Happy 95th Birthday Sonny Rollins!

 

From Bret "Jazz Video Guy" Primack.

Sunday, September 7th, 2025.

Sonny Rollins turns 95 today. I shot this video with him in 2007 when he was playing some gigs in New Mexico. Sonny Rollins is important because he is one of the most influential tenor saxophonists in jazz history. Key reasons: • Hard bop innovator. He helped define the sound of 1950s hard bop with albums like Saxophone Colossus (1956). • Improvisational mastery. Known for long, spontaneous solos that were structurally coherent and rhythmically inventive. • Standard-setting compositions. He wrote pieces like “St. Thomas,” “Oleo,” “Doxy,” and “Airegin,” now core jazz repertoire. • Bridge figure. Played with Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Clifford Brown, Max Roach, and later embraced freer forms in the 1960s. • Sabbaticals. Famously stepped away from performing (e.g., the “Bridge” period, 1959–61) to practice intensively and reinvent his style. • Longevity. His career spanned seven decades, making him a living link to the golden age of jazz.