Kathy Cornell Berman

Sonny Rollins playing on the Williamsburg Bridge with tenor saxophonist, arranger, and educator Paul Jeffrey in 1968. By 1959, Sonny Rollins had grown increasingly dissatisfied with what he felt were his own musical shortcomings and withdrew from the public eye to embark on the first—and most storied—of his self-imposed sabbaticals. Residing on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, he sought refuge on the pedestrian walkway of the Williamsburg Bridge, where he could practice without disturbing a pregnant neighbor. From the summer of 1959 until the end of 1961, Rollins returned to the bridge almost daily, playing for as long as 15 or 16 hours at a stretch, through heat, wind, and snow, alongside the rumble of passing trains. Today, a fifteen-story apartment building named The Rollins stands on Grand Street, marking the site of his former home—a quiet monument to one of the most disciplined and transformative chapters in jazz history.