Sonny Rollins, colossus of jazz saxophone, dies aged 95

Sonny Rollins died at his home in Woodstock, New York on Monday afternoon at age 95. His death was announced on his website and confirmed by his publicist, with no cause of death provided. Rollins released more than 60 albums from the late 1940s onward and collaborated with major figures including Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, and John Coltrane. He helped transform jazz from dance and ballad forms into highly expressive territory through improvised, often epic solos built from bright, catchy melodies. He was widely regarded as an exceptional improviser, and he inspired later artists to take creative risks. Born in 1930 in New York City and raised in Harlem, he began saxophone study at age seven.

"The statement said the Saxophone Colossus died at his home in Woodstock, New York on Monday afternoon. The statement quoted Rollins reflecting on death: I think when the creative person ends, he continues in the next existence. I'm a person who believes this life isn't the be-all and end-all of everything. A spiritual person doesn't feel like that."

"With more than 60 albums released from the late-1940s onwards, including collaborations with Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane and others, Rollins was one of the last living stars of the bebop generation, who took jazz from a predominantly dance or ballad form into startlingly expressive new territory."

"Rollins himself was a genius of melody, whose bright, catchy lines whether jazz standards or self-penned would be unpicked, extended and refashioned in improvised and sometimes epic solos. Saxophonist Branford Marsalis has called him the greatest improviser in the history of jazz alongside Louis Armstrong."

"When presenting him with the 2010 National Medal of the Arts in 2011, Barack Obama said Rollins had inspired him to take risks that I might not otherwise have taken. He was born Walter Theodore Rollins in New York City in 1930, and raised in its Harlem district, earning the nickname Sonny from his grandmother."

Read at www.theguardian.com