Sonny Rollins
Encyclopedia
Theodore Walter "Sonny" Rollins (born September 7, 1930 in New York City
) is a Grammy-winning American
jazz
tenor saxophonist. Rollins is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. A number of his compositions, including "St. Thomas
", "Oleo
", "Doxy
", and "Airegin
", have become jazz standards.
. Rollins received his first saxophone at age 13.
Rollins started as a pianist
, changed to alto saxophone
, and finally switched to tenor
in 1946. During his high-school years, he played in a band with other future jazz legends Jackie McLean
, Kenny Drew
and Art Taylor. He was first recorded in 1949 with Babs Gonzales
( J.J Johnson was the arranger of the group). In his recordings through 1954, he played with performers such as Miles Davis
, Charlie Parker
and Thelonious Monk
.
In 1950, Rollins was arrested for armed robbery and given a sentence of three years. He spent 10 months in Rikers Island
jail before he was released on parole
. In 1952 he was arrested for violating the terms of his parole by using heroin. Rollins was assigned to the Federal Medical Center, Lexington
, at the time the only assistance in the U.S. for drug addicts. While there he was a volunteer for then-experimental methadone
therapy and was able to break his heroin habit. Rollins himself initially feared sobriety would impair his musicianship, but then went on to greater success.
As a saxophonist he had initially been attracted to the jump
and R&B
sounds of performers like Louis Jordan
, but soon became drawn into the mainstream tenor saxophone tradition. Joachim Berendt
has described this tradition as sitting between the two poles of the strong sonority of Coleman Hawkins
and the light flexible phrasing of Lester Young
, which did so much to inspire the fleet improvisation of be-bop in the 1950s.
Rollins began to make a name for himself in 1949 as he recorded with J.J Johnson and Bud Powell what would later be called "Hard Bop", with Miles Davis
in 1951, with the Modern Jazz Quartet
and with Thelonious Monk
in 1953, but the breakthrough arrived in 1954 when he recorded his famous compositions "Oleo" "Airegin" and "Doxy" with a quintet led by Davis. Rollins then joined the Clifford Brown
–Max Roach
quintet in 1955 (recordings made by this group have been released as Sonny Rollins Plus 4 and Clifford Brown and Max Roach at Basin Street; Rollins also plays on half of More Study in Brown), and after Brown's death in 1956 worked mainly as a leader. By this time he had begun his contract with Prestige Records
, which released some of his best-known albums, although during the later 1950s Rollins recorded for Blue Note
, Riverside
and the Los Angeles label Contemporary
.
His widely acclaimed album Saxophone Colossus
was recorded on June 22, 1956 at Rudy Van Gelder
's studio in New Jersey, with Tommy Flanagan
on piano, former Jazz Messengers
bassist Doug Watkins
and his favorite drummer Max Roach
. This was Rollins' sixth recording as a leader and it included his best-known composition "St. Thomas
", a Caribbean calypso
based on a tune sung to him by his mother in his childhood, as well as the fast bebop number "Strode Rode", and "Moritat" (the Kurt Weill
composition also known as "Mack the Knife
").
In 1956 he also recorded Tenor Madness
, using Miles Davis
' group – pianist Red Garland
, bassist Paul Chambers
, and drummer Philly Joe Jones
. The title track is the only recording of Rollins with John Coltrane
, who was also in Davis' group.
At the end of the year Rollins recorded a set for Blue Note with Donald Byrd
on trumpet, Wynton Kelly
on piano, Gene Ramey
on bass, and Rollins' long-term collaborator Max Roach on drums. This has been released as Sonny Rollins Volume One (the superstar session Volume Two recorded the following year has consistently outsold it).
, 1957) and A Night at the Village Vanguard (Blue Note
, 1957). Rollins uses the trio format intermittently throughout his career, sometimes taking the unusual step of using his sax as a rhythm section
instrument during bass and drum solos. Way Out West was so named because it was recorded for a California-based record label (with L.A. stalwart drummer Shelly Manne
), and because the record included country and western
songs such as "Wagon Wheels" and "I'm an Old Cowhand
". The Village Vanguard CD consists of two sets, a matinee with bassist Donald Bailey and drummer Pete LaRoca and then the evening set with bassist Wilbur Ware
and drummer Elvin Jones
.
By this time, Rollins had become well-known for taking relatively banal or unconventional material (such as "There's No Business Like Show Business" on Work Time, "I'm an Old Cowhand", and later "Sweet Leilani" on the Grammy-winning CD This Is What I Do) and turning it into a vehicle for improvisation.
1957's Newk's Time
saw him working with a piano again, in this case Wynton Kelly
, but one of the most highly-regarded tracks is a saxophone/drum duet, "Surrey with the Fringe on Top" with Philly Joe Jones
. Also that year he recorded for Blue Note
with a star-studded line-up of JJ Johnson on trombone, Horace Silver
or Thelonious Monk on piano and drummer Art Blakey
(released as Sonny Rollins Volume 2).
In 1958 Rollins recorded another landmark piece for saxophone, bass and drums trio: The Freedom Suite. His original sleeve notes said, "How ironic that the Negro, who more than any other people can claim America's culture as his own, is being persecuted and repressed; that the Negro, who has exemplified the humanities in his very existence, is being rewarded with inhumanity."
The title track is a 19-minute improvised bluesy suite, much of it interaction between Rollins' saxophone and the drums of Max Roach
, some of it very tense. However the album was not all politics – the other side featured hard bop
workouts of popular show tunes. The bassist was Oscar Pettiford
. The LP was only briefly available in its original form, before the record company repackaged it as Shadow Waltz, the title of another piece on the record.
Finally in 1958 Rollins made one more studio album before taking a three-year break from recording. This was another session for Los Angeles based Contemporary Records and saw Rollins recording an esoteric mixture of tunes including "Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody" with a West Coast group made up of pianist Hampton Hawes
, guitarist Barney Kessel
, bassist Leroy Vinnegar
and drummer Shelly Manne
.
to practice. Upon his return to the jazz scene in 1962 he named his "comeback" album The Bridge
at the start of a contract with RCA Records
, recorded with a quartet featuring guitarist Jim Hall
and still no piano. The rhythm section was Ben Riley
on drums and bassist Bob Cranshaw
. This became one of Rollins' best-selling records.
