Oscar Pettiford and Max Roach provided bass and drums, respectively. Rollins said of the honor, “I am deeply appreciative of this great honor. After WWII, jazz slowly morphed into bebop, and Sonny was in the middle of it. Rollins used 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. After a 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). [78], In 2014 he was the subject of a Dutch television documentary entitled Sonny Rollins-Morgen Speel ik Beter. Rollins was born in New York City to parents from the United States Virgin Islands. He began to follow Charlie Parker, and soon came under the wing of Thelonious Monk, who became his musical mentor and guru. Grammy Award-winning performer, composer of many well-known jazz standards like “St. [27] Almost every day from the summer of 1959 through the end of 1961, Rollins practiced on the bridge, next to the subway tracks. [10] While there, he volunteered for then-experimental methadone therapy and was able to break his heroin habit, after which he lived for a time in Chicago, briefly rooming with the trumpeter Booker Little. [69], In the spring of 2017, Rollins donated his personal archive to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, one of the research centers of New York Public Library. "[63], Rollins was presented with a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement in 2004;[63] that year also saw the death of his wife, Lucille.[65]. [88] During his high school years, he was mentored by the pianist and composer Thelonious Monk, often rehearsing at Monk's apartment. [56] It featured two Rollins performances: a quintet concert at Opus 40 in upstate New York and a performance with the Yomiuri Shimbun Orchestra in Japan of his Concerto for Saxophone and Symphony, a work composed in collaboration with the Finnish pianist and composer Heikki Sarmanto. explored Latin rhythms. Alternative Titles: Newk, Theodore Walter Rollins. Rollins stopped performing in public in 2012 due to respiratory issues. Even then, at age 26, the title seemed fitting. I was amazed, because I hadn’t thought about it before. Growing up in Harlem in the heyday of swing and coming of age as the first wave of modernists announced their discoveries, he quickly found himself sharing bandstands with his idols and making music of his own that continues to influence and inspire. For that, I am very grateful.”. Raw video from a 2008 interview Bret Primack did with Sonny Rollins in Germantown, New York Jazz Musician of the Day: Sonny Rollins. But also, the Jazz music business is always bad. The same year, Rollins recorded another landmark piece for saxophone, bass and drums trio: Freedom Suite. [29] In the summer of 1961, the journalist Ralph Berton happened to pass by the saxophonist on the bridge one day and published an article in Metronome magazine about the occurrence. This was Rollins's 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"). During his high school years, he played in a band with other future jazz legends Jackie McLean, Kenny Drew, and Art Taylor. ", In 1957 he married the actress and model Dawn Finney. Two early tenor/bass/drums trio recordings are Way Out West and A Night at the Village Vanguard, both recorded in 1957. He reemerged at the end of 1955 as a member of the Clifford Brown-Max Roach Quintet, with an even more authoritative presence. I resurfaced in the early 70s, and made my first record in `72. Rollins' band at this time, and on this album, included Cranshaw, guitarist Bobby Broom, drummer Steve Jordan and Dinizulu. Rollins has been called "the greatest living improviser"[4] and the "Saxophone Colossus". [61] The following year, Rollins, a dedicated advocate of environmentalism, released an album entitled Global Warming.[62]. This was a session for 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 Manne. He had become a whirlwind. Walter Theodore "Sonny" Rollins (born September 7, 1930) is an American jazz tenor saxophonist, widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. 4, for Spring 2016 release. Upon signing with Impulse! I wanted to get myself together, on my own. The first Doxy album was Sonny, Please, Rollins’s first studio recording since This Is What I Do. “Of course, these people are there to be called on because I think I represent them in a way,” Rollins said recently of his peers and mentors. I only realized when I spoke to you a couple of years ago that you had to give up the saxophone. It Could Happen to You (also 1957) was the first in a long series of unaccompanied solo recordings, and The Freedom Suite (1958) foreshadowed the political stances taken in jazz in the 1960s. The last survivor of the generation of giants who revolutionized jazz in the 1950s, Sonny Rollins played and recorded with Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk while still in his teens. 