Saxophone Colossus: The Life and Music of Sonny Rollins

Winner of the American Book Award (2023)

Longlisted for the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award (2023)

The long-awaited first full biography of 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, winning Grammys, the Austrian Cross of Honor, Sweden’s Polar Music Prize and a National Medal of Arts. A bridge from bebop to the avant-g...