The contract with RCA lasted until 1964 and saw Rollins remain one of the most adventurous musicians around. Each album he recorded differed radically from the previous one. Rollins explored Latin rhythms on What's New, tackled the avant-garde on Our Man in Jazz, and re-examined standards on Now's the Time.
He then provided the soundtrack to the 1966
version of Alfie. His 1965 residency at Ronnie Scott's legendary jazz club has recently emerged on CD as Live in London, a series of releases from the Harkit label; they offer a very different picture of his playing from the studio albums of the period. (These are unauthorized releases, and Rollins has responded by "bootlegging" them himself and releasing them on his website.)
Rollins took his most recent sabbatical to study yoga, meditation, and Eastern philosophies. When he returned in 1972, it was clear that he had become enamored of R&B, pop, and funk rhythms. His bands throughout the 1970s
and 1980s featured electric guitar, electric bass, and usually more pop- or funk-oriented drummers. For most of this period he recorded for Milestone Records
and the compilation Silver City: A Celebration of 25 Years on Milestone contains a selection from these years. The 70s and 80s were not all disco though and it was during this period that Rollins' passion for unaccompanied saxophone solos came to the forefront. In 1985 he released The Solo Album
.
In 1981, Rollins was asked to play uncredited on three tracks by The Rolling Stones
for their album Tattoo You
, including the single
, "Waiting on a Friend
".
In 1986 Documentary filmmaker Robert Mugge
released a film titled Saxophone Colossus. It featured two Rollins performances: a quintet in upstate New York and his Concerto for Saxophone and Symphony in Japan.
and Stanley Crouch
have noted the disparity between Sonny Rollins the recording artist, and Sonny Rollins the concert artist. In a May 2005 New Yorker
profile, Crouch wrote of Rollins the concert artist:
Rollins won a 2001 Grammy Award
for Best Jazz Instrumental Album for This Is What I Do
(2000). On September 11, 2001, the 71-year-old Rollins, who lived several blocks away, heard the World Trade Center collapse
, and was forced to evacuate his apartment, with only his saxophone in hand. Although he was shaken, he traveled to Boston five days later to play a concert at the Berklee School of Music. The live recording of that performance was released on CD in 2005, Without a Song: The 9/11 Concert
, which won the 2006 Grammy
for Jazz Instrumental Solo for Sonny's performance of "Why Was I Born?". Rollins was presented with a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement
in 2004, but sadly that year also saw the death of his wife Lucille.
In 2006, Rollins went on to complete a Down Beat
Readers Poll triple win for: "Jazzman of the Year", "#1 Tenor Sax Player", and "Recording of the Year" for the CD Without a Song (The 9/11 Concert). The band that year was led by his nephew, trombonist Clifton Anderson
, and included bassist Bob Cranshaw
, pianist Stephen Scott
, percussionist Kimati Dinizulu
, and drummer Perry Wilson
.
After a highly successful Japanese tour Rollins returned to the recording studio for the first time in five years to record the Grammy-nominated CD Sonny, Please (2006). The CD title is derived from one of his late wife's favorite phrases. The album was released on Rollins' own label, Doxy Records, following his departure from Milestone Records
after many years and was produced by Clifton Anderson. Rollins' band at this time, and on this album, included Bob Cranshaw
, guitarist Bobby Broom
, drummer Steve Jordan
and Kimati Dinizulu
.
Rollins performed at Carnegie Hall
on September 18, 2007, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of his first performance there. Appearing with him were Clifton Anderson
(trombone), Bobby Broom
(guitar), Bob Cranshaw
(bass), Kimati Dinizulu
(percussion), Roy Haynes
(drums) and Christian McBride
(bass).
September 25, 2009, Rollins performed to a packed crowd at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia. The personnel was similar to the Carnegie Hall performance; Clifton Anderson
(trombone), Bobby Broom
(guitar), Bob Cranshaw
(bass), Kobie Watkins, drums, Sammy Figueroa
(percussion).
On June 27, 2010, Rollins played at the Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier in Montreal's Place-des-Arts for the 31st annual Montreal Jazz Festival, accompanied by, among others, Bob Cranshaw and Russell Malone
. Prior to this show, he received the Miles Davis Award.
On September 7th 2011, Sonny Rollins was named as an honoree for the 2011 Kennedy Center Honors.
Rollins was awarded the 2010 National Medal of Arts
by President Barack Obama
.
The city of Minneapolis, Minnesota
officially named October 31, 2006, after Rollins in honor of his achievements and contributions to the world of jazz.
In 2007 he received the prestigious Polar Music Prize
in Stockholm, Sweden, together with Steve Reich
, while Colby College
awarded Rollins a Doctor of Music, honoris causa, for his contributions to jazz music.
Rollins was elected to the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame in 1973.
Donald Fagen
can be seen playing Rollins' 1958 LP Sonny Rollins and the Contemporary Leaders
on the cover of his 1982 LP The Nightfly
, while Joe Jackson
replicated the cover photo for his 1984 A&M
album Body and Soul as homage to the 1957 Blue Note album Sonny Rollins, Vol. 2
.
In The Simpsons
episode 12 season 5, the jazz musician Bleeding Gums Murphy makes his appearance playing his saxophone on a bridge in the middle of the night. This is a homage to Sonny Rollins, who famously retired from public and was not seen for three years, until a journalist discovered him playing the saxophone alone on the Williamsburg Bridge.
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
) is a Grammy-winning American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
tenor saxophonist. Rollins is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. A number of his compositions, including "St. Thomas
St. Thomas (song)
"St. Thomas" is perhaps the most recognizable instrumental in the repertoire of American jazz tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins, who is usually credited as its composer. However, it is actually based on a traditional nursery song from the Virgin Islands, which Rollins' mother sang to him when he was...
", "Oleo
Oleo (song)
"Oleo" is a bebop composition by Sonny Rollins, written in 1954. It is one of the most popular pieces to feature rhythm changes. The performer is expected to improvise the B section, as only the A section is transcribed....
