On this day in 1956, John Coltrane accompanied Paul Chambers, Philly Joe Jones, and Red Garland to a Sonny Rollins recording session for Prestige. Sonny invited him to join the band for a tune, resulting in their blues showdown "Tenor Madness": youtu.be/454YxQcUKgc?...

Happy Birthday Fats Waller! After first hearing this track, as Sonny Rollins told Larry Appelbaum of the Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Project, "I knew I wanted to play jazz... It makes you feel that there is a God, and that things are okay." youtu.be/f8SB0-BV4r0?...

"I consider myself a 'stream of consciousness' player, or what was later to be known as a 'free jazz' player… So I had to learn how to play with the strictures of bebop and all these things… because I'm really just a natural player." –S.R., to the Academy of Achievement, 2006

Now available for pre-order: Jazz: Best of the Apollo, Village Vanguard, and Riverside Sessions, featuring never-before-seen images by documentary photographer Steve Schapiro, with text by Richard Scheinin and a foreword by Sonny Rollins: www.simonandschuster.com/books/Jazz/K...

Happy Birthday Ron Carter! Here's the bassist with Sonny Rollins and Roy McCurdy on Sonny's signature St. Thomas, from the 1964 RCA Victor LP Now's the Time!: youtu.be/rFvG-cVdj98?...

Happy Birthday Edward Kennedy Ellington! Here's Duke's "Solitude" played by Sonny Rollins with Ray Brown and Shelly Manne, from the 1957 Contemporary LP Way Out West: youtu.be/_D3zqnokaVI?...

Aidan Levy's Saxophone Colossus: The Life and Music of Sonny Rollins is now available in Japanese! Translated by Yuji Odanaka and published by Aki Shobo, available here: www.akishobo.com/book/detail....

Sonny Rollins' first recording of "Don't Stop the Carnival," arr. by Jimmy Jones and featuring Jim Hall, Bob Cranshaw, Ben Riley, Dennis Charles, Frank Charles, Willie Rodriguez, and a vocal sextet led by Howard Roberts, rec. for RCA on this date in 1962: youtu.be/Y6I9dUTh9vI?...

Raymond Hubbell and John L. Golden's "Poor Butterfly," by Sonny Rollins with Jay Jay Johnson, Horace Silver, Paul Chambers, and Art Blakey, recorded for the Blue Note album Sonny Rollins Vol. 2 on this day in 1957: youtu.be/DARt8iU32Ww?...

Happy Birthday Billie Holiday! Here's her composition (with Arthur Herzog) "God Bless the Child," played by Sonny Rollins with Jim Hall, Bob Cranshaw, and Harry Saunders, from the 1962 RCA Victor album The Bridge: youtu.be/mZNEEKtA8hU?...

"I'll Remember April" (dePaul, Johnston & Raye) by the Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet, with Sonny Rollins, George Morrow, and Richie Powell, from the 1956 EmArcy LP At Basin Street: youtu.be/efD90XFbpsE?...

"All time, rhythm, and harmony are pulsating, sounding, resounding, & happening according to the grand symphony which is constantly being played. All sounds, when discerned in this context, are rhythmically & harmonically involved and fit." –The Notebooks of Sonny Rollins (NYRB)

Happy Birthday Roy Haynes! Here's the drummer with Sonny Rollins, Sonny Clark, and Percy Heath on Comden & Green's "Just in Time," recorded for the 1957 Riverside LP The Sound of Sonny: youtu.be/nP0u6n5UqIw?...

Happy Birthday Ornette Coleman! Here's the alto saxophonist joining Sonny Rollins, Christian McBride, and Roy Haynes, on "Sonnymoon for Two," recorded live at the Beacon Theater in NYC in 2010 and released on Road Shows, Vol. 2: youtu.be/WhXlwdkcLc4?...

On this day in 1958, Sonny Rollins records his album Freedom Suite. "America is deeply rooted in Negro culture... How ironic that the Negro, who more than any other people can claim America's culture as his own... is being rewarded with inhumanity." –S.R. www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTGJ...

Rodgers & Hart's "I Could Write a Book," by Sonny Rollins with Don Cherry, Henry Grimes, and Billy Higgins, recorded for the RCA Victor album Gary Burton, Sonny Rollins, Clark Terry – 3 in Jazz on this day in 1963: youtu.be/cv-7HMYrXIk?...

