Sonny Rollins, the powerful and personal jazz tenor saxophonist whose improvisational sessions became legend and his compositions “St. Thomas,” “Oleo,” “Doxy,” “Rent-Up House” and “Airegin” standards, died Sunday. He was 95.
Rollins died at his home in Woodstock, New York, his family announced.
Widely recognized as one of the most important and influential musicians of all time, Rollins recorded 60-plus albums during his seven-decade career.
Along the way, he received a a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1972, induction into the Downbeat Jazz Hall of Fame in 1973, a Grammy for Lifetime Achievement in 2004, a Polar Music Prize in 2007, a National Medal of Arts from President Obama in 2010, Kennedy Center Honors in 2011 and the Jazz Foundation of America’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015.
Rollins won two competitive Grammys, the first in 2001 for best jazz instrumental album, individual or group for This Is What I Do and the second in 2005 for best jazz instrumental solo on “Why Was I Born?,” from his live LP Without a Song: The 9/11 Concert on Milestone Records. The latter was recorded in Boston four days after the World Trade Center bombing, which Rollins witnessed from his apartment just blocks from the site of the tragedy.
