{"id":729612,"date":"2026-05-26T11:15:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T08:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/sonny-rollins-tenor-sax-legend-and-colossus-of-jazz-dies-at-95\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T11:15:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T08:15:15","slug":"sonny-rollins-tenor-sax-legend-and-colossus-of-jazz-dies-at-95","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/sonny-rollins-tenor-sax-legend-and-colossus-of-jazz-dies-at-95\/","title":{"rendered":"Sonny Rollins, Tenor Sax Legend and Colossus of Jazz, Dies at 95"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tSonny Rollins, the powerful and personal jazz tenor saxophonist whose improvisational sessions became legend and his compositions \u201cSt. Thomas,\u201d \u201cOleo,\u201d \u201cDoxy,\u201d \u201cRent-Up House\u201d and \u201cAiregin\u201d standards, died Monday. He was 95.<\/p>\n

\n\tRollins died at his home in Woodstock, New York, his family announced<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tWidely recognized as one of the most important and influential musicians of all time, Rollins recorded 60-plus albums during his seven-decade career.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlong 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\u2019s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015.<\/p>\n

\n\tRollins won two competitive Grammys, the first in 2001 for best jazz instrumental album, individual or group for This Is What I Do <\/em>and the second in 2005 for best jazz instrumental solo on \u201cWhy Was I Born?,\u201d from his live LP Without a Song: The 9\/11 Concert <\/em>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.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBorn 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. <\/p>\n

\n\tAfter 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.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn 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.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn 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 \u201cOleo,\u201d \u201cAiregin\u201d (Nigeria spelled backward) and \u201cDoxy\u201d with a quintet led by Davis and featuring pianist Horace Silver.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe 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.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlso 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 \u201cNewk,\u201d for his resemblance to ace Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Don Newcombe.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tSonny Rollins performed at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in 1977.<\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tChuck Fishman\/Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tRollins began recording the first in a series<\/a> of landmark albums under his own name in 1956. The songs \u201cValse Hot\u201d introduced the now-common practice of playing bop in 3\/4 time; \u201cSt. Thomas\u201d initiated his interest in calypso; and \u201cBlue 7\u201d showcased his improvisatory skills.<\/p>\n

\n\tWay Out West<\/em>, from 1957, was Rollins\u2019 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 \u201cWagon Wheels\u201d and \u201cI\u2019m an Old Cowhand.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt Could Happ<\/a>en to You,\u201d also from 1957, was the first in a series of solo recordings, while 1958\u2019s Freedom Suite<\/em> foreshadowed the political stance of jazz in the \u201960s.<\/p>\n

\n\tAt the height of his fame in 1959, Rollins stepped away from performing in public for two years. \u201cI felt I needed to brush up on various aspects of my craft,\u201d he recalled. \u201cI felt I was getting too much, too soon. I was going to do it my way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tReturning to action in 1961 with The Bridge,<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe performed in Japan and India, then signed with Milestone in 1972 for Next Album<\/em>, working with Orrin Keepnews<\/a>, then produced his own sessions with Lucille Rollins, his wife of 40 years and manager since 1971. She died in 2004.<\/p>\n

\n\tHis 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.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn 1986, he was the subject of Robert Mugge\u2019s documentary Saxophone Colossus<\/em>, which featured an accompanying soundtrack, G-Man<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn June 2006, he was inducted into the Academy of Achievement \u2014 and gave a solo performance \u2014 at the International Achievement Summit in Los Angeles hosted by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.<\/p>\n

\n\tRollins released albums on his own Doxy Records label since \u201906. The first on his imprint was 2001\u2019s Grammy-nominated Sonny, Please<\/em> \u2014 its title came from one of his wife\u2019s pet phrases \u2014 his first studio recording since This Is What I Do<\/em>. In 2007, he performed at Carnegie Hall to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his first performance there.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn 2008, he released Road Shows, Vol. 1<\/em>, 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 \u201cSonnymoon for Two.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen he was saluted at the Kennedy Center, he said: \u201cI am deeply appreciative of this great honor. In honoring me, the Kennedy Center honors jazz, America\u2019s classical music. For that, I am very grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRollins\u2019 last public performance came in 2012. He moved to Woodstock in 2013 and that spring made a guest appearance on The Simpsons<\/em>. A year later, he announced his retirement and was the subject of a Dutch TV documentary.<\/p>\n

\n\tAmong his last releases were volumes three and four of his Road Shows<\/em> albums, which came out in spring 2016.<\/p>\n

\n\tSurvivors include his nephew, Clifton, and his nieces, Vallyn and Gabrielle. No public memorial is planned at this time.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a 2005 New Yorker<\/em> profile, jazz critic Stanley Crouch wrote of Rollins\u2019 instrument in his hands: \u201cWith its brass body, its pearl-button keys, its mouthpiece and its cane reed, the horn becomes the vessel for the epic of Rollins\u2019 talent and the undimmed power and lore of his jazz ancestors.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Sonny Rollins, the powerful and personal jazz tenor saxophonist whose improvisational sessions became legend and his compositions \u201cSt. Thomas,\u201d \u201cOleo,\u201d \u201cDoxy,\u201d \u201cRent-Up House\u201d and \u201cAiregin\u201d standards, died Monday. 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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":729613,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Sonny-Rollins-Obit-Template-Headshot-Everett-H-2024.jpg?w=1296&h=730&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[5200],"class_list":["post-729612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa","tag-obituaries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=729612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/729613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=729612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=729612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=729612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}