WKCR announces a 24-hour birthday celebration for Sonny Rollins’ 93rd birthday, broadcast on FM and HD radio and online all day on Thursday, September 7th.

Undoubtedly one of the greatest improvisers in the history of music, Sonny Rollins began his career in the late 40s as a precocious teenager taking bandstands by storm, demonstrating a fearsome command of the music alongside the likes of Bud Powell, Miles Davis, and Thelonious Monk. Rollins quickly became an important leader in his own right, recording legendary albums in the 50s such as Saxophone Colossus, Newk’s Time, and A Night At The Village Vanguard that would define a new standard for the tenor saxophone. After his famous sabbatical spent practicing on the Williamsburg Bridge, Rollins would return in the 60s with an even greater penchant for melodic abstraction and invention, making important recordings such as The Bridge, Our Man in Jazz, The Standard Sonny Rollins, and East Broadway Rundown before leaving the scene for another sabbatical in 1969. Rollins would return from this sabbatical in 1971, releasing Next Album and receiving a Guggenheim Fellowship in composition in 1972, touring prolifically (often with a band including Bob Cranshaw and notably with McCoy Tyner, Ron Carter, and Al Foster as part of the Milestone Jazzstars), and recording albums in the ensuing decades such as Don’t Stop The Carnival, The Solo Album, and Without A Song: The 9/11 Concert.

Our broadcast will feature both Rollins’ classics and lesser-known works, as well as special recordings from WKCR’s archive. Follow WKCR on Instagram (@wkcr) and Twitter (@WKCRFM) for further updates. Online listening is available 24/7 at wkcr.org via our web stream!