Sonny Rollins
Albums
He has been my greatest inspiration. -Freddie Hubbard
![Night at the Village Vanguard [Complete]](/cache/JHS/d6/130x130_on-sale_d62800g3098.png)
Sobriquets like the world's greatest saxophonist and the world's greatest improviser are often applied to Sonny Rollins. That's a lot to [more]
- List Price: $35.98
- Member Price: $9.96
"My whole life has been dedicated to the achievement of some important breakthroughs." —Sonny Rollins
Blue Note has done an admirable job of collecting the mellow material of a number of classic players for its Ballads series. Sonny Rollins' entry, like the others, finds the tenor in a [more]
- List Price: $16.99
- Member Price: $11.98
After several incredible dates for Prestige, Rollins moved over to Blue Note to cut a series of studio and live recordings; while not as groundbreaking as his earlier work, the [more]
- List Price: $17.98
- Member Price: $7.99
Compared to his Prestige, Riverside, and Contemporary recordings of the 1950s, some of Rollins' appearances on Blue Note seemed anticlimactic, but none should be overlooked. [more]
- List Price: $17.98
- Member Price: $11.98
![Newk's Time [Bonus Track]](/cache/JHS/g2/130x130_on-sale_g25955s23i1.png)
This 2004 Rudy Van Gelder edition of Sonny Rollins' classic Newk's Time album, which places the tenor saxophonist in the company of bassist Doug Watkins, drummer Philly Joe [more]
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Sonny Rollins recorded many memorable sessions during 1954-1958, but Saxophone Colossus is arguably his finest all-around set. Joined by pianist Tommy Flanagan, bassist Doug [more]
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With cooperation from the Verve and Columbia Legacy catalogs, the Ken Burns Jazz series on CD individually spotlights the musical excellence of 22 jazz originators whose careers and [more]
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In 1956 Sonny Rollins used the Clifford Brown-Max Roach Quintet (of which he was a member) as his sidemen for this Prestige set. The high points of this particularly strong hard bop set [more]
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- Member Price: $16.18
Sonny Rollins compositions for the film Alfie (which benefited greatly from Oliver Nelson's arrangements) are heard on this CD as played by Rollins and a ten-piece band. The music [more]
- List Price: $55.98
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The music on this 1996 CD has been reissued many times, including in the Bluebird series. Tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins' first recording after ending a surprising three-year retirement [more]
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Appearances
This album is perhaps most significant for the process it set in motion -- the collaboration between Gil Evans and Miles Davis that would produce Porgy and Bess and Sketches of Spain, two [more]
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- Member Price: $4.98
This magnificent limited-edition set launched the Mosaic label in real style. Included are all of Thelonious Monk's Blue Note recordings, six sessions as a leader [more]
- List Price: $67.96
- Member Price: $54.98
The classic songs of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart are rendered on this outstanding three-disc set, which features vocalists like Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, [more]
- Member Price: $49.98
He has been my greatest inspiration. -Freddie Hubbard
Sobriquets like the world's greatest saxophonist and the world's greatest improviser are often applied to Sonny Rollins. That's a lot to [more]
- List Price: $35.98
- Member Price: $9.96
"My whole life has been dedicated to the achievement of some important breakthroughs." —Sonny Rollins
Blue Note has done an admirable job of collecting the mellow material of a number of classic players for its Ballads series. Sonny Rollins' entry, like the others, finds the tenor in a [more]
- List Price: $16.99
- Member Price: $11.98
"Trumpet players, like everyone else, are individualized by their ideas and styles." —Miles Davis
These ten tracks, taken from radio broadcasts from the legendary Birdland in 1951, represent a particularly fruitful period in Miles Davis' development as a bandleader. There are three [more]
- List Price: $16.99
- Member Price: $7.99
![Jazz at Midnight [RCA]](/cache/JHS/c8/130x130_on-sale_c82756llm2x.png)
The first of two CDs of ballads put out by RCA that are meant to attenuate that "special mood," this is a hodgepodge collection of music easily available elsewhere. Starting [more]
- List Price: $16.99
- Member Price: $4.98
The CD reissues of the two albums titled The Amazing Bud Powell put the important recordings in chronological order (which they weren't in the LP versions) and add some [more]
- List Price: $16.99
- Member Price: $11.98
After several incredible dates for Prestige, Rollins moved over to Blue Note to cut a series of studio and live recordings; while not as groundbreaking as his earlier work, the [more]
- List Price: $17.98
- Member Price: $7.99
Compared to his Prestige, Riverside, and Contemporary recordings of the 1950s, some of Rollins' appearances on Blue Note seemed anticlimactic, but none should be overlooked. [more]
- List Price: $17.98
- Member Price: $11.98
Biography
- Born Sep 7th 1930 in New York, NY
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
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