2 (with four tracks documenting his 80th birthday concert, which included Rollins's first ever recorded appearance with Ornette Coleman on the twenty-minute "Sonnymoon for Two"); Road Shows, Vol. Rollins was awarded the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art, First Class, in November 2009. In 1979 he played unaccompanied on The Tonight Show[50] and in 1985 he released The Solo Album, recorded live at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Spouse (2) Trivia (7) [52], By the 1980s, Rollins had stopped playing small nightclubs and was appearing mainly in concert halls or outdoor arenas; through the late 1990s he occasionally performed at large New York rock clubs such as Tramps and The Bottom Line. 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 saxophonist’s most recent CD is Road Shows, vol. People loved Sonny Rollins up in Harlem and everywhere else. [67], Around 2000, Rollins began recording many of his live performances; since then, he has archived recordings of over two hundred and fifty concerts. Living in Sugar Hill, his neighborhood musical peers included Jackie McLean, Kenny Drew and Art Taylor, but it was young Sonny who was first out of the pack, working and recording with Babs Gonzales, J.J. Johnson, Bud Powell and Miles Davis before he turned twenty. [66] On September 18, 2007, he performed at Carnegie Hall in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of his first performance there. “Sonny” Rollins came of age in Harlem in the late 1940s and early 1950s where he was influence by the remnants of the Harlem Renaissance and the World War II jazz era. Popularity. [87] Other tenor saxophone influences include Ben Webster and Don Byas. Sonny remembers that he took his leave of absence from the scene because “I was getting very famous at the time and I felt I needed to brush up on various aspects of my craft. [28], In November 1961, Rollins returned to the jazz scene with a residency at the Jazz Gallery in Greenwich Village; in March, 1962, he appeared on Ralph Gleason's television series Jazz Casual. 3 (Doxy/Okeh/Sony). Sonny Rollins, byname Newk, original name Theodore Walter Rollins, (born September 7, 1930, New York, New York, U.S.), American jazz musician, a tenor saxophonist who was among the finest improvisers on the instrument to appear since the mid-1950s. In 1957, Rollins pioneered the use of bass and drums, without piano, as accompaniment for his saxophone solos,[16] a texture that came to be known as "strolling." The award is one of Austria’s highest honors, given to leading international figures for distinguished achievements. [5] The youngest of three siblings, he grew up in central Harlem and on Sugar Hill,[6] receiving his first alto saxophone at the age of seven or eight. Mr. Rollins released Road Shows, vol. His parents, immigrants from the U.S. Virgin Islands, raised him in Manhattan’s central Harlem and Sugar Hill neighborhoods. He seemed to be shouting and gesticulating on his horn, as if he were waving his audience into battle. In addition, Sonny received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences in 2004. [46] For most of this period Rollins was recorded by producer Orrin Keepnews for Milestone Records (the compilation Silver City: A Celebration of 25 Years on Milestone contains a selection from these years). [75], In 2013, Rollins moved to Woodstock, New York. © 2021 Sonny Rollins All Rights Reserved. Sonny Rollins is a saxophone colossus. The period between 1962 and `66 saw him returning to action and striking productive relationships with Jim Hall, Don Cherry, Paul Bley, and his idol Hawkins, yet he grew dissatisfied with the music business once again and started yet another sabbatical in `66. I realized, no, I have to get back into the real world. Between 1951 and 1953, he recorded with Miles Davis, the Modern Jazz Quartet, Charlie Parker, and Thelonious Monk. How old is Sonny Rollins in 2021? Jazz Musician of the Day: Sonny Rollins “They’re not here now so I feel like I’m sort of representing all of them, all of the guys. Coming November 27 from Resonance Records: "Rollins in Holland" New Sonny Rollins-designed merchandise now available! The legendary saxophonist, approaching ninety, discusses civil rights, jazz, and creative change. Some thought he was playing the saxophone on the level of Bird. At the end of the year Rollins appeared as a sideman on Thelonious Monk's album Brilliant Corners and also recorded his own first album for Blue Note Records, entitled Sonny Rollins, Volume One, with Donald Byrd on trumpet, Wynton Kelly on piano, Gene Ramey on bass, and Roach on drums. Rollins was brilliant, yet restless. [73], Rollins has not performed in public since 2012,[74] due to recurring respiratory issues. Thomas." Since 2006, Rollins has been releasing his music on his own label, Doxy Records. Rollins accepted the award, the nation’s highest honor for artistic excellence, “on behalf of the gods of our music.”, Sonny Rollins and President Barack Obama, White House, March 2, 2011. At the age of sixteen, he switched to tenor, trying to emulate Hawkins. In his book The Jazz Style of Sonny Rollins, David N. Baker explains that Rollins "very often uses rhythm for its own sake. In a May 2005 New Yorker profile, Crouch wrote of Rollins the concert