Our gentle giant has gone through the portal - may his eternal musical soul journey safely through the galaxies and shine brightly amongst the brightest of stars, up there just as it's done down here.

• https://www.npr.org/2026/05/25/519445169/sonny-rollins-colossus-of-the-saxophone-has-died-at-95

• With more than 60 albums released from the late-1940s onwards, including collaborations with Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane and others, Rollins was one of the last living stars of the bebop generation, who took jazz from a predominantly dance or ballad form into startlingly expressive new territory.
  
  
• Rollins himself was a genius of melody, whose bright, catchy lines – whether jazz standards or self-penned – would be unpicked, extended and refashioned in improvised and sometimes epic solos. Saxophonist Branford Marsalis has called him “the greatest improviser in the history of jazz” alongside Louis Armstrong; when presenting him with the 2010 National Medal of the Arts in 2011, Barack Obama said Rollins had inspired him to “take risks that I might not otherwise have taken.”
  
  
• Rollins once described himself as “primitive … I’m going with my feelings more than my brain”, and it was this willingness to break with convention and embrace improvisation that helped chart a new course for jazz alongside Davis, Charlie Parker and others in the bebop scene that soon loosened further into hard bop and post-bop. Davis himself wrote about how Rollins quickly became “a legend, almost a god to a lot of the younger musicians … he was an aggressive, innovative player who always had fresh musical ideas”. For his part, Rollins said when reminiscing about his early life: “Jazz is good. It’s not just lecture music, it’s not shake your booty music. It’s everything. It doesn’t make you feel like fighting. It makes you feel that there is a God.”
  

 

Sonny Rollins -Saxophone Colossus -1957 (FULL ALBUM)

R.I.P.

 

Sad news. He was so damn brilliant!! RIP

 

May this giant find the well-deserved rest of the righteous, and may he be warmly welcomed and supported, for his story and for everything he gifted us!

 

I can't say I've heard everything he ever played in or did because I'm not sure one lifetime would be enough, but to me "The Bridge" is one of those "this is how you play jazz" records. No flashy gimmicks or fireworks (though he could do those as well) because none are required.

RIP Sonny and thank you for the tunes.

 

R.I.P.

..end of an era, a mighty king of the ages has fallen. Played with EVERYONE, led through instinctual zen <3 Thank you Sonny for all things seen and unseen your spirit brought to the realm. In the words of the old song, 'There Will Never Be Another You'

Great page on the life and times of Mr. Rollins



The man in 1959

'54 w/Miles+ on Milt's Bags Groove

1962 Jazz Casual (w/intvw+)

Denmark 1965 & 1968

Rest in Peace

 

Sonny Rollins plays on despite breaking his heel

Here, saxophonist Sonny Rollins is performing live at Opus 40, a sculpture park in New York, 1986. This concert was remembered for a dramatic incident that involved Rollins misguiding a mid-solo jump from the rock stage and landing heavily on the stone surface six feet below. After a brief and tense pause Rollins continued to play while lying on is back even though it was later learned that he’d broken his heel in the fall.​

 

RIP to a legend

 

RIP, the music lives on forever

 

Walter Theodore Rollins
Born: September 7, 1930
Harlem, NY - May 25, 2026 He was 95
One of the greatest Tenor Saxophonist EVER!
Rest In Peace My Brother

 

Last edited: May 31, 2026 at 4:18 PM

Sonny Rollins - Saxophone Colossus | Documentary