Sonny Rollins Dies at 95, Ending a 50-Year Run at Jazz’s Cutting Edge

22 articles · Updated · The Killeen Daily Herald · May 26

Sonny Rollins died Monday at his home in Woodstock, New York, at 95, after being largely housebound in recent years with physical problems, according to his spokesperson.
More than 50 years of restless experimentation made Rollins one of the last great bebop-era figures and one of jazz’s most influential tenor saxophonists, alongside John Coltrane and Charlie Parker.
His career stretched from 1956 landmark album “Saxophone Colossus” to later Grammy-winning work, including 2001’s “This Is What I Do” and a 2006 award for “Why Was I Born?”
Pulmonary fibrosis eventually forced him into retirement; he played his last concert in 2012 and stopped playing altogether in 2014, after continuing to tour into his 80s.
Rollins also reached beyond jazz audiences with his solo on the Rolling Stones’ 1981 song “Waiting on a Friend,” capping a career that kept shifting styles even at peak fame.

Beyond his albums, what musical secrets does Sonny Rollins' unreleased archive hold for future generations?

How did Sonny Rollins fuse Caribbean rhythms and Eastern spirituality into his uniquely American jazz sound?

How did a jazz titan's radical two-year silence ultimately redefine the sound of the saxophone?