Sonny Rollins

Sonny Rollins did not steal his nickname “ Saxophone Colossus ”. For more than half a century, this direct heir of Charlie Parker and Coleman Hawkins - whom he worked with and with whom he recorded - has led an enviable and admirable career, even if it has experienced some ups and downs. The irruption, in the history of the tenor saxophone , and of jazz as a whole, of a personality like that of John Coltrane certainly disturbed him for a moment, but undoubtedly, after a beneficial retirement, encouraged him to remaining even more yourself, a powerful creator, an inexhaustible improviser eager to communicate with the public through tone and humor, on a repertoire of ageless songs or irresistibly danceable calypsos.

It is to the discovery of this worried but joyful artist that this comic book and its two CDs invite us, from his first personal album to his first triumphs. We thus witness the patient construction, dotted with masterpieces, of a style which will later become immutable.