Uncompromising and constantly searching, Rollins chooses to “live lightly on the planet.” At the core of his humble lifestyle is a demanding practice regime, essential because of the tremendous demands he places on himself. And rather than exploit his lofty standing in the world of jazz, he chooses his creative venues prudently, working only when he chooses and recording sporadically. Consequently, every Rollins live appearance and new recording which documents his august creativity is like a rare gem, to be admired and studied.

At the beginning of 1998, he returned to the studio after a two year absence to painstakingly record Global Warming, his 20th Milestone recording. Rollins first recorded in 1949 and, nearly 50 years later, as the most formidable of all jazz improvisers, he remains a living inspiration to musicians and listeners worldwide. Yet Sonny Rollins, the artist, embodies certain ideals and he feels strongly about using his music as a vehicle for these ideas.

“Jazz has always gad a social message to it and this is a vital part of the music,” he believes. “My view of what has made it relevant, besides the beauty of the thing itself, is that it has prospered because it’s had to fight for survival.”

The title of four tracks on Global Warming speak of Rollins concern for the environment: “Global Warming”, “Mother Nature’s Blues”, “Echo-Side Blue” and “Clear-Cut Boogie”. He explains that “I did the ‘Freedom Suite’ a long time ago and I still think a lot about issues of relevance to society. Global Warming is my ‘Freedom Suite’ of 1998.”

Rollins expresses concern that “this is a finite planet. How much oil can we take out of the earth? How much fish can we take out of the sea before we reach the end? I think that the abuses have been so horrendous that people are finally beginning to realize that we can’t keep it up. People have to wake up in time to change this profligate lifestyle which we enjoy.”

Born in New York City on September 7, 1930 to music-loving  parents of the Caribbean ancestry, Sonny Rollins studied piano initially but soon turned to the saxophone. Working his first gigs on tenor in high school, he came of age at the dawning of the bebop revolution. Under the mentorship of Thelonious Monk, Rollins began to develop the true mastery of the sax. In Harlem, Rollins’ contemporaries included Jackie McLean, Kenny Drew, and Art Taylor. Out of this core of future jazz superstars, Rollins was the first to break through by recording tracks with Babs Gonzales, J.J. Johnson, Bud Powell, and Miles Davis, all before he was 20 years of age.

By the early fifties, Rollins was recognized as one of the most promising, spontaneous, and creative tenor players on the jazz scene, sought after by Miles, and the MJQ. In his autobiography, Miles wrote that Rollins was “a legend, almost a god to the younger musicians. Some thought he was playing the saxophone on the level of Bird. I know one thing he was close. He was an aggressive, innovative player who had fresh musical ideas.”

In November of 1954 he had retreated from the limelight for a time of introspection, self-criticism, and the liberation from a substance abuse problem. He was back by the end of ’55, when he re-emerged in Chicago as a member of the Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet, an even more authoritative presence. The Rollins/Brown collaboration was one of the most brilliant interactions in the recorded annals of jazz.

He recorded his first 12-inch LP, Work Time, in December of 1955, which marked the start of a three-year golden period. Amazingly, in the year beginning with Work Time, he also recorded Sonny Rollins Plus 4, Tenor Madness, Saxophone Colossus, Sonny Rollins Plays for Bird, Tour de Force, and Sonny Rollins Volume 1.

By 1956, he began to leading his own groups, fostering and propelling his imposing creativity by working without a pianist and frequently playing unaccompanied saxophone solos. Sonny was finally officially recognized by the prestigious Downbeat magazines Critics’ Poll as New Star of the Tenor Saxophone in 1957. But by 1959, when he had become one of the most important musicians in jazz, Sonny Rollins withdrew from the music, dissatisfied with his own output and the music business itself, questioning the popular acclaim that he was attracting.

Rollins spent a good part of the next three years practicing on the Williamsburg Bridge and when he returned in 1962, his music was marked by intensified creativity. His public performances became an extraordinary amalgam of various melodies from popular songs of the time and of his past and he perpetually amazed his audience with impromptu, stream of consciousness invention.

Yet Rollins became dissatisfied and withdrew from the public jazz scene again in 1966. He explained that “I’ve always been my own man. I’ve always done, tried to do, what I wanted to do for myself.”

During this second sabbatical, he worked in Japan and then went to India, spending time in an ashram and studying yoga. Rollins resurfaced in the early Seventies, recording his Next Album for Milestone in 1972. Since his return to the scene full time, he has maintained a steady program of carefully chosen performances and recordings. He has also greatly expanded his repertoire, offering compositions with a funk beat along with his de rigueur standards, straight-ahead classics, and calypsos.

Sonny Rollins’s playing today continues to be marked by and intensity of spirit. Rollins’s depth of genius, hard-swinging invention, humor, and tender touch on ballads have long been his trademarks and even today, no other jazzman approaches him in sustaining the creativity and aesthetic balance of solo work. He could easily perform entire concerts by himself in dazzling style as if he were accompanied by a large orchestra. 

Listeners worldwide adore his ability to take the most unlikely of themes and make them meaningful through odd rhythmic patters, long bursts of linear improvisation, and sardonic touches. Even at breakneck tempos, his musical ideas manifest unprecedented harmonic imagination. Rollins’ development of continuity and structure in his improvisations is totally unique in jazz.

Biography courtesy of Ted Kurland Associates.