Legendary American jazz musician Sonny Rollins’ death has been announced at the age of 95, following an impressive and influential seven decade career known as “the Saxophone Colossus”
Sonny Rollins’ death has been announced, as the American jazz tenor saxophonist has died at the age of 95. A cause of death was not announced, but his publicist confirmed that he died at his home in Woodstock, New York, on Monday afternoon.
The publicist’s statement called him “one of the most honoured and influential figures in American music” and included a 2009 quote in the announcement of his death: “I think when the creative person ends, he continues in the next existence. I’m a person who believes this life isn’t the be-all and end-all of everything. A spiritual person doesn’t feel like that.”
Rollins’ first began playing the saxophone as a child, receiving his first alto saxophone at the age of seven or eight. His career first began in the 1940s and by the 1950s he was working with artists including Miles Davis, Charlie Parker and John Coltrane.
During the late 1950s and early 1960s he became known for practicing his saxophone on a pedestrian walkway of the Williamsburg Bridge to practice, in order to avoid disturbing a neighbour who was expecting a baby.
This rehearsal space then led to the creation of one of his most famous albums, 1962’s The Bridge. A fifteen-story apartment building named “The Rollins” stands on the Grand Street site where he lived, and in 2016, a campaign was was kickstarted to have the bridge renamed in his honour.
The artist became known as “the great improviser” with saxophonist Branford Marsalis has called him “the greatest improviser in the history of jazz”.
In 2001, Rollins and his wife lived just 6 blocks away from the twin towers when they were hit on September 11th. The late star took just his saxophone when he and his wife evacuated. Three days later he performed a live set in Boston titled Without a Song: The 9/11 Concert, for this, he won a Grammy for best jazz instrumental solo.
Rollins later told the Guardian of that day: “I lost many prized possessions in 9/11 and learned a lesson – possessions are not where it’s at.”
His influence also extended well outside of the jazz space with former US President Barack Obama saying Rollins had inspired him to “take risks that I might not otherwise have taken” while presenting him with the 2010 National Medal of the Arts in 2011.
Throughout his career he released more than 60 albums as a band leader. He won two Grammys before respiratory illness forced him to retire in 2014.
Rollins once commented on the way jazz made him feel, explaining poignantly : “Jazz is good. It’s not just lecture music, it’s not shake your booty music. It’s everything. It doesn’t make you feel like fighting. It makes you feel that there is a God.”
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