Influential jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins dies at 95

May 25 (Reuters) – sonny rollins In 1956, the saxophonist confidently recorded an album titled “Jazz Colossus.” But the saxophonist was still plagued by self-doubt.

So, in the summer of 1959, he began playing on the windswept sidewalk of New York’s Williamsburg Bridge. What began as a place for him to avoid disturbing his pregnant neighbor turned into an endless practice space.

“What made me quit and go to bridge was how I felt about my playing,” Rollins told The Guardian in 2022. “I know I’m not satisfied.”

He ended up spending more than two years there, often working 14 or 15 hours a day.

“Of course, sometimes I’ll come down and go to the bathroom, or go to my favorite bar where I might have a glass of brandy,” he said. “But I’d go right back.”

The resulting record, bridgenot quite breaking away from his previous style but taking his solos and improvisations to the next level. Commented on jazz magazine Rollins was said at the time to be able to “extract every last shred of meaning from specific phrases in a song’s melody.”

The record also set him on the path to becoming one of the most acclaimed performers of his generation. John Coltrane and Wayne Short.

Rollins died at his home in Woodstock, New York, according to a statement released by his publicist on Monday. He is 95 years old.

Sonny Rollins: “I’m just immersed in it”

Walter Theodore Rollins was born on September 7, 1930, and grew up surrounded by music in Harlem.

His brother and sister both studied violin and piano. pianist Fat Waller Live nearby. Sonny (“Sonny,” as he grew up) recalled how he instinctively knew Waller’s music was for him—”like a baby getting a bottle or something,” he told the PBS NewsHour.

His idol, the saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, Live nearby too.

On his way to school, Rollins walked past the Cotton Club and the Savoy Ballroom—both venues at the heart of New York’s jazz world. “I was immersed in it from the beginning,” he said.

Rollins was a child prodigy who was influenced by saxophonists Charlie Parker and guided by a pianist Thelonious Monk. An early opportunity came in the late 1950s, when he teamed up with such Art Blakey, Bud Powell and Miles Davis.

He composed some of Davis’s most famous early works, including “Oleo” and “Airegin.”

“Saxophone Colossus” includes the calypso-inspired “St. Thomas,” beginning a long association with the music his parents from the U.S. Virgin Islands loved.

Rollins’s often marathon, powerful solos have earned him a reputation as the greatest jazz saxophone improviser.

He told PBS that he walked on stage with a blank slate and no plans for a solo other than an understanding of the structure of the piece. “Improvisation, I totally left it to the troops,” he said. “Sometimes I’m surprised by the results.”

Rollins also innovated by using his saxophone as a rhythm instrument.

Album includes movie soundtrack Alfie, and East Broadway dilapidatedboth recorded in 1966.

His works are reckless Alfie As successfully as Davis’s haunting music captures the mood of that film Louis Mahlerof Elevator to the gallows eight years ago.

Sonny Rollins: “I’m the Last”

Things could have turned out much differently for Rollins. In 1950, he was arrested for armed robbery and served 10 months in prison.

“Looking back, this was my first time off! Unlike others, it wasn’t self-imposed. But it was a place of learning,” Rollins said of his time in prison in an interview. uncut Magazine.

“Prison is a cruel place, but luckily I was involved in music and was largely spared the cruelty.”

Arrested again in 1952 for violating the terms of his parole with heroin, he later kicked the habit in favor of exercise and yoga and eschewing the all-night parties that had ruined the careers of so many other musicians.

Beginning in 1969, during another sabbatical, he spent time in Japan and India, including a stay in a monastery, before re-emerging in the early 1970s to record more recordings.

Lucille, whom he married in 1965, served as his manager. The couple lived together until her death in 2004. They have no children.

Rollins recorded more than 60 albums as a leader. He performed with bands including the Rolling Stones, improvising on three tracks from their 1981 album tattoo you. But he later told new york times He had no connection with their music, which he considered “just derivatives of black blues.”

After receiving two Grammy Awards from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the same organization, respiratory illness forced him to stop playing. He retired in 2014.

Rollins realized that he was the last surviving giant of the Jazz Age led by Parker, Monk and Coltrane.

“I’m the last one, but in a way I’m not, because when I’m gone, my music will still be here,” he told PBS in 2011. “We’re all still here, we’re all still here.”

(Author: William Schomberg. Editors: Olivier Holmey and Rosalba O’Brien)