In Honor of Tenor Saxophonist
Sonny Rollins

The Duke Jazz Series (Fall Semester), and The North Carolina International Jazz Festival (Spring Semester), were founded in 1984 by Paul Jeffrey, Director of Jazz Studies and Professor of Jazz Music at Duke University. The festival hosts all-star recording artists from Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Monaco, Israel, and Canada who perform along with leading American Jazz artists throughout North Carolina. The artists perform concerts at Duke as well as conduct workshops and clinics throughout the North Carolina school system.

At their inception, The Duke Jazz Series and The North Carolina International Jazz Festival were dedicated to Dr. Sonny Rollins, who is without question the most talented, versatile, durable, and accomplished jazz saxophonist alive today. He has played with most of the great stylists of modern jazz, including Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Ben Webster, Thelonious Monk, Max Roach, Clifford Brown, and Miles Davis. A leader of his own band for over thirty years, his personal honors range from a Grammy award for his score for the 1965 film Alfie, to being honored with Sonny Rollins Day by the City of New York. Notable recordings of his more than 100 record dates include: Alfie; The Bridge; East Broadway Rundown ; Freedom Suite; Newk's Time; Night at the Vanguard, Vols . I & II; Tenor Madness with John Coltrane; and Way Out West. Rollins can also be seen and heard playing and talking about his life and music in the video, Saxophone Colossus. This past year Dr. Rollins was awarded an honorary doctorate degree from Duke University.

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