1954
Rollins moves to Chicago, and joins the Max Roach/Clifford Brown group a year later; he stays with this ensemble until 1957, a year after Clifford Brown's death; this groups makes some fine recordings. In 1955 Rollins kicks his drug habit.

1957-59
Sonny leads his own group, and his recordings in this period are some of the finest in the history of jazz; he is widely regarded as a major jazz star and perhaps the main tenor voice of his day. Saxophone Colossus, Way Out West and and Tenor Madness, to name but three, are records of the highest merit.

1970s-80s
Rollins returns to the musical fold in 1972. He tours mainly with a quintet, often composed of younger players. He dabbles with electronic backing and pseudo-rock forms. In 1978 he tours with McCoy Tyner and the Milestone All Stars. He starts to play the soprano saxophone in 1972, and the lyricon in 1979. By the 1980s Rollins has abandoned night club venues for performances in concert halls and festivals only.

STYLE
Rollins' main influence as a child was Coleman Hawkins, later Charlie Parker and Dexter Gordon, and the mantle of jazz heritage sits easily upon him: "I like to think there is a direct link between early jazz and jazz of any time."
Yet Rollins is, it seems, a stand-alone figure in the history of jazz. He was part of the mainstream when he took to the jazz stage, playing in bebop groups in his formative years and truly coming of age in the mid-1950s with elements, at least in his ensemble setting, of hard bop. Yet Rollins has always chosen his own course to steer by, and his playing has remained consistently in his own style from his youth; if he has dabbled with free jazz in the 1960s and fusion in the 1970s, it was always an uncomfortable experience. In short, Rollins remains his own man, and seems an unwilling accomplice to any musical experience he can not claim to be his own. Apart from a spell in the mid-1950s when with Clifford Brown, likewise he has found it difficult to play with other soloists, and his manner has been that of a wandering troubadour. What Gunther Schuller referred to, when discussing the track Blue 7 from the 1956 album Saxophone Colossus, as a new method of 'thematic' improvisation, is in fact no more than Sonny's insatiable lust for on-the-hoof and extravagant improvising with great rhythmic freedom. He truly rivals Parker in this respect, and his solo performances, first caught on record in 1957 with It Could Happen To You, are memorable and breathtaking events, and any genre is fair game - calypso melodies and cowboy themes sit happily next to Broadway standards. And if he composed as a young man, Oleo and other tunes are now part of the standard jazz repertoire, he rarely saw the need: improvisation, at least for Rollins, is akin to composition.
Given this, and even though there have been fits and starts to his career, the usual taunt - that he failed to live up to the enormous promise of the cluster of truly great jazz recordings he made in the mid- and late-1950s - is nonsense. Rollins has remained a figure of iconic proportions throughout his career.