Sonny Rollins facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Sonny Rollins
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Rollins in 2011
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Walter Theodore Rollins |
| Born | September 7, 1930 New York City, U.S. |
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| Years active | 1947–2014 |
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Walter Theodore "Sonny" Rollins (born September 7, 1930) is an American retired jazz tenor saxophonist. Many people see him as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians ever.
Sonny Rollins had a career that lasted for seventy years. During this time, he recorded over sixty albums as the main artist. Some of his songs, like "St. Thomas", "Oleo", "Doxy", and "Airegin", are now known as jazz standards. This means they are famous and often played by other jazz musicians. Rollins has even been called "the greatest living improviser." He stopped performing in public in 2012 and announced his retirement in 2014 because of health issues.
Contents
Early Life and Musical Beginnings
Sonny Rollins was born in New York City. His parents came from the United States Virgin Islands. He was the youngest of three children. He grew up in Harlem and on Sugar Hill. He got his first alto saxophone when he was about seven or eight years old.
He went to Edward W. Stitt Junior High School. Later, he graduated from Benjamin Franklin High School in East Harlem. Rollins first started playing the piano. Then he switched to the alto saxophone. Finally, in 1946, he decided to play the tenor saxophone. In high school, he played in a band with other musicians who would become jazz legends. These included Jackie McLean, Kenny Drew, and Art Taylor.
Career Highlights and Famous Recordings
Starting Out: 1949–1956
After high school in 1948, Rollins began playing music professionally. He made his first recordings in 1949. He played with a singer named Babs Gonzales. Over the next few months, he became more well-known. He recorded with other famous musicians like Bud Powell, Fats Navarro, and Roy Haynes.
Between 1951 and 1953, he recorded with Miles Davis, the Modern Jazz Quartet, Charlie Parker, and Thelonious Monk. A big moment happened in 1954. He recorded his famous songs "Oleo", "Airegin", and "Doxy" with Miles Davis's group. These songs appeared on the album Bags' Groove.
Rollins briefly joined the Miles Davis Quintet in 1955. Later that year, he joined the Clifford Brown–Max Roach quintet. After Clifford Brown and the band's pianist died in a car accident in 1956, Rollins kept playing with Max Roach. He also started releasing his own albums.
His very famous album Saxophone Colossus was recorded in 1956. On this album, he played with Tommy Flanagan on piano, Doug Watkins on bass, and his favorite drummer, Max Roach. This album included his most famous song, "St. Thomas." This song is a Caribbean calypso tune. His mother used to sing a similar tune to him when he was a child. The album also had "Strode Rode," a fast bebop song, and "Moritat" (also known as "Mack the Knife").
In his solo for "St. Thomas," Rollins often repeats a rhythmic pattern. He changes it slightly, using only a few notes. He also uses short, sharp notes. Sometimes, he suddenly plays a lot of notes very quickly. Then he goes back to the original pattern. This shows how he uses rhythm in his music. Since recording "St. Thomas," Rollins has often used calypso rhythms in his jazz. He plays traditional Caribbean songs and writes his own calypso-inspired music.
In 1956, he also recorded Tenor Madness. The main song on this album is the only time Rollins recorded with John Coltrane.
New Sounds: 1957–1959
In 1957, Rollins started playing with just a bass and drums. There was no piano. This style became known as "strolling." Two early albums with this trio style are Way Out West and A Night at the Village Vanguard, both from 1957. Way Out West was recorded in California. It included country and western songs like "Wagon Wheels."
Rollins became known for taking simple or unusual songs. He would then use them as a base for his amazing improvisations. For example, he played "There's No Business Like Show Business" and "Toot, Toot, Tootsie."
Rollins got the nickname "Newk." This was because he looked a bit like the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball player Don Newcombe.
In 1957, he played at Carnegie Hall for the first time. He also recorded another album for Blue Note, Sonny Rollins, Volume Two. In December, he and another saxophonist, Sonny Stitt, played together on Dizzy Gillespie's album Sonny Side Up.
In 1958, Rollins was in a famous photo called A Great Day in Harlem. This picture showed many jazz musicians in New York. He is one of the few musicians from that photo who are still alive.
That same year, Rollins recorded Freedom Suite. This album was for saxophone, bass, and drums. Rollins wrote in the album notes about how African Americans, who contributed so much to American culture, were still treated unfairly. The main song is a long, improvised blues piece. The album also had popular show tunes.
After a few more albums, Rollins took a break from recording for three years.
The Bridge: 1959–1961
By 1959, Rollins felt he needed to improve his music. So, he took his first big break from performing. He lived on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. To avoid bothering a pregnant neighbor, he went to the pedestrian path of the Williamsburg Bridge to practice.
Almost every day from 1959 to 1961, Rollins practiced on the bridge. He was right next to the subway tracks. Rollins said he often practiced for 15 or 16 hours a day, no matter the weather. During this time, he also started practicing yoga. Rollins ended his break in November 1961. He later said, "I realized, no, I have to get back into the real world." There is now a campaign to rename the bridge in his honor.
New Directions: 1961–1969
In November 1961, Rollins returned to the jazz scene. He played at the Jazz Gallery in Greenwich Village. In March 1962, he appeared on a TV show called Jazz Casual.
He named his 1962 "comeback" album The Bridge. This album became one of his best-selling records. In 2015, it was added to the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Rollins recorded several different albums during this time. His 1962 album What's New? explored Latin rhythms. On Our Man in Jazz, he tried out avant-garde (very new and experimental) playing. He also played with his hero, Coleman Hawkins, on Sonny Meets Hawk!
In 1963, he made his first trip to Japan.
He later released a soundtrack for the 1966 film Alfie. After his album East Broadway Run Down in 1966, Rollins did not release another studio album for six years.