", "Doxy
Doxy (song)
"Doxy" is an early composition by jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins. It first appeared on the 1954 Miles Davis album Bags' Groove, performed by Davis on trumpet, Rollins on tenor saxophone, Horace Silver on piano, Percy Heath on bass, and Kenny Clarke on drums. When Rollins eventually established his...
", and "Airegin
Airegin
"Airegin" is a jazz standard composed by Sonny Rollins in 1954. It was first recorded by the Miles Davis Quintet with Rollins on saxophone, and recorded again by Miles' Quintet in 1956 on their album Cookin. It was also performed by Wes Montgomery on his album The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes...
", have become jazz standards.
Early life and career
While Rollins was born in New York City, his parents were born in the United States Virgin IslandsUnited States Virgin Islands
The Virgin Islands of the United States are a group of islands in the Caribbean that are an insular area of the United States. The islands are geographically part of the Virgin Islands archipelago and are located in the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles.The U.S...
. Rollins received his first saxophone at age 13.
Rollins started as a pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
, changed to alto saxophone
Alto saxophone
The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in 1841. It is smaller than the tenor but larger than the soprano, and is the type most used in classical compositions...
, and finally switched to tenor
Tenor saxophone
The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble...
in 1946. During his high-school years, he played in a band with other future jazz legends Jackie McLean
Jackie McLean
John Lenwood McLean was an American jazz alto saxophonist, composer, bandleader and educator, born in New York City.-Biography:McLean's father, John Sr., played guitar in Tiny Bradshaw's orchestra...
, Kenny Drew
Kenny Drew
Kenneth Sidney "Kenny" Drew was an American jazz pianist.-Biography:Born in New York City, New York, he first recorded with Howard McGhee in 1949, and over the next two years recorded with Buddy DeFranco, Coleman Hawkins, Milt Jackson, Charlie Parker, Buddy Rich, and Dinah Washington...
and Art Taylor. He was first recorded in 1949 with Babs Gonzales
Babs Gonzales
Babs Gonzales , born Lee Brown, was an American jazz vocalist of the bebop era most notable for penning the song "Oop-Pop-A-Da", which was originally recorded and performed by his own band and was later made famous by Dizzy Gillespie . Babs was also once the chauffeur for Errol Flynn...
( J.J Johnson was the arranger of the group). In his recordings through 1954, he played with performers such as Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
, Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....
and Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer considered "one of the giants of American music". Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser"...
.
In 1950, Rollins was arrested for armed robbery and given a sentence of three years. He spent 10 months in Rikers Island
Rikers Island
Rikers Island is New York City's main jail complex, as well as the name of the island on which it sits, in the East River between Queens and the mainland Bronx, adjacent to the runways of LaGuardia Airport. The island itself is part of the borough of the Bronx, though it is included as part of...
jail before he was released on parole
Parole
Parole may have different meanings depending on the field and judiciary system. All of the meanings originated from the French parole . Following its use in late-resurrected Anglo-French chivalric practice, the term became associated with the release of prisoners based on prisoners giving their...
. In 1952 he was arrested for violating the terms of his parole by using heroin. Rollins was assigned to the Federal Medical Center, Lexington
Federal Medical Center, Lexington
The Federal Medical Center, Lexington is a federal prison in Lexington, Kentucky housing 1,464 male inmates at high security and 296 female inmates at a low security camp.-History:...
, at the time the only assistance in the U.S. for drug addicts. While there he was a volunteer for then-experimental methadone
Methadone
Methadone is a synthetic opioid, used medically as an analgesic and a maintenance anti-addictive for use in patients with opioid dependency. It was developed in Germany in 1937...
therapy and was able to break his heroin habit. Rollins himself initially feared sobriety would impair his musicianship, but then went on to greater success.
As a saxophonist he had initially been attracted to the jump
Jump blues
Jump blues is an up-tempo blues usually played by small groups and featuring horns. It was very popular in the 1940s, and the movement was a precursor to the arrival of rhythm and blues and rock and roll...
and R&B
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
sounds of performers like Louis Jordan
Louis Jordan
Louis Thomas Jordan was a pioneering American jazz, blues and rhythm & blues musician, songwriter and bandleader who enjoyed his greatest popularity from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as "The King of the Jukebox", Jordan was highly popular with both black and white audiences in the...
, but soon became drawn into the mainstream tenor saxophone tradition. Joachim Berendt
Joachim-Ernst Berendt
Joachim-Ernst Berendt was a German music journalist, book author and producer specialized on Jazz.-Life:...
has described this tradition as sitting between the two poles of the strong sonority of Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Randolph Hawkins was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Hawkins was one of the first prominent jazz musicians on his instrument. As Joachim E. Berendt explained, "there were some tenor players before him, but the instrument was not an acknowledged jazz horn"...
and the light flexible phrasing of Lester Young
Lester Young
Lester Willis Young , nicknamed "Prez", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and clarinetist. He also played trumpet, violin, and drums....
, which did so much to inspire the fleet improvisation of be-bop in the 1950s.
Rollins began to make a name for himself in 1949 as he recorded with J.J Johnson and Bud Powell what would later be called "Hard Bop", with Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
in 1951, with the Modern Jazz Quartet
Modern Jazz Quartet
The Modern Jazz Quartet was established in 1952 by Milt Jackson , John Lewis , Percy Heath , and Kenny Clarke . Connie Kay replaced Clarke in 1955...
and with Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer considered "one of the giants of American music". Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser"...
in 1953, but the breakthrough arrived in 1954 when he recorded his famous compositions "Oleo" "Airegin" and "Doxy" with a quintet led by Davis. Rollins then joined the Clifford Brown
Clifford Brown
Clifford Brown , aka "Brownie," was an influential and highly rated American jazz trumpeter. He died aged 25, leaving behind only four years' worth of recordings...
–Max Roach
Max Roach
Maxwell Lemuel "Max" Roach was an American jazz percussionist, drummer, and composer.A pioneer of bebop, Roach went on to work in many other styles of music, and is generally considered alongside the most important drummers in history...
quintet in 1955 (recordings made by this group have been released as Sonny Rollins Plus 4 and Clifford Brown and Max Roach at Basin Street; Rollins also plays on half of More Study in Brown), and after Brown's death in 1956 worked mainly as a leader. By this time he had begun his contract with Prestige Records
Prestige Records
Prestige Records was a jazz record label founded in 1949 by Bob Weinstock. The company was located at 203 South Washington Avenue in Bergenfield, New Jersey, and recorded hundreds of albums by many of the leading jazz musicians of the day, sometimes issuing them under the names of several...
