- Sonny Rollins, nicknamed the “saxophone colossus”, passed away on Monday, May 25, 2026, at the age of 95 at his home in Woodstock (NY).
- He was the last surviving great figure of the golden age of jazz, alongside Coltrane, Parker and Hawkins.
- His album Saxophone Colossus (1956) remains one of the cornerstones of hard bop and modern jazz.
- A pioneer of the pianoless trio and a brilliant improviser, he influenced seven decades of saxophonists.
There are records I’ve played on a loop to understand what “phrasing” really means. Saxophone Colossus is one of them. Learning the tenor sax without going through St. Thomas or Blue 7 is a bit like learning guitar while skipping Hendrix. Sonny Rollins was more than a musician: he was a sonic compass, a reference point for generations of horn players. Let’s look back at the journey of a giant who kept his mouthpiece in hand for nearly seventy years.
A Harlem prodigy turned legend
Born Walter Theodore Rollins on September 7, 1930, in New York, Sonny Rollins grew up in the heart of Harlem, in the midst of a cultural ferment. Barely an adult, he was already jamming with the heavyweights of bebop: Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, J.J. Johnson. At 20, he was already recording alongside Miles Davis. Charlie Parker, his boyhood idol, became a friend. In short, the kid had an extraordinary ear and a disarming confidence.
In 1956, he laid the cornerstone of his career with Saxophone Colossus, recorded in a single three-hour session with Max Roach on drums and Tommy Flanagan on piano. The opening track, St. Thomas, a bright calypso drawn from his Caribbean roots, would become an absolute standard.
Several of Rollins’s compositions have become essential jazz standards: St. Thomas, Oleo, Doxy and Airegin. If you’re working on jazz today, you’re inevitably playing some Rollins without always realizing it.
The Williamsburg Bridge, a mythical retreat
The story is known to every jazzman. In the late 1950s, at the height of his fame, Rollins disappeared. He turned down contracts and put away his records. Why? He felt he needed to improve. For two years, he practiced his saxophone on the Williamsburg Bridge, in New York, so as not to disturb anyone in his building. When he came back in 1962, it was with an album named after that very bridge: The Bridge. The gesture became a parable for generations of musicians.
An improviser as free as no one else
What sets Rollins apart is his relationship with improvisation. Where others build solos the way you build a house, he takes the back roads, makes detours, quotes a popular song right in the middle of a chorus. He popularized the sax-bass-drums trio, without piano, to give himself total harmonic freedom.
His discography is an ocean. A few landmarks to dive in:
- Saxophone Colossus (1956) — the mandatory entry point
- Tenor Madness (1956) — the only album where he crosses swords with John Coltrane
- Way Out West (1957) — sax, bass, drums: the trio formula perfected
- Freedom Suite (1958) — the first hard bop album openly taking a stand against segregation
- A Night at the Village Vanguard (1957) — the definitive live recording
To work on your Rollins-style phrasing, put on Blue 7 and listen to how he develops a single motif over several minutes. It’s a masterclass in thematic improvisation. Transcribe it slowly — it’s worth more than any scale exercise.
A legacy that spans generations
Rollins never stopped experimenting. Funk, R&B, calypso, classical music with his Concerto for Saxophone and Orchestra: he refused to stand still. Showered with honors (the National Medal of Arts in 2010, presented by Barack Obama, a Kennedy Center Honor in 2011, the Polar Music Prize in 2007), he kept going past the age of 80 before respiratory problems took him off the stage for good in 2014.
With his passing, the last direct witness of the bebop revolution is gone. A page turns for good.
The echo of a breath
Sonny Rollins used to say of himself that he was “a work in progress”. A work in the making, right to the end. That is surely the finest lesson he leaves to musicians: never consider yourself as having arrived, always go back to the bridge. Rest in peace, colossus.
Sources
- Le Temps – Le saxophoniste Sonny Rollins, dernier “colosse” du jazz, est mort
- Le Devoir – Sonny Rollins, le “colosse du saxophone”, est mort à 95 ans
- Euronews Culture – Adieu au “Saxophone Colossus” : le jazzman Sonny Rollins meurt à 95 ans
- Jazz Radio – Sonny Rollins, le “colosse du saxophone”, est mort à 95 ans
- NPR Music – Sonny Rollins: The Saxophone Colossus Turns 80
