Sonny Rollins

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jazz musician; saxophonist

Personal Information

Born Theodore Walter Rollins, September 7, 1930, in New York City; son of Valborg Rollins and Walter William Rollins; married Lucille Pearson Rollins Williams
Religion: Zen Buddhism.

Career

Recorded with Babs Gonzales, 1949; performed with Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk, early-to-mid 1950s; joined Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet, 1955; led own groups, beginning in 1957; withdrew from jazz world, 1959-61; returned to performing with guitarist Jim Hall, 1961; composed film score for Alfie, 1966; withdrew from jazz world, 1968-72; returned with Next Album, 1972; toured with Milestone Jazzstars, 1978; performed at Great American Music Hall, Carnegie Hall, and Museum of Modern Art; continued to record a series of albums for Milestone including Sonny Rollins Plus Three, 1996; Global Warming, 1998; This Is What I Do, 2000.

Life's Work

In 1997 Down Beat critics named Sonny Rollins as both jazz artist and tenor saxophonist of the year. He had recorded major albums like Saxophone Colossus by the time he was 26, and had also recorded with Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, and J. J. Johnson. But throughout his career, Rollins has continued to pursue a quest--a journey that can best be described as spiritual--for new ways to approach jazz. Now in his sixth decade as a jazz performer, the 72-year-old saxophonist continues to play 40 dates per year and record new material. He is also one of the few remaining active players from the 1950s jazz scene. Scott Yanow wrote in All Music Guide, "Rollins has for over 40 years been one of the true jazz giants, ranking up there with Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young and John Coltrane as one of the all-time great tenor saxophonists." Although he no longer practices 9 to 10 hours a day, Rollins remains committed to his art. "I don't smoke, I don't drink, I don't have hobbies," Rollins told George Goodman in the Atlantic Monthly, "because music is everything for the remaining time I have on this earth."

Started Professional Life Early

Theodore Walter Rollins was born in New York City on September 7, 1930. His mother, Valborg Rollins, had emigrated from St. Thomas and worked as a domestic; his father, Walter William Rollins, had emigrated from St. Croix and rose to the rank of chief petty officer during his Naval career. Although his father was seldom home during the 1930s and 1940s, Rollins spent summers with him at the naval base in Annapolis. Theirs was a musical family. Rollins's father played clarinet, his sister piano, and his brother violin. When he was eight, his parents encouraged him to play the piano, but he preferred baseball. "All West Indian parents wanted children who could entertain by playing something at teatime on Sundays," Rollins's sister, Gloria Anderson, told Goodman, "but no one wanted them to think of becoming a jazz musician." Rollins was exposed to politics at an early age by his activist grandmother, Miriam Solomon, who took him along to protest the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, the incarceration of the Scottsboro boys, and the harassment of singer Paul Robeson.

Rollins became interested in the saxophone after listening to recordings of Louis Jordan playing with the Tympany Five. "That began my liking the saxophone," Rollins told Bob Belden in Down Beat. "I had always liked music, but I think that kind of made me conscious of that particular instrument, and I began to recognize that instrument when I heard it." He listened to recordings by Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster, but his most important musical education came from other musicians. When he was nine years old, his family moved to the Sugar Hill district of Harlem, a prominent African-American neighborhood where Hawkins, Don Redman, Cy Oliver, and a number of other jazz musicians lived. When he reached the age of 13, his mother bought him his first saxophone, an alto, and gave him the 25 cents needed for lessons at the New York Academy of Music. "Twenty-five cents didn't get very much," he told Goodman. "I consider myself largely self-taught, but not well enough. I've always tried to push myself to make up for it."

When Rollins graduated from Benjamin Franklin High School in 1947, he already belonged to the musicians' union and had begun to work as a professional. He made his first recording in 1949 with singer Babs Gonzales, and completed The Amazing Bud Powell, Vol. 1 with the young pianist the same year. While working on Mad Bebop with J.J. Johnson, he also received the opportunity to record one of his own compositions, "Audubon." Remembering these early recordings, Rollins told Belden, "I was just so much in heaven to be there just playing with these guys.... I was just trying to represent myself in a good way." The atmosphere was also competitive, leading the "in" crowd to exclude anyone who was perceived as lacking. Rollins explained to Goodman, "You were asked to come back, or you weren't. If you were playing a gig and weren't cutting it, they might leave you alone on the bandstand."