, which released some of his best-known albums, although during the later 1950s Rollins recorded for Blue Note
Blue Note Records
Blue Note Records is a jazz record label, established in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis. Francis Wolff became involved shortly afterwards. It derives its name from the characteristic "blue notes" of jazz and the blues. At the end of the 1950s, and in the early 1960s, Blue Note headquarters...
, Riverside
Riverside Records
Riverside Records was a United States record label specializing in jazz. Founded by Orrin Keepnews and Bill Grauer under his firm Bill Grauer Productions, Inc. in 1953, the label was a major presence in the jazz record industry for a decade...
and the Los Angeles label Contemporary
Contemporary Records
Contemporary Records was a jazz record label founded by Lester Koenig in 1951 in Los Angeles. Contemporary was known for seminal recordings embodying the West Coast sound, but also released recordings based in New York...
.
Saxophone Colossus
Saxophone Colossus
Saxophone Colossus is one of Sonny Rollins' most acclaimed albums. Recorded and released in 1956, it has been awarded a rare Crown by The Penguin Guide to Jazz, and is widely considered the masterpiece of his mid-1950s series of recordings for Prestige Records and one of the greatest albums ever...
was recorded on June 22, 1956 at Rudy Van Gelder
Rudy Van Gelder
Rudy Van Gelder is an American recording engineer specializing in jazz.Often regarded as one of the most important recording engineers in music history, Van Gelder has recorded several thousand jazz sessions, including many widely recognized as classics, in a career spanning more than half a century...
's studio in New Jersey, with Tommy Flanagan
Tommy Flanagan
Thomas Lee Flanagan was an American jazz pianist born in Detroit, Michigan, particularly remembered for his work with Ella Fitzgerald...
on piano, former Jazz Messengers
Art Blakey
Arthur "Art" Blakey , known later as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina, was an American Grammy Award-winning jazz drummer and bandleader. He was a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community....
bassist Doug Watkins
Doug Watkins
Douglas Watkins was an American hard bop jazz double bassist from Detroit.-Biography:An original member of the Jazz Messengers, he later played in Horace Silver's quintet and freelanced with Gene Ammons, Kenny Burrell, Donald Byrd, Art Farmer, Jackie McLean, Hank Mobley, Lee Morgan, Sonny Rollins,...
and his favorite drummer Max Roach
Max Roach
Maxwell Lemuel "Max" Roach was an American jazz percussionist, drummer, and composer.A pioneer of bebop, Roach went on to work in many other styles of music, and is generally considered alongside the most important drummers in history...
. This was Rollins' sixth recording as a leader and it included his best-known composition "St. Thomas
St. Thomas (song)
"St. Thomas" is perhaps the most recognizable instrumental in the repertoire of American jazz tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins, who is usually credited as its composer. However, it is actually based on a traditional nursery song from the Virgin Islands, which Rollins' mother sang to him when he was...
", a Caribbean calypso
Calypso music
Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song...
based on a tune sung to him by his mother in his childhood, as well as the fast bebop number "Strode Rode", and "Moritat" (the Kurt Weill
Kurt Weill
Kurt Julian Weill was a German-Jewish composer, active from the 1920s, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht...
composition also known as "Mack the Knife
Mack the Knife
"Mack the Knife" or "The Ballad of Mack the Knife", originally "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer", is a song composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht for their music drama Die Dreigroschenoper, or, as it is known in English, The Threepenny Opera. It premiered in Berlin in 1928 at the...
").
In 1956 he also recorded Tenor Madness
Tenor Madness
Tenor Madness is a jazz album by Sonny Rollins. It is most notable for its title track, the only known recording featuring both Rollins and John Coltrane.-History:...
, using Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
' group – pianist Red Garland
Red Garland
William "Red" Garland was an American hard bop jazz pianist whose block chord style, in part originated by Milt Buckner, influenced many forthcoming pianists in the jazz idiom.-Beginnings:...
, bassist Paul Chambers
Paul Chambers
Paul Laurence Dunbar Chambers, Jr. was a jazz bassist. A fixture of rhythm sections during the 1950s and 1960s, his importance in the development of jazz bass can be measured not only by the length and breadth of his work in this short period but also his impeccable time, intonation, and virtuosic...
, and drummer Philly Joe Jones
Philly Joe Jones
Joseph Rudolph Jones was a Philadelphia-born United States jazz drummer, known as the drummer for the Miles Davis Quintet.Philly Joe Jones was often confused with another influential jazz drummer, Jo Jones...
. The title track is the only recording of Rollins with John Coltrane
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...
, who was also in Davis' group.
At the end of the year Rollins recorded a set for Blue Note with Donald Byrd
Donald Byrd
Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II, is an American jazz and rhythm and blues trumpeter. A sideman for many other jazz musicians of his generation, Byrd is best known as one of the only bebop jazz musicians who successfully pioneered the funk and soul genres while simultaneously remaining a...
on trumpet, Wynton Kelly
Wynton Kelly
Wynton Kelly was a Jamaican-born jazz pianist, who spent his career in the United States. He is perhaps best known for working with trumpeter Miles Davis from 1959-1962.-Biography:...
on piano, Gene Ramey
Gene Ramey
Gene Ramey was an American jazz double bassist.Ramey was born in Austin, Texas, and played trumpet in college, but switched to sousaphone when playing with George Corley's Royal Aces, The Moonlight Serenaders, and Terrence Holder. In 1932 he moved to Kansas City and took up the bass, studying with...
on bass, and Rollins' long-term collaborator Max Roach on drums. This has been released as Sonny Rollins Volume One (the superstar session Volume Two recorded the following year has consistently outsold it).
The pianoless trio
In 1957 he pioneered the use of bass and drums (without piano) as accompaniment for his saxophone solos. This texture came to be known as "strolling". Two early tenor/bass/drums trio recordings are Way Out West (ContemporaryContemporary Records
Contemporary Records was a jazz record label founded by Lester Koenig in 1951 in Los Angeles. Contemporary was known for seminal recordings embodying the West Coast sound, but also released recordings based in New York...
