Sonny Rollins, the tenor saxophonist universally known as the “Saxophone Colossus,” died on May 25, 2026, at his home in Woodstock, New York. He was 95. Born in Harlem, Rollins grew up in a neighborhood that included Art Taylor, Jackie McLean, and Kenny Drew, and came of age during the bebop revolution, yet his roots ran deeper than any single style.
His early recordings with Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis in the late 1940s connected him to the entire sweep of jazz history, and his playing always carried an unmistakable blues sensibility and rhythmic authority rooted in the music’s oldest traditions. He received the Kennedy Center Honor and the National Medal of the Arts, and remained a symbol of jazz’s capacity to be both cerebral art and deeply felt music.
Joe Bebco is the Associate Editor of The Syncopated Times and Webmaster of SyncopatedTimes.com
