Sonny Rollins, the saxophonist who reinvented his playing as a young man by spending more than two years practicing alone on a windy New York bridge, becoming one of the giants of the jazz world, died on May 25 at the age of 95, his publicist announced.
Rollins confidently recorded an album in 1956 titled “Jazz Colossus.” But the saxophonist still struggled with self-doubt.
So in the summer of 1959, he began performing on the windswept sidewalks of New York’s Williamsburg Bridge. Initially intended as a place to avoid bothering a pregnant neighbor, the sidewalk became a never-ending training ground.
“What made me sit out and go to the bridge was how I felt about my play. I knew I was unhappy,” Rollins told the Guardian in 2022.
He ended up spending more than two years there, often 14 or 15 hours a day.
“Of course, sometimes I went to the bathroom or went to my favorite bar for a cognac,” he said. “But I’ll be right back after that.”
The resulting record, The Bridge, was not a complete departure from his previous style, but it took his soloing and improvisation to a new level. A Jazz Journal review at the time said that Rollins was able to “extract every last drop of meaning from specific phrases taken from a song’s melody.”
This record also set him on the path to becoming one of the most acclaimed performers of his generation, along with John Coltrane and Wayne Shorter.
According to a statement released on May 25, Rollins died at his home in Woodstock, New York.
“I was just soaking in it.”
Born September 7, 1930, Walter Theodore Rollins grew up surrounded by music in Harlem.
Both his brother and sister studied violin and piano. Pianist Fats Waller lived nearby. Sonny, known from an early age, recalled intuitively knowing that Waller’s music was perfect for him, telling PBS NewsHour, “It was like a baby getting a bottle or something.”
His idol, saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, also lived nearby.
On his way to school, Rollins passed the Cotton Club and the Savoy Ballroom. Both venues are at the heart of the New York jazz scene. “I was really hooked from the beginning,” he said.
A child prodigy, Rollins was influenced by saxophonist Charlie Parker and mentored by pianist Thelonious Monk. Early opportunities came in the late 1950s, when he performed with leading jazz artists such as Art Blakey, Bud Powell, and Miles Davis.
He wrote some of Davis’ most famous early works, including “Oreo” and “Iregin.”
Saxophone Colossus included the calypso-inspired “St. Thomas,” which began a long relationship with the music loved by his parents, who hail from the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Rollins’ often marathon and intense solo playing earned him a reputation as the greatest jazz saxophone improviser.
He told PBS that he would go on stage with a blank mind and no plan for his solo beyond being aware of the structure of the song. “Improvise and leave it entirely to the military,” he said. “Sometimes I’m surprised by what comes out.”
Rollins also introduced the innovation of using the saxophone as a rhythm section instrument.
The album includes the soundtracks for the films “Alfie” and “East Broadway Run Down,” both recorded in 1966.
His devilish composition for “Alfie” captured the mood of that film as well as Davis’s haunting score had done for Louis Malle’s “Elevator to the Gallows” eight years earlier.
“I’m the last man.”
Things could have gone very differently for Rollins. In 1950 he was arrested for armed robbery and spent 10 months in prison.
“Looking back, this was my first sabbatical! Unlike other sabbaticals, it wasn’t self-imposed. But it was a learning experience,” Rollins said of his time behind bars in an interview with Uncut magazine.
“Prison was a brutal place, but luckily I was involved in music so I avoided most of the brutality.”
In 1952, he was rearrested for violating the terms of his parole for using heroin, but later replaced that habit with exercise and yoga practice, avoiding the all-night parties that had destroyed the careers of many other musicians.
During another sabbatical beginning in 1969, he spent time in Japan and India, including a stay in a monastery, and returned in the early 1970s to make further records.
Lucille, whom he married in 1965, served as his manager. The couple remained together until her death in 2004, but had no children.
Rollins recorded more than 60 albums as a leader. He performed with bands such as the Rolling Stones, and provided improvisations on three songs on their 1981 album Tattoo You. However, he later told the New York Times that he felt that their music was “just an offshoot of Negro blues” and that it did not concern him.
He won two Grammy Awards from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and received the organization’s Lifetime Achievement Award before a respiratory illness forced him to stop performing. He retired in 2014.
Rollins recognized his place as the last surviving giant of the Parker, Monk, and Coltrane era of jazz.
“I’m the last man standing, but in a way I’m not, because even though I’m gone, my music will still be here,” he told PBS in 2011. “We’re all still here, we’re all still here.”
(Editing by Olivier Holmy and Rosalba O’Brien)