, 1957) and A Night at the Village Vanguard (Blue Note
Blue Note Records
Blue Note Records is a jazz record label, established in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis. Francis Wolff became involved shortly afterwards. It derives its name from the characteristic "blue notes" of jazz and the blues. At the end of the 1950s, and in the early 1960s, Blue Note headquarters...
, 1957). Rollins uses the trio format intermittently throughout his career, sometimes taking the unusual step of using his sax as a rhythm section
Rhythm section
A rhythm section is a collection of musicians who make up a section of instruments which provides the accompaniment section of the music, giving the music its rhythmic texture and pulse, also serving as a rhythmic reference for the rest of the band...
instrument during bass and drum solos. Way Out West was so named because it was recorded for a California-based record label (with L.A. stalwart drummer Shelly Manne
Shelly Manne
Shelly Manne , born Sheldon Manne in New York City, was an American jazz drummer. Most frequently associated with West Coast jazz, he was known for his versatility and also played in a number of other styles, including Dixieland, swing, bebop, avant-garde jazz and fusion, as well as contributing...
), and because the record included country and western
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
songs such as "Wagon Wheels" and "I'm an Old Cowhand
I'm an Old Cowhand from the Rio Grande
"I'm an Old Cow Hand " is a comic song written by Johnny Mercer for the film Rhythm on the Range and sung by its star, Bing Crosby...
". The Village Vanguard CD consists of two sets, a matinee with bassist Donald Bailey and drummer Pete LaRoca and then the evening set with bassist Wilbur Ware
Wilbur Ware
Wilbur Ware was an American jazz double-bassist known for his hard bop percussive style.Born in Chicago, Ware taught himself to play banjo and bass. In the 1940s, he worked with Stuff Smith, Sonny Stitt and Roy Eldridge. In the 1950s, Ware played with Eddie Vinson, Art Blakey, and Buddy DeFranco...
and drummer Elvin Jones
Elvin Jones
Elvin Ray Jones was a jazz drummer of the post-bop era. He showed interest in drums at a young age, watching the circus bands march by his family's home in Pontiac, Michigan....
.
By this time, Rollins had become well-known for taking relatively banal or unconventional material (such as "There's No Business Like Show Business" on Work Time, "I'm an Old Cowhand", and later "Sweet Leilani" on the Grammy-winning CD This Is What I Do) and turning it into a vehicle for improvisation.
1957's Newk's Time
Newk's Time
Newk's Time is an album by Sonny Rollins. It was his third album for Blue Note Records, released in 1957. Recorded at Rudy Van Gelder's studio in Hackensack, NJ on September 22, 1957. The title of the album is a reference to Rollins' nickname "Newk", which is apparently based on his resemblance...
saw him working with a piano again, in this case Wynton Kelly
Wynton Kelly
Wynton Kelly was a Jamaican-born jazz pianist, who spent his career in the United States. He is perhaps best known for working with trumpeter Miles Davis from 1959-1962.-Biography:...
, but one of the most highly-regarded tracks is a saxophone/drum duet, "Surrey with the Fringe on Top" with Philly Joe Jones
Philly Joe Jones
Joseph Rudolph Jones was a Philadelphia-born United States jazz drummer, known as the drummer for the Miles Davis Quintet.Philly Joe Jones was often confused with another influential jazz drummer, Jo Jones...
. Also that year he recorded for Blue Note
Blue Note Records
Blue Note Records is a jazz record label, established in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis. Francis Wolff became involved shortly afterwards. It derives its name from the characteristic "blue notes" of jazz and the blues. At the end of the 1950s, and in the early 1960s, Blue Note headquarters...
with a star-studded line-up of JJ Johnson on trombone, Horace Silver
Horace Silver
Horace Silver , born Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silva in Norwalk, Connecticut, is an American jazz pianist and composer....
or Thelonious Monk on piano and drummer Art Blakey
Art Blakey
Arthur "Art" Blakey , known later as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina, was an American Grammy Award-winning jazz drummer and bandleader. He was a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community....
(released as Sonny Rollins Volume 2).
In 1958 Rollins recorded another landmark piece for saxophone, bass and drums trio: The Freedom Suite. His original sleeve notes said, "How ironic that the Negro, who more than any other people can claim America's culture as his own, is being persecuted and repressed; that the Negro, who has exemplified the humanities in his very existence, is being rewarded with inhumanity."
The title track is a 19-minute improvised bluesy suite, much of it interaction between Rollins' saxophone and the drums of Max Roach
Max Roach
Maxwell Lemuel "Max" Roach was an American jazz percussionist, drummer, and composer.A pioneer of bebop, Roach went on to work in many other styles of music, and is generally considered alongside the most important drummers in history...
, some of it very tense. However the album was not all politics – the other side featured hard bop
Hard bop
Hard bop is a style of jazz that is an extension of bebop music. Journalists and record companies began using the term in the mid-1950s to describe a new current within jazz which incorporated influences from rhythm and blues, gospel music, and blues, especially in the saxophone and piano...
workouts of popular show tunes. The bassist was Oscar Pettiford
Oscar Pettiford
Oscar Pettiford was an American jazz double bassist, cellist and composer known particularly for his pioneering work in bebop.-Biography:...
. The LP was only briefly available in its original form, before the record company repackaged it as Shadow Waltz, the title of another piece on the record.
Finally in 1958 Rollins made one more studio album before taking a three-year break from recording. This was another session for Los Angeles based Contemporary Records and saw Rollins recording an esoteric mixture of tunes including "Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody" with a West Coast group made up of pianist Hampton Hawes
Hampton Hawes
Hampton Hawes was an American bebop and hard-bop jazz pianist, recognized as one of the finest and most influential of the 1950s.-Biography:...
, guitarist Barney Kessel
Barney Kessel
Barney Kessel was an American jazz guitarist born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, USA. Generally considered to be one of the greatest jazz guitarists of the 20th century, he was noted in particular for his vast knowledge of chords and inversions and chord-based melodies...