Cole Porter's "You Do Something to Me," by Sonny Rollins with Jim Hall, Bob Cranshaw, and Ben Riley, recorded for the RCA Victor LP The Bridge on this day in 1962: youtu.be/cWmwXok3L9E?...

"I do want to communicate with people, but no, I'm not an entertainer. I still want them to have a positive experience, but not at the expense of the music. I want them to think, also, and I want them to feel more optimistic… than when they came in." –S.R. to Chip Stern (1988)

Happy Birthday to Jerome Kern. ("My main man!" –S.R.) Here's his "The Way You Look Tonight" (with lyrics by Dorothy Fields), recorded by Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins with Tommy Potter and Arthur Taylor for Prestige Records in 1954: youtu.be/y9aB6PDOyyA?...

On this day in 1949, 19-year old Sonny Rollins entered the recording studio for the first time to record "Capitolizing" with vocalist Babs Gonzales and his Orchestra: youtu.be/3d4BGlh3jLw?...

Happy Birthday Max Roach! Here's the drummer on George Russell's "Ezz-Thetic," with Sonny Rollins, Kenny Dorham, Ray Bryant, and George Morrow, recorded for the EmArcy LP Max Roach + 4 in 1956: youtu.be/t-eyORnB5b4?...

"The saxophone is our friend. He wants to make us happy. He wants to serve us. I'm glad that he's our friend because from the first moment that I saw the saxophone I fell in love with it, and wanted so badly to have one and play one." From The Notebooks of Sonny Rollins (NYRB)

Sonny Rollins plays Felix Bernard and Richard Bernhard Smith's "Winter Wonderland," with Herbie Hancock, piano; Bob Cranshaw, bass; and Mickey Roker, drums; recorded for RCA Victor in 1964. www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpUi...

"Horns are very mysterious. There are certain parts of the room where the horn just projects better, where the sound is more friendly, you know. That's why I walk around the stage a lot—I'm trying to find that sweet spot." –S.R. to Musician Magazine, 1988

Happy Birthday McCoy Tyner! Here's the pianist with the Milestone Jazzstars (Sonny Rollins, Ron Carter, and Al Foster) on Sonny's composition "The Cutting Edge," recorded live on tour in 1978: youtu.be/UUskQ8SMbUo?...

Happy Birthday to bassist Bob Cranshaw (today) and guitarist Jim Hall (tomorrow)! Here they both are with Sonny Rollins and Ben Riley on Cole Porter's "You Do Something to Me," from the 1962 RCA Victor LP The Bridge: youtu.be/cWmwXok3L9E?...

Who knows what love is No one seems to know People live and people Die, one by one We go but just Within this speck of Time I found love, I know Because of countless little things That told me so (from The Notebooks of Sonny Rollins, NYRB Press)

"When I realized that jazz is God, it’s God speaking to me. And my trying to speak back to God – that is jazz." Sonny Rollins speaks to WABE's Joe Alterman on The Upside of Jazz: www.wabe.org/an-interview...

Happy Birthday Paul Bley! Here's the pianist with Sonny Rollins, Coleman Hawkins, Bob Cranshaw, and Roy McCurdy on Jerome Kern's and Otto Harbach's "Yesterdays," from the 1963 RCA Victor LP Sonny Meets Hawk! youtu.be/0Hrc4jCjJws?...

Dizzy Gillespie's "A Night in Tunisia" (afternoon take), by Sonny Rollins with drummer Pete La Roca and bassist Donald Bailey, recorded live for the Blue Note LP A Night at the Village Vanguard on this day in 1957: youtu.be/1oWiVGAdJqc?...

Now available: high-quality, officially licensed apparel featuring the original artwork of Sonny Rollins. sonnyrollins.com/shop

Happy Birthday Clifford Brown! Here he is with Sonny Rollins in the Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet playing Cole Porter's "What Is this Thing Called Love" in 1956. "We used to call him an angel, because he was so gifted, so perfect a person." —S.R. (2016) youtu.be/JTWRZkoLGx8?...

Another great drummer lost to us – for a while anyway. Goodbye, Jack DeJohnette. –S.R.