artist: Over and over, decade after decade, from the late seventies through the eighties and nineties, there he is, Sonny Rollins, the saxophone colossus, playing somewhere in the world, some afternoon or some eight o'clock somewhere, pursuing the combination of emotion, memory, thought, and aesthetic design with a command that allows him to achieve spontaneous grandiloquence. [86], 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. In 1968, he was the subject of a television documentary (in the series Creative Persons), directed by Dick Fontaine, entitled Who is Sonny Rollins? [23], By 1959, Rollins had become frustrated with what he perceived as his own musical limitations and took the first – and most famous – of his musical sabbaticals. He knew Bird, and Bird really liked Sonny, or “Newk” as we called him, because he looked like the Brooklyn Dodgers’ pitcher Don Newcombe. Born: 07 September 1930 Comment. In 2010 on the eve of his 80th birthday, Sonny Rollins is one of 229 leaders in the sciences, social sciences, humanities, arts, business, and public affairs who have been elected members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Remember, I’m one of the last guys left, as I’m constantly being told, so I feel a holy obligation sometimes to evoke these people.”. Rollins started as a pianist, changed to alto saxophone, and finally switched to tenor in 1946. [30] During this period, Rollins became a dedicated practitioner of yoga. In 1956, Sonny began recording the first of a series of landmark recordings issued under his own name: Valse Hot introduced the practice, now common, of playing bop in 3/4 meter; St. Thomasinitiated his explorations of calypso patterns; and Blue 7 was hailed by Gunther Schuller as demonstrating a new manner of “thematic improvisation,” in which the soloist develops motifs extracted from his theme. [92] He uses Frederick Hemke medium reeds. Way Out West (1957), Rollins’s first album using a trio of saxophone, double bass, and drums, offered a solution to his longstanding difficulties with incompatible pianists, and exemplified his witty ability to improvise on hackneyed material (Wagon Wheels, I’m an Old Cowhand). [11] Rollins initially feared sobriety would impair his musicianship, but then went on to greater success. He has just completed editing Road Shows, vol. September 07, 2019. Rollins’s first examples of the unaccompanied solo playing that would become a specialty also appeared in this period; yet the perpetually dissatisfied saxophonist questioned the acclaim his music was attracting, and between 1959 and late `61 withdrew from public performance. [40], He returned from his second sabbatical with a performance in Kongsberg, Norway, in 1971. Born Theodore Walter Rollins in New York City on September 7, 1930, he had an older brother who played violin. It was during this time that Sonny acquired a nickname,”Newk.” As Miles Davis explains in his autobiography: “Sonny had just got back from playing a gig out in Chicago. Sonny Rollins Before Fame. [43] Also in 1972, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in composition.[44]. Resonance Records To Issue Set Of 1967 Sonny Rollins Discoveries,... March 18, 2020. Sonny Rollins Biography, Life, Interesting Facts Early Years And Education Walter Theodore Rollins was born 7th September 1930 , in New York City , New York, in the United States. Birthday. By his mid-teens, Rollins became heavily influenced by alto saxophonist Charlie Parker. Sonny Rollins is, inarguably, on any short list of greatest living American musicians. Rollins grew up in a neighbourhood where Thelonious Monk, Coleman Hawkins (his early idol), and … He also played with a tenor saxophone hero, Coleman Hawkins, and free jazz pianist Paul Bley on Sonny Meets Hawk!, and he re-examined jazz standards and Great American Songbook melodies on Now's the Time and The Standard Sonny Rollins (which featured pianist Herbie Hancock). I know one thing–he was close. In 1972, with the encouragement and support of his wife Lucille, who had become his business manager, Rollins returned to performing and recording, signing with Milestone and releasing Next Album. Yet another major award was bestowed on Rollins on March 2, 2011, when he received the Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama in a White House ceremony. [28] Rollins admitted that he would often practice for 15 or 16 hours a day, no matter what season. So much of … [33] During the 1960s, he lived on Willoughby Street in Brooklyn, New York. About Sonny Rollins. The CD title is derived from one of his wife's favorite phrases. He also fell under the spell of the musical revolution that surrounded him, Bebop. His lengthy association with the Berkeley-based label produced two dozen albums in various settings – from his working groups to all-star ensembles (Tommy Flanagan, Jack DeJohnette, Stanley Clarke, Tony Williams); from a solo recital to tour recordings with the Milestone Jazzstars (Ron Carter, McCoy Tyner); in the studio and on the concert stage (Montreux, San Francisco, New York, Boston). Sonny’s brother Valdemar and sister Gloria both studied the violin and piano. Theodore Walter Rollins was born on September 7, 1930 in New York City. [54] In 1983, he was honored as a "Jazz Master" by the National Endowment for the Arts.