Sonny Rollins
| Sonny Rollins | |
|---|---|
Rollins performing in October 2011
|
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Walter Theodore Rollins |
| Also known as | Newk, Colossus |
| Born |
September 7, 1930 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Genres | Jazz, hard bop |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, composer, bandleader |
| Instruments | Tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone |
| Years active | Late 1940s – present |
| Labels | Prestige, Blue Note, Contemporary, RCA Victor, Impulse!, Milestone, Doxy, Okeh |
| Associated acts | Clifford Brown, Miles Davis, Kenny Dorham, Art Farmer, Dizzy Gillespie, Babs Gonzales, J.J. Johnson, Jackie McLean, Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, Max Roach |
| Website | sonnyrollins.com |
| Notable instruments | |
| Buescher Aristocrat, King Super 20, Selmer Mark VI | |
Walter Theodore "Sonny" Rollins (born September 7, 1930) is an American jazz tenor saxophonist, widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. In a seven-decade career, he has recorded at least sixty albums as leader and a number of his compositions, including "St. Thomas", "Oleo", "Doxy", "Pent-Up House", and "Airegin", have become jazz standards.
Rollins was born in New York City to parents from the United States Virgin Islands. The youngest of three siblings, he grew up in central Harlem and on Sugar Hill, receiving his first alto saxophone at the age of seven or eight. He attended Edward W. Stitt Junior High School and graduated from Benjamin Franklin High School in East Harlem. Rollins started as a pianist, changed to alto saxophone, and finally switched to tenor in 1946. During his high school years, he played in a band with other future jazz legends Jackie McLean, Kenny Drew, and Art Taylor.
After graduating from high school in 1947, Rollins began performing professionally; he made his first recordings in early 1949 as a sideman with the bebop singer Babs Gonzales (J. J. Johnson was the arranger of the group). Within the next few months, he began to make a name for himself, recording with Johnson and appearing under the leadership of pianist Bud Powell, alongside trumpeter Fats Navarro, on a seminal "hard bop" session.
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Wikipedia