Emerged as a Tenor Saxophonist

In 1951 Miles Davis invited Rollins to join his band and Rollins subsequently played on Miles and Horns, Dig, and Conception. His association with Davis led to his first contract with Prestige Records, where he recorded Sonny Rollins with the Modern Jazz Quartet, an album that gave notice to the jazz world: a new tenor had arrived. "The program overall shows that, even in his formative stage, Sonny Rollins was near the top of his field," wrote Yanow. Many musicians, however, made the mistake of emulating their bandstand idols. Goodman wrote, "Rollins and Coltrane were unmatched in their worship of Parker, which led them nearly to self-destruction as they fell into some of the excesses of Parker's personal life." Although the young saxophonist seemed on his way to a brilliant career, he had developed a heroin habit after finishing high school. Rollins told Goodman, "After the war, the streets of Harlem were flooded with heroin.... I thought at first that it helped me focus on music, but then I realized it was a trick bag."

Rollins struck bottom in 1955. He was living on the streets in the Chicago subway system, addicted to heroin and homeless. Finally realizing that he needed to clean up his life, he traveled to Kentucky and checked into the Public Service Hospital in Lexington, where he remained for the next four months. "Rollins went the full term and was clinically 'cured,'" wrote Charles Blancq in Sonny Rollins: The Journey of a Jazzman, "but his return to professional music was necessarily slow and cautious." Rollins returned to Chicago, got a job as a janitor, and began practicing the saxophone again. He reemerged when the Max Roach/Clifford Brown Quintet came to Chicago. When Harold Land, the group's saxophonist, had to return to California (for the birth of his child), Roach asked Rollins to sit in. "The Brown/Roach Quintet was among the top two or three jazz combos of the 1950s," noted Blancq. The band recorded the hard-bop classic At Basin Street, and the association lasted 19 months, until the time of Brown's tragic early death in an automobile accident. Members of the band also joined Rollins for Saxophone Colossus, a two-LP set that Blancq called "the most critically discussed and analyzed recording of his career."

In May of 1957 Rollins left the Max Roach Quintet, played at the Café Bohemia with Miles Davis, and then formed his own band for a date at the Village Vanguard. He recorded with Thelonious Monk and completed Tenor Madness with John Coltrane. During this time he also dropped the piano and trumpet from his quintet, and for the next two years he performed exclusively with bass and drum accompaniment. Rollins then recorded another landmark album in 1957, Way Out West, and showed his sense of humor by appearing on the cover dressed in western clothing, standing next to a cactus. "This timeless recording," noted Yanow, "established Sonny Rollins as jazz's top tenor saxophonist. " Recorded with bassist Ray Brown and drummer Shelly Manne, the album included such unlikely jazz pieces as "I'm an Old Cowhand" and the title cut. By 1958, Goodman wrote, "Rollins was at the peak of his powers and reaping the rewards."

Went On Self-Imposed Sabbatical

The success, artistically and monetarily, was short-lived. When Rollins's mother died in 1959, he became emotionally distraught. A year later, following a tour in Europe, he went into seclusion for two years. The reasons for his sabbatical, however, ran deeper than personal problems. "What does a jazzman do when he feels like he is losing contact with his audience? When he senses ... that his creative powers are gradually ebbing away?" Blancq asked. "He retires; at least that is what Sonny Rollins did." Rollins studied musical theory and composition, and began a physical fitness program. His Lower East Side apartment, however, was too cramped for his new regimen. He found the space he needed by practicing on the Williamsburg Bridge walkway against a backdrop of cars, boats, and subways, his horn drowned out by the noise.

During Rollins' absence, the jazz world experienced a revolution in sound, represented by the experiments of Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane. Whereas be-bop had combined complex chord patterns with breakneck pacing, free jazz allowed players to build compositions without the constrictions of traditional structures. The public, however, quickly grew tired of the new style and jazz clubs began drying up.

In the fall of 1961 Rollins performed at New York's Jazz Gallery, reentering the quickly evolving scene. Gradually, he hired Coleman sidemen like trumpeter Don Cherry and drummer Billy Higgins, and began to play free jazz on albums like On the Outside (1963) and Stuttgart (1963). Critics, however, were divided on the saxophonist's new direction, and Rollins himself vacillated between traditional and avant-garde approaches. He toured Germany and Austria, and while he continued to record, he did so less frequently than in the 1950s. "Like many jazz musicians of this period who were searching for a deeper meaning in their music and life," wrote Blancq, "Rollins sought to enrich his through a new physical and spiritual awakening." In 1965 he toured England, which led to composing the film score for the movie Alfie, and in 1966, he recorded East Broadway Rundown, his last album before beginning another, lengthier retirement.

