended sabbatical from music in 1968 to study meditation and Eastern philosophy.
After he returned to music in 1971, Rollins released a series of successful albums that incorporated rock textures and R&B and funk rhythms, and played on three tracks of the Rolling Stones’ 1981 album Tattoo You. In the years since, he’s continued to record and tour, retaining his status as one of jazz’s reigning giants.
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