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Sonny Rollins

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Musician

The Resume

    (September 7, 1930- )
    Born in New York City, New York
    Birth name was Theodore Walter Rollins
    Jazz tenor saxophonist
    Performed with Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and Max Roach
    Recorded the albums 'Moving Out' (1954), 'Saxophone Colossus' (1956), 'Tenor Madness' (1956), 'Rollins Plays for Bird' (1956), 'Way Out West' (1957), 'Freedom Suite' (1958), 'The Bridge' (1962), 'What's New?' (1962), 'Our Man in Jazz' (1962), 'Now's the Time' (1964), 'East Broadway Run Down' (1966), 'Next Album' (1972), 'Nucleus' (1975), 'Don't Ask' (1979), 'No Problem' (1981), 'Dancing in the Dark' (1987), 'Old Flames' (1993), 'Global Warming' (1998), 'This Is What I Do' (2000) and 'Without a Song: The 9/11 Concert' (2001)
    Composed the score (except for the title track) of the film 'Alfie' (1966)
    Played on the Rolling Stones single 'Waiting for a Friend' (1981)
    Awarded the National Medal of Arts (2010)

Why he might be annoying:

    He served ten months in jail for armed robbery (1950-51)
    He was arrested for violating parole after being caught with heroin (1952).
    His heroin use also prevented him from touring with Miles Davis.
    At the end of the 60s, he declared himself 'disillusioned with the music scene' and took a three year sabbatical to study yoga, meditation and Eastern philosophy.
    His incorporation of pop, funk and disco elements into his albums in the 70s did not go over well with the critics.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He kicked heroin after entering a then-experimental methadone program.
    Miles Davis said, 'He was an aggressive, innovative player who always had fresh musical ideas.'
    Several songs that he wrote became jazz standards.
    He lived blocks from the World Trade Center and on 9/11 he had to evacuate his apartment, taking only his saxophone.
    Critic Stanley Crouch said he was 'capable of summoning the entire history of jazz.'
    The New York Review of Books wrote, 'Even at 81, he is still capable of playing with the same brilliance that that first made giants like Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk take an interest in him in the 50s.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 5 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 6 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 6 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 18 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 13 Votes: 46.15% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 4 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 87 Votes: 62.07% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 698 Votes: 45.85% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 13 Votes: 69.23% Annoying