Walter Theodore "Sonny" Rollins (born September 7, 1930) is an American former jazz tenor saxophonist who is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. In a seven-decade car… See more

Rollins was born in New York City to parents from the Virgin Islands. The youngest of three siblings, he grew up in central Harlem and on Sugar Hill, receiving his first alto saxophone at the age of seven or eight. H… See more

After graduating from high school in 1948, Rollins began performing professionally; he made his first recordings in early 1949 as a sideman with the bebop singer Babs Gonzales (trombonist J. J. Johnson was the arranger of … See more