Photo Credit: Sonny Rollins by RI-jim / CC by 3.0
Sonny Rollins, widely considered America’s greatest living jazz musician, passed away on May 25th at his home in New York. He was 95 years old.
Tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins, one of America’s most renowned jazz musicians and a “saxophone colossus,” passed away on May 25 at his home in Woodstock, New York. He was 95 years old.
His publicist, Terri Hinte, shared a statement confirming his death. Rollins had stopped performing over a decade ago due to a diagnosis of pulmonary fibrosis. He was a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, a recipient of a Kennedy Center honor, and a recipient of the National Medal of the Arts.
“All these prizes are nice; I appreciate them,” Rollins told NPR in 2007. “I don’t go crazy about them—you have to do your work whether you’re recognized or not. The real deal is doing it the best you can do it and that’s it. That’s its own reward.”
Sonny Rollins was born in 1930 in New York City and grew up on Harlem’s Sugar Hill, where some of the most successful jazz musicians of the era lived. His neighbors included Jackie McLean, Art Taylor, and Kenny Drew. Rollins was inspired by the experimentation and new style that was developing in the region.
He was at the forefront of the jazz world, but withdrew in the late 1950s, seeking a new direction. In 1962, he returned with a new album, The Bridge, the release of which was viewed as a cultural event. But his style was informed by his own tastes—not by commercialism. Rollins composed a theme for the movie Alfie, played with the Rolling Stones, and recorded a version of Stevie Wonder’s “Isn’t She Lovely.”
“The corporate culture is anathema to jazz,” he told NPR. “We don’t like the cookie-cutter, everything exactly the same way. We’re about creation, freedom, thinking things out in the moment, like life is. Life changes every minute. A different sunset every night; that’s what jazz is about.”
Later in his life, he ran his own record label, Doxy Records, which was distributed by Sony Masterworks.
“I think when I’m playing completely spontaneous, just something comes out from somewhere, that’s my best work,” he said. “Say, for instance, if I’m doing a song, any song—I practice it, I learn it. I learn the lyrics, I learn everything that’s possible to learn about the physical piece of the composition, or whatever it is. Then, when I get on a concert stage, I forget about it. I try not to think about it. Then I let the music play me.”
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