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Sonny Rollins

Jazz tenor saxophonist and composer

United States · 1930–2026

American tenor saxophonist, born Theodore Walter Rollins in New York City and raised in Harlem. He recorded with Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis while still in his teens, and led his own groups from the mid-1950s. He withdrew from public performance three times, most famously in 1959–61 to practise alone on the Williamsburg Bridge. He played his last concert in 2012.

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Question What made you decide to stop something you were known for, and how did you know it was time?

I realized I wasn’t sounding as good as my reputation was, so I wanted to kind of get to that point where I wouldn’t be ashamed to go on the bandstand, which happened to me one time on a job I was playing with… Elvin Jones, at that time, was the drummer playing with me. We used to go around, had a big sign, “Sonny Rollins is coming to town,” everybody was there, but I didn’t sound good, and I knew I wasn’t playing up to what I should be. So I said, “Okay, I am getting out of here. I am going to go and woodshed,” as they say, and get myself together.

Recorded Academy of Achievement (achievement.org) source ↗

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