Happy Birthday John Birks Gillespie! Here's Dizzy on Avery Parrish's "After Hours," with Sonny Rollins, Sonny Stitt, Ray Bryant, Tommy Bryant, and Charlie Persip, recorded for the 1958 Verve LP Sonny Side Up: youtu.be/NRRowle7A3o?...

Happy Birthday Roy Hargrove! Here's the trumpeter with Sonny Rollins, Mark Soskin, Bob Cranshaw, and Al Foster on Sonny's composition "Young Roy," from the 1991 Milestone album Here's to the People: youtu.be/_kxa4-Hsfwk?...

Happy Birthday Thelonious Monk! “Monk was an enigmatic guy, but he was one of the best people I’ve known, completely honest, and he took a liking to me and took me under his wing, and years later I was able to see that he influenced me in many things.” –S.R. (2007)

Happy Birthday Oscar Pettiford! Here's the bassist with Sonny Rollins and Max Roach on Noël Coward's "Someday I'll Find You," from the 1958 Riverside LP The Freedom Suite: youtu.be/0IGAe0mXKgs?...

Happy Birthday Fats Navarro! Here's the trumpeter with Bud Powell, Sonny Rollins, Tommy Potter, and Roy Haynes, on Thelonious Monk's 52nd St. Theme, recorded for Blue Note Records in 1949: www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OCD...

95.5/95 #sonnyrollins95for95 Thank you for joining us for this Sonny Rollins celebration! As a closing bonus, enjoy this interview, "Jazz and Life": "Jazz is a force of nature, it's a feeling, it's a sense of communing with higher things... that's what it is for me." www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFCE...

95/95 #sonnyrollins95for95 Sonny's composition "Pantjali," recorded July 25, 2012 at Palais Longchamp, Marseille, France: youtu.be/MWwtH043bnw?...

94/95 #sonnyrollins95for95 "Tenor Madness" Sonny Rollins live at Jazz à Vienne, 2011: youtu.be/lxzuvS29lR8?...

93/95 #sonnyrollins95for95 In 2011, Sonny was awarded the National Medal of Arts by Pres. Barack Obama. "I'm very happy that jazz, the greatest American music, is being recognized... and I'm grateful to accept this award on behalf of the gods of our music." –S.R. www.youtube.com/watch?v=aT3G...

92/95 #sonnyrollins95for95 "Sonnymoon for Two" In September 2010, Ornette Coleman and Sonny Rollins share the stage for the very first time at Sonny's 80th birthday celebration at the Beacon Theatre in NYC: youtu.be/WhXlwdkcLc4?...

91/95 #sonnyrollins95for95 In September 2007, Sonny was joined by Roy Haynes and Christian McBride at Carnegie Hall to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his debut there. Here's "Some Enchanted Evening": youtu.be/oeRqpjoGfJs?...

90/95 #sonnyrollins95for95 Sonny's blues "H.S." (dedicated to Horace Silver), recorded live in Toulouse, France, 2006 and released on Road Shows, Vol. 4: Holding the Stage: youtu.be/Tq0sy-k3kDg?...

89/95 #sonnyrollins95for95 Sonny's original "Park Place Parade," named for the ballroom where he went to calypso dances with his mother, from the 2006 Doxy album Sonny Please: youtu.be/C9Frnlfcst8?...

88/95 #sonnyrollins95for95 The title track from Without a Song: The 9/11 Concert, recorded in Boston Sept. 15, 2001. "Maybe music can help. I don't know. But we have to try something these days, right?" –S.R. youtu.be/OCAZA9WKiQM?...

87/95 #sonnyrollins95for95 Sonny starts off the 21st century with Loesser & Newman's "The Moon of Manakoora," from the 2000 Grammy-winning Milestone CD "This is What I Do": youtu.be/f5rikM3GFDk?...

86/95 #sonnyrollins95for95 "Echo-Side Blue," from the 1998 album Global Warming. "We're destroying the planet... we are sawing the limb we're sitting on." –S.R. youtu.be/DwyQzRAJ0Ac?...

85/95 #sonnyrollins95for95 Rodgers & Hart's "Falling in Love with Love," from a 1997 live performance in Tokyo: youtu.be/Ewg90DKNt0M?...