![]() Saxophonist, bandleader, vocalist, songwriter and all-around entertainer, Louis Jordan was a popular star in the 1940s, and a hero to the young Sonny Rollins. He switched to tenor sax when he fell under the spell of Coleman Hawkins, a highly sophisticated improviser who first established the tenor saxophone as a lead instrument in American jazz. The example of the pioneering rhythm-and-blues star Louis Jordan inspired the young Sonny Rollins to take up the alto saxophone. Music was also an important part of life in the Rollins home Sonny’s brother and sister studied violin and piano. Harlem in the 1930s and ‘40s was home to the latest developments in jazz, and jazz musicians were admired members of the community. Rollins grew up in Harlem where he received his first alto saxophone at the age of 7 or 8. ![]() She took a strong role in raising Sonny, as he was known from an early age, along with his older brother and sister, while their father served in the United States Navy. ![]() His politically active grandmother had been a follower of the Jamaican Pan-Africanist Marcus Garvey, who promoted solidarity among all peoples of African descent. He grew up in Harlem at a time when this crowded district at the northern tip of Manhattan was the vital center of African American culture. Theodore Walter Rollins was born in New York City to a family that had immigrated from the Virgin Islands. ![]()
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