, bassist Leroy Vinnegar
Leroy Vinnegar
Leroy Vinnegar was an American jazz bassist.Born in Indianapolis, the self-taught Vinnegar established his reputation in Los Angeles during the 1950s and 1960s. His trademark was the rhythmic "walking" bass line, a steady series of ascending or descending notes, and it brought him the nickname...
and drummer Shelly Manne
Shelly Manne
Shelly Manne , born Sheldon Manne in New York City, was an American jazz drummer. Most frequently associated with West Coast jazz, he was known for his versatility and also played in a number of other styles, including Dixieland, swing, bebop, avant-garde jazz and fusion, as well as contributing...
.
1959 to 1971
By 1959, Rollins was frustrated with what he perceived as his own musical limitations and took the first – and most famous – of his musical sabbaticals. To spare a neighboring expectant mother the sound of his practice routine, Rollins ventured to the Williamsburg BridgeWilliamsburg Bridge
The Williamsburg Bridge is a suspension bridge in New York City across the East River connecting the Lower East Side of Manhattan at Delancey Street with the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn at Broadway near the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway...
to practice. Upon his return to the jazz scene in 1962 he named his "comeback" album The Bridge
The Bridge (Sonny Rollins album)
The Bridge, 1962, was the first release of Jazz giant Sonny Rollins following his unexpected early retirement in 1959. The saxophonist was joined for the first time with the musicians with which he would record for the next segment of his career, featuring Jim Hall on guitar, Bob Cranshaw on bass...
at the start of a contract with RCA Records
RCA Records
RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...
, recorded with a quartet featuring guitarist Jim Hall
Jim Hall (musician)
James Stanley Hall is an American jazz guitarist.-Biography:Educated at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Hall moved to Los Angeles where he began to attract national, and then international, attention in the late 1950s...
and still no piano. The rhythm section was Ben Riley
Ben Riley
Ben Riley is an American hard bop drummer known for his work with Thelonious Monk, as well as Alice Coltrane, Stan Getz, Woody Herman, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Ahmad Jamal, Kenny Barron, and as member of the group Sphere...
on drums and bassist Bob Cranshaw
Bob Cranshaw
Melbourne R. "Bob" Cranshaw is an American jazz bassist. His career spans the heyday of Blue Note Records to his recent involvement with the Musicians Union. He is perhaps best known for his long association with Sonny Rollins...
. This became one of Rollins' best-selling records.
The contract with RCA lasted until 1964 and saw Rollins remain one of the most adventurous musicians around. Each album he recorded differed radically from the previous one. Rollins explored Latin rhythms on What's New, tackled the avant-garde on Our Man in Jazz, and re-examined standards on Now's the Time.
He then provided the soundtrack to the 1966
1966 in film
The year 1966 in film involved some significant events.-Events:Animation legend Walter Disney, well known for his creation of Mickey Mouse, died in 15 December 1966 of acute circulatory collapse following a diagnosis of, and surgery for, lung cancer...
version of Alfie. His 1965 residency at Ronnie Scott's legendary jazz club has recently emerged on CD as Live in London, a series of releases from the Harkit label; they offer a very different picture of his playing from the studio albums of the period. (These are unauthorized releases, and Rollins has responded by "bootlegging" them himself and releasing them on his website.)
1972 to 2000
1970s
File:1970s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: US President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory sign after his resignation from office after the Watergate scandal in 1974; Refugees aboard a US naval boat after the Fall of Saigon, leading to the end of the Vietnam War in 1975; The 1973 oil...
and 1980s featured electric guitar, electric bass, and usually more pop- or funk-oriented drummers. For most of this period he recorded for Milestone Records
Milestone Records
Milestone Records is a United States based jazz record label, founded in 1966 by Orrin Keepnews and Dick Katz in New York City. The company was incorporated into Fantasy Records in 1972, since then it has been used for reissues as well as for new recordings....
and the compilation Silver City: A Celebration of 25 Years on Milestone contains a selection from these years. The 70s and 80s were not all disco though and it was during this period that Rollins' passion for unaccompanied saxophone solos came to the forefront. In 1985 he released The Solo Album
The Solo Album
The Solo Album is a live album featuring a solo performance by jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins recorded at the Sculpture Garden of the Museum Of Modern Art in New York City and released on the Milestone label in 1985.-Reception:...
.
In 1981, Rollins was asked to play uncredited on three tracks by The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
for their album Tattoo You
Tattoo You
Tattoo You is the 16th British and 18th American studio album by The Rolling Stones, released in 1981. The follow-up to Emotional Rescue, it proved to be a big critical and commercial success...
, including the single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
, "Waiting on a Friend
Waiting On A Friend
"Waiting on a Friend" is a song by The Rolling Stones from their 1981 album Tattoo You. Released as the album's second single, it reached #13 on the US singles chart.-History:...
".
In 1986 Documentary filmmaker Robert Mugge
Robert Mugge
Robert Mugge is an American documentary film maker. He specializes in films about music and musicians.Mugge was born in Chicago and grew up primarily in the Washington, D.C. area. He received a B.A...
released a film titled Saxophone Colossus. It featured two Rollins performances: a quintet in upstate New York and his Concerto for Saxophone and Symphony in Japan.
2001 to present
Critics such as Gary GiddinsGary Giddins
Gary Giddins is an American jazz critic, author, and director, best known for his longtime work with The Village Voice. Born in Brooklyn, and raised on Long Island, Giddins graduated from Grinnell College, Iowa, in 1970...
and Stanley Crouch
Stanley Crouch
Stanley Crouch is an American music and cultural critic, syndicated columnist, and novelist, perhaps best known for his jazz criticism, and his novel Don't the Moon Look Lonesome?- Biography :...
have noted the disparity between Sonny Rollins the recording artist, and Sonny Rollins the concert artist. In a May 2005 New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
profile, Crouch wrote of Rollins the concert artist:
Rollins won a 2001 Grammy Award
Grammy Awards of 2002
The 44th Grammy Awards were held on February 27, 2002. The biggest was Alicia Keys, winning 5 Grammys, including Best New Artist and Song of the Year for "Fallin'". U2 won 4 awards including Record of the Year and Best Rock Album.-Award winners:...
for Best Jazz Instrumental Album for This Is What I Do
This Is What I Do
This Is What I Do is an album by jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins, released on the Milestone label in 2000, featuring performances by Rollins with Clifton Anderson, Stephen Scott, Bob Cranshaw, Jack DeJohnette and Perry Wilson...
