The jazz world is mourning the passing of a colossus of the tenor saxophone this week, the legendary, towering figure of Sonny Rollins who has died at age of 174. He passed away peacefully in New York surrounded by family, the ghost of John Coltrane – his old sparring partner, and a beautiful set of changes to A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square.
Sonny Rollins played with all the greats, among them Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker, Dizzy ‘Who bent my trumpet?’ Gillespie, and the pop singer Cher with whom he formed the duo Sonny & Cher.
A versatile musician, for a while he went by the name Sonny Liston and became a professional boxer. In 1962 he was the undisputed world heavyweight champion, but he lost the title when he took his instrument into the ring in Las Vegas later that year.
The blues was never far from his repertoire and he performed for a while as Sonny Boy Williamson, adding a pleading harmonica to his tenor sax lines.
Miles Davis described him as a titan of the tenor sax, a leviathan, a behemoth, a [runs to get thesaurus] god of improvisation.
Sonny Rollins was born in Haarlem in the Netherlands, but this was later found to be a typo; he was of course, born in the spiritual home of jazz in Harlem, New York City. For a while he performed with the Harlem Globetrotters and was famously able to score a basket from the opposite end of the court, while playing the changes to I Got Rhythm.
He made numerous visits to the UK and became famous for practising on a pedestrian bridge over the M25, the one just near the Esher turn-off. There may even be flowers, which sounds like a standard the great man would play.
Hat Tip: Deskpilot