In 1963 and 1968, Rollins visited Japan and became interested in Zen Buddhism. He continued to explore his spirituality during his second sabbatical, and escaped from the music business, with which he had become dissatisfied. He told Belden, "As most musicians are, I was at the mercy of these unscrupulous agents." In 1968 Rollins departed for India. "Taking his horn and little else," Goodman wrote, "he spent four months in the Powaii Ashram in the Bombay suburbs, meditating on his life's mission and practicing hatha yoga." During his lengthy absence from jazz, Rollins even ceased playing his saxophone for 20 months.

Established as Jazz Icon

Rollins returned to the jazz scene in 1972, signing with Milestone Records and releasing Next Album. He received a Guggenheim fellowship in 1972 and was elected as the 38th member of the Down Beat Hall of Fame in 1973. His music continued to evolve, this time absorbing pop influences without flirting with the more experimental fusion of Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, and Weather Report. Goodman noted that "his work for the next two decades left much of his original following behind and failed to draw the critical acclaim of his earlier years." Rollins, however, continued unperturbed. His wife, Lucille, was now managing his career and he enjoyed his widest popularity to date, a mainstream acceptance that included an appearance on the Tonight Show. "There are people," he told Goodman, "who want to hear the way I sounded on Saxophone Colossus. You don't go back over the same ground and stay creative." Rollins also began playing in concert halls, as opposed to clubs, in the late 1970s. He told Belden, "Jazz needs some dignity. It needs to be looked at as a serious, important art form. And if you're going to be playing in nightclubs ...you're not going to get that kind of respect for it."

Rollins's work returned to critical favor in the 1990s when he recorded a series of well-received albums, including Sonny Rollins Plus Three and Global Warming. "This Is What I Do, a mellow, reflective recital, caps a decade-long succession of magnificent albums on which the aging titan confronts his past head-on with a sound that subsumes his entire history," wrote Ted Panken in Down Beat. In 2001 Rollins celebrated his 70th birthday as well as his 50th year as a professional jazz musician, making him one of the few remaining giants from the 1950s. "When I think about my departed colleagues," he told Michael Anthony in the Star Tribune, "I never think of them as departed, because their music is alive within me." Despite his multiple achievements, Rollins remains a perfectionist and refuses to rest on his laurels. Rollins told Anthony, "There's still a lot of things I'm not satisfied with in my playing, and I'm trying to get to these things before I leave this planet."

Awards

Guggenheim Fellowship, 1972; Down Beat, Jazz Artist and Tenor Saxophonist of the Year, 1997.

Works

Selected discography

• Sonny Rollins Plus Four, Original Jazz Classics, 1956.
• Tenor Madness, Original Jazz Classics, 1956.
• Way Out West, Original Jazz Classics, 1957.
• A Night at the Village Vanguard, Vol. 1, Blue Note, 1957.
• Freedom Suite, Original Jazz Classics, 1958.
• The Bridge, Bluebird, 1962.
• Alfie (film score), Impulse!, 1966.
• East Broadway Rundown, Impulse!, 1966.
• Next Album, Original Jazz Classics, 1972.
• Sonny Rollins Plus Three, Milestone, 1996.
• Global Warming, Milestone, 1998.
• This Is What I Do, Milestone, 2000.

Further Reading

Books

• Blancq, Charles, Sonny Rollins: The Journey of a Jazzman, Twayne Publishers, 1983, pp. 6-13.

Periodicals

• Atlantic Monthly, July 1999, p. 82.
• Billboard, June 10, 2000.
• Down Beat, August 1997, p. 18; February 2001, p. 22.
• Star Tribune, March 23, 2001, p. 22.

On-line

• All Music Guide, http://www.allmusic.com (September 1, 2002).
• Biography Resource Center, Gale, 2002, http://www.galenet.com/servlet/BioRC.