In 1968, a TV documentary about him was made. It was called Who is Sonny Rollins?
Second Break: 1969–1971
In 1969, Rollins took another two-year break from public performances. During this time, he visited Jamaica. He also spent several months in India. There, he studied yoga, meditation, and Eastern philosophies.
Return to Music: 1971–2000
Rollins returned from his second break in 1971. He performed in Kongsberg, Norway. A critic wrote that Rollins "had changed again. He had become a whirlwind." He released Next Album in 1972. That same year, he received a Guggenheim Fellowship for his music.
In the 1970s and 1980s, he started to like R&B, pop, and funk rhythms. Some of his bands during this time used electric guitar and electric bass.
In 1979, he played an unaccompanied saxophone solo on The Tonight Show. In 1985, he released The Solo Album, which was recorded live. He often played long, unplanned solos during his concerts.
By the 1980s, Rollins mostly played in concert halls. He added saxophone solos to three songs by the Rolling Stones for their 1981 album Tattoo You. This included the song "Waiting on a Friend." In 1983, he was honored as a "Jazz Master."
In 1986, a film about him called Saxophone Colossus was released. It showed two of his performances.
In 1993, the Sonny Rollins International Jazz Archives opened at the University of Pittsburgh.
New York City Hall declared November 13, 1995, "Sonny Rollins Day." A few days later, Rollins performed in New York City. He played with musicians he knew from his teenage years.
In 1997, he was voted "Jazz Artist of the Year." The next year, Rollins, who cares a lot about the environment, released an album called Global Warming.
Later Years and Retirement: 2001–Present
Rollins won a Grammy Award in 2001 for his album This Is What I Do. On September 11, 2001, Rollins was near the World Trade Center collapse. He had to leave his apartment with only his saxophone. Even though he was shaken, he played a concert in Boston five days later. This live recording was released as Without a Song: The 9/11 Concert in 2005. It won a Grammy for his performance of "Why Was I Born?"
Rollins received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004. His wife, Lucille, passed away that year.
In 2006, Rollins won three awards in a Down Beat magazine poll. He was named "Jazzman of the Year," "#1 Tenor Sax Player," and his album Without a Song: The 9/11 Concert was "Recording of the Year."
After a successful tour in Japan, Rollins recorded the album Sonny, Please (2006). The album's title came from one of his wife's favorite sayings. This album was released on Rollins's own record label, Doxy Records.
During these years, Rollins often toured around the world. He played in Europe, South America, Asia, and Australia. On September 18, 2007, he performed at Carnegie Hall. This celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of his first performance there.
Around 2000, Rollins started recording many of his live concerts. He has saved recordings of over 250 shows. Four albums have been released from these recordings. These include Road Shows, Vol. 1 and Road Shows, Vol. 2. The second volume has recordings from his 80th birthday concert. This concert included his first recorded performance with Ornette Coleman.
In 2010, Rollins received the National Medal of Arts. He also celebrated his 80th birthday with a concert in New York. The next year, a new documentary about him was made. It was called Beyond the Notes.
Rollins has not performed in public since 2012. He officially retired in 2014 because of ongoing breathing problems.
In 2013, Rollins moved to Woodstock, New York. That spring, he appeared on The Simpsons TV show. He also received an honorary music degree from the Juilliard School in New York City.
In 2014, a Dutch TV documentary about him was released. In October 2015, he received a lifetime achievement award from the Jazz Foundation of America.
In 2017, Rollins gave his personal collection of items to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Later that year, he created a fund at Oberlin College to support jazz music.
Musical Influences
When he was starting out, Sonny Rollins liked the jump and R&B sounds of musicians like Louis Jordan. But soon, he became interested in the main tenor saxophone tradition. This tradition involves both the strong sound of Coleman Hawkins and the light, flexible playing of Lester Young. These styles greatly inspired the fast improvisations of bebop in the 1950s.
Other tenor saxophonists who influenced him include Ben Webster and Don Byas. By his mid-teens, Rollins was very influenced by alto saxophonist Charlie Parker. During his high school years, the pianist and composer Thelonious Monk was his mentor. Rollins often practiced at Monk's apartment.
Instruments Played
Sonny Rollins has played different saxophones over the years. He has used a Selmer Mark VI tenor saxophone and a Buescher Aristocrat. In the 1970s, he recorded on the soprano saxophone for the album Easy Living. He prefers mouthpieces made by Otto Link and Berg Larsen. He uses Frederick Hemke medium reeds for his saxophone.
Awards and Honors
Sonny Rollins has received many awards and honors for his amazing contributions to jazz music:
- Elected to the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame (1973)
- Honorary Doctor of Arts from Bard College (1992)
- Honorary Doctor of Music from Wesleyan University (1998)
- Honorary Doctor of Music from Long Island University (1998)
- Honorary Doctor of Music from Duke University (1999)
- Honorary Doctor of Music from New England Conservatory of Music (2002)
- Honorary Doctor of Music from Berklee College of Music (2003)
- Grammy Award for lifetime achievement (2004)
- Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement (2006)
- Minneapolis, Minnesota officially named October 31, 2006, after Rollins
- Polar Music Prize (2007)
- Honorary Doctor of Music from Colby College (2007)
- Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class (2009)
- Honorary Doctor of Music from Rutgers University (2009)
- National Medal of Arts (2010)
- Miles Davis Award at the Montreal Jazz Festival (2010)
- Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2010)
- Edward MacDowell Medal (2010)
- Kennedy Center Honors on his 81st birthday (September 7, 2011)
- Honorary Doctor of Music from the Juilliard School (May 2013)
- Honorary Doctor of Music from the University of Hartford (2015)
See also
- Sonny Rollins discography