[55]. (Listen to the music sample.) [18] Coleman, a pioneer of free jazz, stopped using a pianist in his own band two years later. September 07, 2018. After East Broadway Run Down (1966), which featured trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, bassist Jimmy Garrison, and drummer Elvin Jones, Rollins did not release another studio album for six years. On the album Our Man in Jazz, recorded live at The Village Gate, he explored avant-garde playing with a quartet that featured Cranshaw on bass, Billy Higgins on drums and Don Cherry on cornet. Critics such as Gary Giddins and Stanley Crouch have noted the disparity between Rollins the recording artist, and Rollins the concert artist. He came of age musically in the early '50s, developing a style that combined the gruff-toned swing of Coleman Hawkins with the Bebop innovations of Charlie Parker. [35] This became one of Rollins's best-selling records; in 2015 it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.[36]. So these are things I wanted to do. [14], In the solo for "St. Thomas", Rollins uses repetition of a rhythmic pattern, and variations of that pattern, covering only a few tones in a tight range, and employing staccato and semi-detached notes. That was followed by the acclaimed Road Shows, vol. Bennie Green, J.J. Johnson, trombone; Julius Watkins, French horn; Jordan Fordin, alto sax; Sonny Rollins, tenor sax; Linton Garner, piano; Art Phipps, bass; Jack "The Bear" Parker, drums; Babs Gonzales, vocals. Rollins was born in New York City to parents from the United States Virgin Islands. Sonny Rollins was born on September 7, 1930 in New York City, New York, USA as Theodore Walter Rollins. [60], In 1997, he was voted "Jazz Artist of the Year" in the Down Beat magazine critics' poll. In 1958, he appeared in Art Kane's A Great Day in Harlem photograph of jazz musicians in New York;[21] he is one of only two surviving musicians from the photo (the other being Benny Golson). It was recorded at an outdoor concert on August 16, 1986, held at Opus 40 in Saugerties, New York. Sonny Rollins' people came from the West Indies, and he loves calypsos, such as his 1956 classic "St. His preferred mouthpieces are made by Otto Link and Berg Larsen. In August 2010, Rollins was named the Edward MacDowell Medalist, the first jazz composer to be so honored. Sonny moved to Chicago for a few years to remove himself from the surrounding elements of negativity around the Jazz scene. During the second sabbatical, I worked in Japan a little bit, and went to India after that and spent a lot of time in a monastery. First Name Sonny #17. [81][82][83] Later that year, he endowed the "Sonny Rollins Jazz Ensemble Fund" at Oberlin College, in "recognition of the institution's long legacy of access and social justice advocacy. That November, he led a saxophone masterclass on French television. [51] He also frequently played long, extemporaneous unaccompanied cadenzas during performances with his band; a prime example is his introduction to the tune "Autumn Nocturne" on the 1978 album Don't Stop the Carnival. 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. From Sonny Rollins. Harlem, Manhattan, New York, New York, United States Jazz composer and saxophonist Sonny Rollins was born on September 7, 1930 in New York City. Sonny Rollins: Norway, 1971. It’s never good. [31] Rollins ended his sabbatical in November 1961. [25] Today, a fifteen-story apartment building named "The Rollins"[26] stands on the Grand Street site where he lived. 1 « Let's Cool One", "1948 High School Yearbook Benjamin Franklin High School", "Reaping a Sad Harvest: A "Narcotic Farm" That Tried to Grow Recovery [Slide Show]", "How Sonny Defeated the Dragon | Feature", "Sonny Rollins and the Challenge of Thematic Improvisation", "Sonny Rollins Trio: Live in Europe 1959 – review | Music", "From Sonny Rollins to Ruby the Fruit Man: A Tribute to the People of 400 Grand St", "New Rental Tower Rises Where Sonny Rollins Once Lived", "A Quest to Rename the Williamsburg Bridge for Sonny Rollins", "Sonny Rollins Describes How 50 Years of Practicing Yoga Made Him a Better Musician", "Sonny Rollins: A jazz mind in pursuit of improvisational heaven", "Jazz Casual: Sonny Rollins - Sonny Rollins | Songs, Reviews, Credits", "Pop/Jazz - Sonny Rollins and Pals In a Carnegie Reunion", "Sonny Rollins "The Bridge" included in 2015 Grammy Hall of Fame", "Sonny Rollins: Live in London | Night Lights Classic Jazz - WFIU Public Radio", "Jazz on Film: Sixties Jazz Films by Dick Fontaine", "Saxophone colossus Sonny Rollins in Powai", "NRK TV - Sonny Rollins i Kongsberg - 05.08.1971", "Sonny Rollins on His New Home, in the Key of E | House Call WSJ Mansion", "John Simon Guggenheim Foundation | Sonny Rollins", "BBC Four - Arena, Sonny Rollins '74: Rescued! [63] 