(2000). On September 11, 2001, the 71-year-old Rollins, who lived several blocks away, heard the World Trade Center collapse
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
, and was forced to evacuate his apartment, with only his saxophone in hand. Although he was shaken, he traveled to Boston five days later to play a concert at the Berklee School of Music. The live recording of that performance was released on CD in 2005, Without a Song: The 9/11 Concert
Without a Song: The 9/11 Concert
Without a Song: The 9/11 Concert is a 2005 live album by jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins, recorded in Boston, September 15th 2001.-Track listing:#"Without a Song" — 16:37...
, which won the 2006 Grammy
Grammy Awards of 2006
The 48th Annual Grammy Awards took place on February 8, 2006 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. Irish rock band U2 were the big winners, winning five awards including Album of the Year. Mariah Carey, John Legend, and Kanye West each were nominated for eight awards and won three,...
for Jazz Instrumental Solo for Sonny's performance of "Why Was I Born?". Rollins was presented with a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
The Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award is awarded by the Recording Academy to "performers who, during their lifetimes, have made creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording."...
in 2004, but sadly that year also saw the death of his wife Lucille.
In 2006, Rollins went on to complete a Down Beat
Down Beat
Down Beat is an American magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond" to indicate its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chicago, Illinois...
Readers Poll triple win for: "Jazzman of the Year", "#1 Tenor Sax Player", and "Recording of the Year" for the CD Without a Song (The 9/11 Concert). The band that year was led by his nephew, trombonist Clifton Anderson
Clifton Anderson
Clifton Anderson is an American jazz musician, a trombone player. He grew up surrounded by music. His father was a church organist /choir director, and his mother a singer and pianist. It was no surprise that Clifton exhibited an affinity for music at an early age...
, and included bassist Bob Cranshaw
Bob Cranshaw
Melbourne R. "Bob" Cranshaw is an American jazz bassist. His career spans the heyday of Blue Note Records to his recent involvement with the Musicians Union. He is perhaps best known for his long association with Sonny Rollins...
, pianist Stephen Scott
Stephen Scott (jazz pianist)
Stephen Scott is an African American jazz pianist. As a solo artist he has recorded for Verve Records and Enja Records.-As leader:...
, percussionist Kimati Dinizulu
Kimati Dinizulu
Nana Kamati Dinizulu is an African percussionist. He has performed with many great artists like Toni Morrison, Alvin Ailey, Donald McKayle, Gregory Hines, Sonny Rollins, Nina Simone, Harry Belafonte, Wynton Marsalis, Jackie McLean and Dizzie Gillespie and many more.-Life and career:Nana Kimati...
, and drummer Perry Wilson
Perry Wilson
Perry Wilson Anthony was an American actress most active during the 1950s and 1960s. She was best known for her role in the 1957 film Fear Strikes Out....
.
After a highly successful Japanese tour Rollins returned to the recording studio for the first time in five years to record the Grammy-nominated CD Sonny, Please (2006). The CD title is derived from one of his late wife's favorite phrases. The album was released on Rollins' own label, Doxy Records, following his departure from Milestone Records
Milestone Records
Milestone Records is a United States based jazz record label, founded in 1966 by Orrin Keepnews and Dick Katz in New York City. The company was incorporated into Fantasy Records in 1972, since then it has been used for reissues as well as for new recordings....
after many years and was produced by Clifton Anderson. Rollins' band at this time, and on this album, included Bob Cranshaw
Bob Cranshaw
Melbourne R. "Bob" Cranshaw is an American jazz bassist. His career spans the heyday of Blue Note Records to his recent involvement with the Musicians Union. He is perhaps best known for his long association with Sonny Rollins...
, guitarist Bobby Broom
Bobby Broom
Bobby Broom , birthname Robert Broom, Jr., is an American jazz guitarist, composer and educator born and raised in New York City. Broom performs and records with jazz saxophone legend Sonny Rollins as well as his Bobby Broom Trio and the Deep Blue Organ Trio...
, drummer Steve Jordan
Steve Jordan (musician)
Steve Jordan is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, musical director and Grammy Award-winning artist, who has made a name for himself as a producer from the Bronx in New York City. A graduate of the Fiorello H...
and Kimati Dinizulu
Kimati Dinizulu
Nana Kamati Dinizulu is an African percussionist. He has performed with many great artists like Toni Morrison, Alvin Ailey, Donald McKayle, Gregory Hines, Sonny Rollins, Nina Simone, Harry Belafonte, Wynton Marsalis, Jackie McLean and Dizzie Gillespie and many more.-Life and career:Nana Kimati...
.
Rollins performed at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
on September 18, 2007, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of his first performance there. Appearing with him were Clifton Anderson
Clifton Anderson
Clifton Anderson is an American jazz musician, a trombone player. He grew up surrounded by music. His father was a church organist /choir director, and his mother a singer and pianist. It was no surprise that Clifton exhibited an affinity for music at an early age...
(trombone), Bobby Broom
Bobby Broom
Bobby Broom , birthname Robert Broom, Jr., is an American jazz guitarist, composer and educator born and raised in New York City. Broom performs and records with jazz saxophone legend Sonny Rollins as well as his Bobby Broom Trio and the Deep Blue Organ Trio...
(guitar), Bob Cranshaw
Bob Cranshaw
Melbourne R. "Bob" Cranshaw is an American jazz bassist. His career spans the heyday of Blue Note Records to his recent involvement with the Musicians Union. He is perhaps best known for his long association with Sonny Rollins...
(bass), Kimati Dinizulu
Kimati Dinizulu
Nana Kamati Dinizulu is an African percussionist. He has performed with many great artists like Toni Morrison, Alvin Ailey, Donald McKayle, Gregory Hines, Sonny Rollins, Nina Simone, Harry Belafonte, Wynton Marsalis, Jackie McLean and Dizzie Gillespie and many more.-Life and career:Nana Kimati...
(percussion), Roy Haynes
Roy Haynes
Roy Owen Haynes is an American jazz drummer and bandleader. Haynes is among the most recorded drummers in jazz, and in a career lasting more than 60 years has played in a wide range of styles ranging from swing and bebop to jazz fusion and avant-garde jazz...
