Jazz legend Sonny Rollins dies at 95

• Sonny Rollins, one of the greatest jazz saxophonists, passed away in Woodstock, New York on May 25. He was 95.

• Recognised as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians of the post-bebop era, Rollins performed with Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Art Farmer, Jim Hall, Don Cherry, Billy Higgins, and Herbie Hancock, among others. 

• He was popularly known as the “Saxophone Colossus”.

• Walter Theodore Rollins was born on September 7, 1930 in New York City. 

• He grew up in Harlem not far from the Savoy Ballroom, the Apollo Theatre, and the doorstep of his idol, Coleman Hawkins. 

• He started out on alto saxophone, inspired by Louis Jordan. At the age of 16, he switched to tenor, trying to emulate Hawkins. 

• In the 1950s, Rollins began by serving as a sideman on sessions with Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Art Farmer, and the Modern Jazz Quartet. 

• In late 1955, while living in Chicago, he began one of his most fruitful band affiliations when he stood in for Harold Land in the superb Clifford Brown-Max Roach Quintet at the Bee Hive club. 

• He remained a regular member until Brown’s tragic June 1956 death from an auto accident.

• By 1959, Rollins had grown impatient with the vagaries of the jazz scene and took a hiatus. 

• He would often practice his horn deep into the night on the upper reaches of the Williamsburg Bridge, which crosses the East River from Manhattan to Brooklyn. 

• In 1961, he returned to the scene, refreshed and playing better than ever. 

• During another sabbatical, starting in 1969, he spent time in Japan and India including a spell in a monastery before reappearing in the early 1970s to make more records.

• With more than 50 years in jazz, his towering achievements on the tenor saxophone are many, and he was one of the most exciting and fiery players in concert. 

• He is the recipient of seven Grammy Award nominations, winning two, including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement award; a Kennedy Center Honour; and was inducted into the American Academy of Achievement and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2010.