Amaster of the tenor saxophone, a jazz icon in the same league as Charlie PARKER or John COLTRANE, and a fiercely unique and creative improviser—all this and more can be said of saxophonist and composer Sonny Rollins. He would regardless deserve a place in jazz history purely on the strength of his unparalleled sound on his instrument, and on the extent to which he influenced several generations of jazz artists.
Theodore Walter Rollins (“Sonny” or “Newk”) was born in New York City on September 9, 1930. His parents were immigrants from the Virgin Islands, and Rollins’ brothers and sisters all studied classical music, while his uncle played saxophone and listened to the blues. When Rollins began studying the sax he was influenced by Louis Jordan and jazz masters Parker, Coleman HAWKINS, and Lester YOUNG.
Early on Rollins worked with Babs Gonzales, the Bud PowELL-Fats Navarro combo, and Miles DAVIS, as well as with Parker; but he gained serious exposure and arrived musically during his tenure with the Clifford BROWN-Max ROACH group, from 1956 to 1957.
Rollins worked with Roach on several of his albums, and the collaboration yielded a jazz masterpiece, Saxophone Colossus, from which the original composition “St. Thomas” became a classic. “St. Thomas” is a Calypso, exploring melodic and rhythmic material from Rollins’s Caribbean roots. Saxophone Colossus also included Rollins’s extended improvisation on “Blue 7.” Here, he improvised by exploiting short melodic motives in a way that was influential for other hard bop musicians.
Rollins continued to release groundbreaking material, such as 1957’s Way Out West, which showed his interest in odd improvisational vehicles like “Wagon Wheels” and “I’m an Old Cowhand.” Rollins composed the noteworthy Freedom Suite in 1958, after which he took the first of several sabbaticals from recording and public performance.
Sonny Rollins’s unique style came from blending swing era and bebop influences, and his interest in both the blues and Caribbean music. He tended to approach solos melodically or thematically (quoting tunes that are related lyrically in some way to the composition he was performing), rather than by simply playing strings of scales that fit over the chord changes. His sound on the tenor was thick and rough, with vibrato that is very evident but not overwhelming. His sound, like that of Joe HENDERSON, is very distinct from that of his contemporaries.
Rollins’ output was prolific, but his unique musicianship and contribution to the jazz vocabulary were often overshadowed by his eccentric tendencies and the mystique that surrounded him. Long before the styles were popular, Rollins sported a “Mohawk” haircut and then a shaved head, and a legend grew up around his penchant for practicing his instrument late at night on the catwalk of the Williamsburg Bridge over New York’s East River.
In later years, Rollins worked with younger musicians, especially those performing on electric rather than acoustic instruments. He even recorded with the ROLLING STONES (“Waiting on a Friend,” from the 1981 release Tattoo You); but Rollins’ music never strayed too far into the “fusion” genre; he remained a unique voice in post-bop jazz. His 1984 recording, Sunny Days, Starry Nights, featured a future classic in the form of his original ballad, “Wynton.”
In addition to Roach, Brown, Davis, and MONK, ROLLINS worked with Billy Higgins, Don Cherry, Bob Cranshaw, Jack Dejohnette, Philly Jo Jones, Shelley Manne, Ray Brown, Victor Bailey, Mark Soskin, and Tommy Campbell, among others.
Sonny Rollins continued to have a unique voice on the tenor sax, and to exert a solid influence on modern jazz through his style and compositions.
Gregg Juke
SEE ALSO:
Blancq, Charles. Sonny Rollins, The Journey of a Jazzman (Boston, MA: Twayne, 1983).
The Complete Blue Note;
The Essential Sonny Rollins on Riverside;
Saxophone Colossus: Sunny Days, Starry Nights.