(drums) and Christian McBride
Christian McBride
Christian McBride is an American jazz bassist. His father, Lee Smith, and his great uncle, Howard Cooper, are well known Philadelphia bassists who served as McBride's early mentors...
(bass).
September 25, 2009, Rollins performed to a packed crowd at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia. The personnel was similar to the Carnegie Hall performance; Clifton Anderson
Clifton Anderson
Clifton Anderson is an American jazz musician, a trombone player. He grew up surrounded by music. His father was a church organist /choir director, and his mother a singer and pianist. It was no surprise that Clifton exhibited an affinity for music at an early age...
(trombone), Bobby Broom
Bobby Broom
Bobby Broom , birthname Robert Broom, Jr., is an American jazz guitarist, composer and educator born and raised in New York City. Broom performs and records with jazz saxophone legend Sonny Rollins as well as his Bobby Broom Trio and the Deep Blue Organ Trio...
(guitar), Bob Cranshaw
Bob Cranshaw
Melbourne R. "Bob" Cranshaw is an American jazz bassist. His career spans the heyday of Blue Note Records to his recent involvement with the Musicians Union. He is perhaps best known for his long association with Sonny Rollins...
(bass), Kobie Watkins, drums, Sammy Figueroa
Sammy Figueroa
Sammy Figueroa is an American percussionist born in The Bronx, New York. At 18 he joined the band of bassist Bobby Valentín and also co-led the Brazilian/Latin fusion group Raices....
(percussion).
On June 27, 2010, Rollins played at the Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier in Montreal's Place-des-Arts for the 31st annual Montreal Jazz Festival, accompanied by, among others, Bob Cranshaw and Russell Malone
Russell Malone
Russell Malone is an essentially self-taught swing and bebop jazz guitarist. He began working with Jimmy Smith in 1988, and went on to work with Harry Connick, Jr. and Diana Krall throughout the 1990s...
. Prior to this show, he received the Miles Davis Award.
Tributes and legacy
Rollins is recognized by many for the length and quality of his career, one not easily matched in the world of music. His melodic sensibilities, playing style and solos have influenced several generations of musicians.On September 7th 2011, Sonny Rollins was named as an honoree for the 2011 Kennedy Center Honors.
Rollins was awarded the 2010 National Medal of Arts
National Medal of Arts
The National Medal of Arts is an award and title created by the United States Congress in 1984, for the purpose of honoring artists and patrons of the arts. It is the highest honor conferred to an individual artist on behalf of the people. Honorees are selected by the National Endowment for the...
by President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
.
The city of Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...
officially named October 31, 2006, after Rollins in honor of his achievements and contributions to the world of jazz.
In 2007 he received the prestigious Polar Music Prize
Polar Music Prize
The Polar Music Prize is a Swedish international music award founded in 1989 by Stig Anderson, possibly best known to be the manager of the Swedish pop group ABBA, with a donation to the Royal Swedish Academy of Music....
in Stockholm, Sweden, together with Steve Reich
Steve Reich
Stephen Michael "Steve" Reich is an American composer who together with La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass is a pioneering composer of minimal music...
, while Colby College
Colby College
Colby College is a private liberal arts college located on Mayflower Hill in Waterville, Maine. Founded in 1813, it is the 12th-oldest independent liberal arts college in the United States...
awarded Rollins a Doctor of Music, honoris causa, for his contributions to jazz music.
Rollins was elected to the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame in 1973.
Donald Fagen
Donald Fagen
Donald Jay Fagen is an American musician and songwriter, best known as the co-founder, lead singer, and the principal songwriter of the rock band Steely Dan ....
can be seen playing Rollins' 1958 LP Sonny Rollins and the Contemporary Leaders
Sonny Rollins and the Contemporary Leaders
Sonny Rollins and the Contemporary Leaders is an album by jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins, recorded for the Contemporary label, featuring performances by Rollins with Hampton Hawes, Barney Kessel, Leroy Vinnegar, and Shelly Manne with Victor Feldman added on one track...
on the cover of his 1982 LP The Nightfly
The Nightfly
The Nightfly is the first solo album by Steely Dan co-founder Donald Fagen, released in 1982. It was one of the first fully digital recordings of popular music...
, while Joe Jackson
Joe Jackson (musician)
Joe Jackson is an English musician and singer-songwriter now living in Berlin, whose five Grammy Award nominations span from 1979 to 2001...
replicated the cover photo for his 1984 A&M
A&M Records
A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that operates under the mantle of its Interscope-Geffen-A&M division.-Beginnings:...
album Body and Soul as homage to the 1957 Blue Note album Sonny Rollins, Vol. 2
Sonny Rollins, Vol. 2
Sonny Rollins, Vol. 2 is a jazz album by Sonny Rollins, released in 1957 on Blue Note Records, catalogue 1558. Among other things, it is noted for the appearance of pianists Thelonious Monk and Horace Silver, both playing on the same track, the song "Misterioso" by Monk...
.
In The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
episode 12 season 5, the jazz musician Bleeding Gums Murphy makes his appearance playing his saxophone on a bridge in the middle of the night. This is a homage to Sonny Rollins, who famously retired from public and was not seen for three years, until a journalist discovered him playing the saxophone alone on the Williamsburg Bridge.
Further reading
- Blancq, Charles. (1983). Sonny Rollins: The journey of a jazzman. Boston: Twayne.
- Christian BroeckingChristian BroeckingChristian Broecking is a German sociologist and musicologist, music critic, columnist, writer, editor, producer and author perhaps best known for his jazz criticism and his book .- Biography :...
(2010). Sonny Rollins - Improvisation und Protest. Creative People Books / Broecking Verlag, ISBN 978-3-938763-29-2
External links
- Sonny Rollins Official Website
- Documentary about Sonny's new CD "SONNY, PLEASE"
- Night Lights radio show featuring excerpts from Rollins' live 1965 appearances at Ronnie Scott's
- Review of Sonny Please by JazzChicago.net
- Sonny Rollins multimedia directory
- Sonny Rollins: The Titan Remembers - slideshow by Life magazine