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 Greenwich Street apartment,[64] with only his saxophone in hand. In 1974, Rollins added jazz bagpiper Rufus Harley to his band;[45] the group was filmed performing live at Ronnie Scott's in London. The Medal has been awarded annually since 1960 to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to his or her field. Following Sonny Rollins and the Big Brass (Sonny Rollins Brass/Sonny Rollins Trio), Rollins made one more studio album in 1958, Sonny Rollins and the Contemporary Leaders, before taking a three-year break from recording. "[59] Several days later, Rollins gave a performance at New York City's Beacon Theatre that reunited him with musicians with whom he played as a teenager, including McLean, Walter Bishop Jr., Percy Heath, Connie Henry, and Gil Coggins. [8] Rollins started as a pianist, changed to alto saxophone, and finally switched to tenor in 1946. Saxophonist #28. The saxophonist was joined by the musicians with whom he recorded for the next segment of his career: Jim Hall on guitar, Bob Cranshaw on double bass and Ben Riley on drums. Growing up on Sugar Hill, Rollins became fascinated with music and jazz at an early age. [69], In 2010 Rollins was awarded the National Medal of Arts[70] and the Edward MacDowell Medal;[71] in the fall of the same year he celebrated his 80th birthday with a concert at New York's Beacon Theatre that included a guest appearance by Ornette Coleman. In 1986, documentary filmmaker Robert Mugge released a film titled Saxophone Colossus. Although he was shaken, he traveled to Boston five days later to play a concert at the Berklee School of Music. Miles Davis was an early Sonny Rollins fan and in his autobiography wrote that he “began to hang out with Sonny Rollins and his Sugar Hill Harlem crowd…anyway, Sonny had a big reputation among a lot of the younger musicians in Harlem. I felt I was getting too much, too soon, so I said, wait a minute, I’m going to do it my way. "[15] Ever since recording "St. Thomas", Rollins's use of calypso rhythms has been one of his signature contributions to jazz; he often performs traditional Caribbean tunes such as "Hold 'Em Joe" and "Don't Stop the Carnival," and he has written many original calypso-influenced compositions, such as "Duke of Iron," "The Everywhere Calypso," and "Global Warming. 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, doing local engagements. Walter Theodore "Sonny" Rollins[1][2] (born September 7, 1930)[3] is an American jazz tenor saxophonist who is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. By Daniel Kin g. June 11, 2020 3; and Holding the Stage, released in April 2016. Zodiac sign : Virgo. He later said "I could have probably spent the rest of my life just going up on the bridge. 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. September 9, 1930. Sonny started talking about what kind of pitches he was going to throw Stan Musial, the great hitter for the St. Louis Cardinals, that evening…”. Date of Birth. I’ve always done, tried to do, what I wanted to do for myself. In 1955, Rollins entered the Federal Medical Center, Lexington, at the time the only assistance in the U.S. for drug addicts. [38] (These are unauthorized releases, and Rollins has responded by "bootlegging" them himself and releasing them on his website.). That December, he and fellow tenor saxophonist Sonny Stitt were featured together on Dizzy Gillespie's album Sonny Side Up. Thomas” and “Doxy.” He is considered a jazz great. Sonny Rollins on the Pandemic, Protests, and Music. Grammy Award-winning performer, composer of many well-known jazz standards like "St. Thomas" and "Doxy." This is interrupted by a sudden flourish, utilizing a much wider range before returning to the former pattern. Sonny Rollins: Soundtrack. Hargrove’s longtime manager confirmed the trumpeter’s death to NPR, adding that the cause of death was cardiac arrest; earlier in the week, Hargrove was admitted into a New York City hospital with kidney issues. 90 Year Old #29. He will sometimes improvise on a rhythmic pattern instead of on the melody or changes. The revered tenor saxophonist first received that appellation via the name of his 1956 Prestige Records album. After graduating from high school in 1948,[9] Rollins began performing professionally; he made his first recordings in early 1949 as a sideman with the bebop singer Babs Gonzales (trombonist J. J. Johnson was the arranger of the group). I took some time off to get myself together and I think it’s a good thing for anybody to do.”. Playing in public in 2012 due to recurring respiratory issues classic `` St City, York. And graduated from Benjamin Franklin High School in East Harlem States Sonny Rollins was on... With… < laughs > What does it feel like to play a concert at University! Most talented and innovative tenor saxophonist first received that appellation via the name of his during! Spell of the musical revolution that surrounded him, bebop returning to the forefront Brooklyn Dodgers star pitcher Don.! 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