Jazz Articles about Sonny Rollins

About Sonny Rollins

Radio & Podcasts

Sonny Rollins Tribute, part 2: After the Bridge

by Larry Slater
July 24, 2026

Sonny Rollins, one the music's great improvisers, died May 25th, 2026 at age 95. By the late 1950s, Rollins had become the most revered tenor saxophonist in jazz. He was respected by his peers, the critics and the jazz public, so he shocked the jazz world when he withdrew from performing for 2 years, using New York City's Williamsburg Bridge as his practice location. Upon his return to performing in 1961, he asked the guitarist Jim ...

Radio & Podcasts

Sonnymoon for Two Bastards (Part 2)

by Patrick Burnette
July 23, 2026

In this installment, the boys look at some albums by the great Sonny Rollins after the second and best-known of his several sabbaticals, when he spent hours honing his craft on the Williamsburg Bridge. (We talk about the iconic album named after that period on Episode 34.) Mike asks us to tackle these in reverse chronological order--tune in to see why. (How do you “tune" a podcast? You tell me.) .Playlist Discussion of Sonny Rollins' album The Solo ...

Radio & Podcasts

Sonny Rollins tribute, part 1: Sonny in the '50s

by Larry Slater
July 17, 2026

Sonny Rollins, the saxophone colossus, left us on May 25th 2026 at age 95. Rollins, one of the music's great improvisers, left a rich legacy of recordings. His early recordings date from 1949, when he was 19. Even at that age, he was recognized as a rare talent. In this hour, you'll hear Rollins' recordings from the 1950s, with several iconic performances. “Saxophone Colossus," from 1956, was a tour de force that established him ...

Radio & Podcasts

Sonnymoon for Two Bastards (Part 1)

by Patrick Burnette
July 9, 2026

The great Sonny Rollins left this dimension on May 25, 2026, and the boys find it only fitting to devote two episodes to the jazz colossus. This first installment looks at four albums from the magical 1950s, when every album Sonny released was an event and even John Coltrane was just an up and coming challenger.Playlist Discussion of Sonny Rollins' album Tenor Madness! (Prestige Records) 7:55 Discussion of Sonny Rollins' album Volume 2 (Blue Note) 30:27 Discussion of ...

Album Review

Miles Davis: Miles '56: The Prestige Recordings

Read "Miles '56: The Prestige Recordings" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
June 29, 2026

The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus never met Miles Davis, but his famous observation, “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man," seems tailor-made for the trumpeter. Few artists transformed themselves as completely or as often as Davis. Listeners encountering his music today can struggle to reconcile the cool, lyrical trumpeter of the bebop era with the architect of jazz-rock fusion, the creator of On the Corner (Columbia, ...

Radio & Podcasts

Emmett Cohen, Gunhild Carling, Gregory Golub, Henry Robinett & Sonny Rollins

by Joe Dimino
June 21, 2026

With heavy hearts and deep gratitude, we open the 963rd Episode of Neon Jazz by celebrating the extraordinary life and legacy of the legendary Sonny Rollins. The jazz giant passed away on May 25, 2026, at the age of 95, leaving behind a towering body of work and a spirit that forever changed the course of music. To honor his memory, we revisit a special 2014 Neon Jazz interview and spin the fitting classic “You Stepped Out of a Dream" ...

Album Review

Miles Davis: Miles '56: The Prestige Recordings

Read "Miles '56: The Prestige Recordings" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
June 19, 2026

Let us imagine for the moment that it is a day or two after the Big Spirit Beyond Wonder has separated the wheat from the chafe. The terrible, unwanted wars have ceased. Global climate change is no longer a threat. Autocracy is in the dustbin of history where it rightfully belongs. Illness has passed. The world, as it was in the beginning, is free of the subterfuge and manipulations of humankind. Now the Big Spirit turns their attention ...