Sonny Rollins, saxophonist and restless genius of jazz, dead at 95
[May 26, 2026]
NEW YORK (AP) — Sonny Rollins, the tenor saxophonist and restless genius
whose bold, distinctive tone and constant experimentation kept him on
the cutting edge of jazz for more than 50 years, died Monday at age 95.
Spokesperson Terri Hinte told The Associated Press that Rollins died at
his home in Woodstock, New York. She cited no specific cause of death,
but said he had been largely housebound over the past couple of years
because of various physical problems.
From his early days as a teen phenom to his more measured solo work and
experimentation with free jazz, Rollins was revered for his
improvisational skill. He was one of the last living greats of the bebop
era and — along with John Coltrane and Charlie Parker — one of the most
influential saxophonists of his time.
Rock fans got a dose of his music with the Rolling Stones’ 1981 album
“Tattoo You,” which features’ Rollins’ wistful sax solo on the ballad
“Waiting on a Friend," devised after watching Mick Jagger dance.
Despite his enduring success, Rollins was never quite satisfied with his
art, occasionally taking lengthy hiatuses from playing and consistently
adopting eclectic new styles.
He always referred to himself as “a work in progress,” saying he wasn’t
one of those artists who settle into one way of playing.
While his early bebop work was the most popular with his fans, Rollins
never looked back, saying he found it “excruciating” to even listen to
the flaws in his older recordings.
“I don’t consider myself a musician that has learned as much as I want
to learn,” he told The Associated Press in 2007.
Enduring achievements
In the 1990s and 2000s, Rollins released a string of critically
acclaimed albums. He maintained a rigorous practice regimen, and
continued to tour, into his 80s. Pulmonary fibrosis, a thickening and
damaging of the lungs, would eventually force him into retirement. He
played his last concert in 2012 and stopped playing altogether in 2014.
While he missed the adoration of crowds, he missed the actual playing
more.
“I played a couple of concerts early on where I was out in the open in
the afternoon,” He told the New York Times in 2020. “I was able to look
up in the sky, and I felt a communication; I felt that I was part of
something. Not the crowd. Something bigger.”
His 2001 album “This is What I Do,” earned him a Grammy award for best
jazz instrumental album. He won again in 2006 for best jazz instrumental
solo for “Why Was I Born?”
“Why Was I Born” was from the album “Without a Song: The 9/11 Concert,”
a live recording from a performance in Boston just four days after the
Sept. 11 attacks. Rollins, who had been evacuated from his apartment a
few blocks from ground zero, had gone ahead with the concert at the
urging of his wife and manager, Lucille. She died in 2004.
His survivors include a nephew, Clifton Anderson, and nieces Vallyn
Anderson and Gabrielle DeGroat.
Meeting the greats
Rollins had gotten his first major break in his late teens when he was
invited to join Thelonious Monk’s band. He soon was jamming with Miles
Davis and Bud Powell, who introduced him to the recording world even
before he finished high school.
But like many jazz musicians in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Rollins’
rising star almost faded when he became hooked on heroin at the age of
19. As his addiction grew steadily worse, Rollins served two stints in
jail — 10 months in 1950 and three months in 1953 — and ultimately found
himself living on the streets in Chicago. In 1954, Rollins checked
himself into a hospital in Lexington, Ky., to undergo drug treatment.
He left underwent a spiritual awakening as he kicked drugs.
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Sonny Rollins performs during a concert in Tokyo, Oct. 4, 2010. (AP
Photo/Junji Kurokawa, File)
 “I began to have a deeper philosophy
of what life was about,” he told the AP in 2007. “From that point on
is when my consciousness awoke.”
After being discharged, he returned to Chicago and
signed on as a member of the Max Roach-Clifford Brown quintet. In
1956 he recorded a solo album, “Saxophone Colossus.” Its
stripped-down, hard bop sound announced him as one of jazz’s premier
sax players and remained one of his most influential works.
In the following two years Rollins hit upon a different approach,
switching to a pianoless trio on three more landmark albums: “Way
Out West,” “A Night at the Village Vanguard” and “Freedom Suite.”
Then, at the peak of his popularity, Rollins went into seclusion,
spending the next two years practicing alone on a solitary niche
above the East River on a Williamsburg Bridge walkway.
“The thing that I am most proud of in my career is that fact that I
was able to see beyond being popular and all that stuff," he told
the AP in 2007, “and do what my inner self told me to do.”
During his absence, jazz moved away from the fast-paced, tightly
woven sound of bebop to the more frenetic and chaotic free jazz.
When Rollins chose to return to the scene in 1961, he embraced the
new sound — a move that divided his fans. In the mid-’60s, Rollins
toured heavily in Europe, switching back and forth between more
traditional and avant garde approaches. He contributed original
music to the soundtrack of “Alfie,” the 1966 British film that made
Michael Caine a star.
It was during a trip to Japan when Rollins discovered Zen Buddhism,
prompting another lengthy sabbatical that would last into the early
1970s.
A living legend
When he chose to record again in 1972, he was now regarded as a
legend and gained mainstream acceptance. He was granted a Guggenheim
fellowship that year, and was inducted into the Downbeat Hall of
Fame the next. He appeared on the “Tonight Show” and began playing
in concert halls instead of nightclubs.
Theodore Walter Rollins was born into a musical household in Harlem
on Sept. 7, 1930. His father, a naval petty officer, played the
clarinet, his sister played the piano, and his older brother was a
violinist.
When he was eight, his parents insisted he study the piano, but, as
he recalled, “it didn’t take.” Instead, he said, he’d rather be
outdoors playing baseball. But by age 11, Rollins became fascinated
with the saxophone, and persuaded his parents to buy him one — an
alto.
He had difficulty affording lessons and was largely self-taught, but
Rollins quickly became an all-star, switching to tenor sax and
playing the clubs at night.
He leaves behind many unreleased recordings, and said he didn't plan
to leave behind instructions for what to do with them.
“After I get out of this planet I’m not going to have any say about
what’s going on, so I’m not worried about that,” he told the New
York Times in 2020. “And, boy, I agonize over my music; I won’t have
to agonize about it anymore. Thank God.”
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