Sonny Rollins obituary

One of the great American jazz saxophonists regarded as an improvising genius by fans all over the world The flyers for his shows often called the saxophonist Sonny Rollins “the greatest living improviser”. On the face of it, that statement appeared to collide with the evidence, because many of the elements of a Rollins gig were repeated from one show to another. But you had to listen beyond the themes of favourite Rollins vehicles such as St Thomas, Don’t Stop the Carnival and A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square to hear why he was an improvising genius whose work was revered all the way from the 1950s dives of Manhattan’s 52nd Street to the White House. The respectful treatment of formal repertory meant little to Rollins, who has died aged 95. He loved songs and kept hundreds of tunes in his head, but those materials were merely triggers to his extraordinary spontaneous imagination and technique. The personal nuances of improvisation meant everything to him and that was why no two Rollins performances were ever really the same. In any handful of Broadway showtunes, sketchy calypsos and torch songs, Rollins could hear the potential for spontaneous variations that would become the