"Hardcore Jazz is political. It's real art, and it's got a lot to say about things that are happening. Unfortunately, a lot of forces don't want us to think about anything… just go along and consume & make money." Ted Panken's 4 profiles on Sonny Rollins: tedpanken.substack.com/p/four-profi...

"I loved my father… Whatever they did to him, they didn't turn me against America. There was still Coleman Hawkins and Charlie Parker. And nobody could top that." From The Nation: Sonny Rollins Lived to See Justice for His Wrongly Convicted Father www.thenation.com/article/soci...

"That first hour was devoted entirely to 'Sonnymoon for Two.' Imagine getting to play one blues for an hour with Sonny Rollins. Man." Christian McBride shares his experiences rehearsing, performing, and talking with the Saxophone Colossus: substack.com/home/post/p-...

"I just want the music to play itself... If I have to think about what I'm doing, then the moment is already gone, you know?" NPR's Fresh Air shares Sonny Rollins' interviews from 1994 and 2005: www.npr.org/2026/05/29/n...

"Jazz is as relevant today as the yearning of people to be free." The Jazz Session presents three conversations with Sonny Rollins, featuring interviews from 2008, 2010, and 2012: www.patreon.com/posts/jazz-s...

"The Greatest Ever Is Gone": Mark Stryker on Sonny Rollins for Ethan Iverson's Transitional Technology: iverson.substack.com/p/guest-post...

"One of the greatest musicians in jazz history": Alyn Shipton of Jazzwise salutes Sonny Rollins: www.jazzwise.com/content/news...

From 1999, Sonny Rollins talks to Chris M. Slawecki of All About Jazz: "Music is a thing you never completely master... But this helped me to remain a student all of my life. I consider myself still a student." www.allaboutjazz.com/sonny-rollin...

"These pictures take me back into a time which will never be like that again." Vanity Fair shares Sonny Rollins' foreword for the new book Jazz: Best of the Apollo, Village Vanguard, and Riverside Sessions, featuring photos by Steve Schapiro: www.vanityfair.com/culture/phot...

This Friday and Saturday May 29th and 30th, catch WKCR's Sonny Rollins Memorial Broadcast, featuring 48 non-stop hours of the Saxophone Colossus. Listen anywhere at www.cc-seas.columbia.edu/wkcr/story/s...

The NY Times presents a multi-faceted look at the life and career of Sonny Rollins, featuring a biography, interviews, and essential albums: www.nytimes.com/2026/05/25/a...

It is with deep sorrow and profound love that we announce the passing of Sonny Rollins. The Saxophone Colossus died this afternoon at his home in Woodstock, NY at the age of 95. 1/2

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...