Saxophone Colossus: The Life and Music of Sonny Rollins

Awarded the American Book Award in 2023 and longlisted for the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award in the same year, this is the eagerly awaited first full biography of the legendary jazz saxophonist and composer Sonny Rollins.

Sonny Rollins has long been considered an enigma. Known as the 'Saxophone Colossus,' he is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest jazz improvisers of all time, having received Grammys, the Austrian Cross of Honour, Sweden's Polar Music Prize, and a National Medal of Arts. A bridge from bebop to the avant-garde, he represents a lasting link to the golden age of jazz, famously pictured in the iconic 'Great Day in Harlem' portrait. His seven-decade career has been thoroughly documented, yet the behind-the-scenes life of the man once dubbed 'the only jazz recluse' has remained largely untold—until now.

Based on over 200 interviews with Rollins himself, his family members, friends, and collaborators, as well as accessing Rollins' extensive personal archive, Saxophone Colossus offers a comprehensive portrait of this legendary saxophonist and composer, civil rights activist, and environmentalist. A child of the Harlem Renaissance, Rollins' precocious talent saw him on the bandstand and in the recording studio with luminaries such as Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, and Dizzy Gillespie, and even performing opposite Billie Holiday. An icon in his own right, he recorded seminal works including Tenor Madness, featuring John Coltrane; Way Out West; Freedom Suite, the first civil rights-themed album of the hard bop era; A Night at the Village Vanguard; and the 1956 classic Saxophone Colossus.

Yet, his meteoric rise to fame was not without its challenges. He served two sentences on Rikers Island and successfully overcame heroin addiction. In 1959, Rollins took a two-year sabbatical from recording and performing, practising up to 16 hours a day on the Williamsburg Bridge. In 1968, he again withdrew to study at an ashram in India. He returned to performing from 1971 until his retirement in 2012.

The story of Sonny Rollins—innovative, unpredictable, larger than life—is the very story of jazz itself, and Sonny's own narrative is as timeless and timely as the art form he embodies. Part a jazz oral history told in the musicians' own words, part a chronicle of one man's quest for social justice and spiritual enlightenment, this is the definitive biography of one of the most enduring and influential artists in jazz and American history.