Sonny Rollins, colossus of the saxophone, has died at 95
The way some musicians play, you think they'll never die.Theodore "Sonny" Rollins was such a man: A saxophonist revered for his huge tone and seemingly inexhaustible improvisations.
Rollins died Monday afternoon at his Woodstock, N.Y.home at the age of 95.Rollins was a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, a recipient of a Kennedy Center honor and a recipient of the National Medal of the Arts.
And he was the very incarnation of a modern jazz musician.His art was his life."All these prizes are nice, I appreciate them," he told NPR in 2007.
"I don't go crazy about them — you have to do your work whether you're recognized or not.The real deal is doing it the best you can do it and that's it.
That's its own reward."For Rollins, the real deal was playing the tenor saxophone.He became beloved internationally as the last man standing, the reigning star of the generation that turned jazz from bluesy entertainment into a personally expressive, ever-changing art form — without losing its bluesy, entertaining side.He was born Sept.
7, 1930, in New York City and grew up on Sugar Hill, Harlem's "strivers' row," where some of the most successful and daring jazz men of the era lived, with neighbors such as Jackie McLean, Art Taylor and Kenny Drew.Rollins was drawn to the experimentation and new style developing around him.
Sonny's parents, who were from the Virgin Islands, were uneasy about his interests.But he was already on his way to one of the greatest careers in jazz history.Rollins looked commanding, with a hearty build, strong features and a mohawk haircut long before it became a punk fashion.
He was on the cutting edge of music — at the peak of the jazz world.But in the late 1950s, Rollins withdrew.Seeking a new direction, he practiced his horn by himself, at night, on the city's Williamsburg Bridge.
His return in 1962 — with an album titled The Bridge — was welcomed as a cultural event."I think when I'm playing completely spontaneous, just somethi...