— Ronnie D. Lankford Jr

• Born: September 07, 1930, New York, NY
• Active: '40s, '50s, '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s, 2000s
• Genres: Jazz
• Instrument: Sax (Tenor), Leader, Composer
• Representative Albums: "Saxophone Colossus," "Way Out West," "A Night at the Village Vanguard"
• Representative Songs: "St. Thomas," "Tenor Madness," "Way Out West"

Biography

Sonny Rollins will go down in history as not only the single most enduring tenor saxophonist of the bebop and hard bop era, but also the greatest contemporary jazz saxophonist of them all. His fluid and harmonically innovative ideas, effortless manner, and easily identifiable and accessible sound have influenced generations of performers, but have also fueled the notion that mainstream jazz music can be widely enjoyed, recognized, and proliferated. Born Theodore Walter Rollins in New York City on September 7, 1929, he had an older brother who played violin. 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. In 1948 he recorded with vocalist Babs Gonzales, then Bud Powell and Fats Navarro, and his first composition, "Audubon," was recorded by J.J. Johnson. Soon thereafter, Rollins made the rounds quickly with groups led by Art Blakey, Tadd Dameron, Chicago drummer Ike Day, and Miles Davis in 1951, followed by his own recordings with Kenny Drew, Kenny Dorham, and Thelonious Monk.

In 1956 Rollins made his biggest move, joining the famous ensemble of Max Roach and Clifford Brown, then formed his own legendary pianoless trio with bassist Wilbur Ware or Donald Bailey and drummer Elvin Jones or Pete La Roca in 1957, doing recorded sessions at the Village Vanguard. Awards came from Down Beat and Playboy magazines, and recordings were done mainly for the Prestige and Riverside labels, but also for Verve, Blue Note, Columbia, and Contemporary Records, all coinciding with the steadily rising star of Rollins. Pivotal albums such as Tenor Madness (with John Coltrane), Saxophone Colossus (with longstanding partner Tommy Flanagan), and Way Out West (with Ray Brown and Shelly Manne), and collaborations with the Modern Jazz Quartet, Clark Terry, and Sonny Clark firmly established Rollins as a bona fide superstar. He also acquired the nickname "Newk" for his facial resemblance to Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Don Newcombe.

But between 1959 and 1961 he sought a less superficial, more spiritual path to the rat race society of the times, visiting Japan and India, studying yoga and Zen. He left the music business until 1962, when he returned with the groundbreaking and in many ways revolutionary recording The Bridge with guitarist Jim Hall for the RCA Victor/Bluebird label. Rollins struck up a working relationship with trumpeter Don Cherry; did a handful of innovative LPs for the RCA Victor, MGM/Metro Jazz, and Impulse! labels; did one record with his hero Coleman Hawkins; and left the scene again in 1968. By 1971 he came back with a renewed sense of vigor and pride, and put out a string of successful records for the Milestone label that bridged the gap between the contemporary and fusion jazz of the time, the most memorable being his live date from the 1974 Montreux Jazz Festival, The Cutting Edge. Merging jazz with calypso, light funk, and post-bop, the career of Rollins not only was revived, but thrived from then onward. He was a member of the touring Milestone Jazz Stars in 1978 with McCoy Tyner and Ron Carter, and gained momentum as a touring headliner and festival showstopper.

His finest Milestone recordings of the second half of his career include Easy Living, Don't Stop the Carnival, G-Man, Old Flames, Plus Three, Global Warming, This Is What I Do, and Without a Song: The 9/11 Concert. He has worked extensively with road and recording bands that have included such artists as electric bass guitarist Bob Cranshaw; trombonist Clifton Anderson; pianists Tommy Flanagan and Stephen Scott; keyboardist Mark Soskin; guitarists Bobby Broom and Jerome Harris; percussionist Kimati Dinizulu; and drummers Jack DeJohnette, Perry Wilson, Steve Jordan, and Al Foster. Rollins formed his own record label, Doxy, through which he issued the CD Sonny, Please in 2006. Well into his eighth decade of life, Rollins continued to perform worldwide. As a composer, he will always be known for three memorable melodies that have become standards and well-recognized tunes in the jazz canon -- "Oleo," "Airegin," and especially "St. Thomas." ~ Michael G. Nastos, All Music Guide

In Japan Buy this CD	Stopper Buy this CD	Newk's Time Buy this CD	Airegin: 1951-1956 Buy this CD	Tenor Madness 1956 Buy this CD
Freedom Suite 1956-1958 Buy this CD	Tenor Madness [2006] Buy this CD	Sound of Sonny [2007 Bonus Track] Buy this CD	Mambo Bounce Buy this CD	Original Album Classics Buy this CD

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