Tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins, the “Saxophone Colossus” who was schooled by bebop’s legends as a prized sideman and became their peer as a formidable leader, improviser and composer, has died, according to a social media post from his family. No cause of death was cited; he was 95.
Sporting a burly tone, a tart sense of instrumental humor and keen melodic and harmonic ingenuity, Rollins was acknowledged as a jazz voice as groundbreaking as that of his friend and contemporary John Coltrane, with whom he unforgettably locked horns on “Tenor Madness” in 1956.
He penned such now-standard entries in the jazz book as “Airegin,” “Doxy,” “Oleo” and “St. Thomas,” the last of which was a calypso adaptation (one of several he recorded) that reflected his family’s Caribbean origins. He sported an all-encompassing knowledge of the standard repertoire, and could wring highly personalized statements from such unlikely vehicles as “Toot, Toot, Tootsie.” One of his most celebrated albums, 1957’s “Way Out West,” was built around his interpretations of cowboy songs.
Imposing, customarily taciturn and somewhat eccentric — he shaved his hair into a Mohawk style during the ’60s, long before punk fashion adopted it — the musician nicknamed “Newk” (after a resemblance to major league pitcher Don Newcombe) looked askance at the limelight, and took two protracted hiatuses from recording and performing at the height of his powers.
