I am a big Sonny Rollins fan and am reading the new biography of his life appropriately titled Saxophone Colossus.
The book is 715 pages of text plus and the impeccable research by the author using predominately primary sources required the book notes to be found on the publishers website as a PDF. The first 3 chapters alone contain over 300 notes.
Sonny was born and raised in the Sugar Hill section of Harlem NY which at the time was the neighborhood where all of the great swing era players and emerging bebop players called home including Duke Ellington, Coleman Hawkins and Jackie McClean just to name a few.
The author does an outstanding job on the social and cultural impact of this hotbed of jazz musicians living on the same streets that Sonny lived and played on and the impact and influence musically, and personally this had on Sonny.
For those interested the book is $25 on Amazon and the PDF notes are on the publishers website here
Saxophone Colossus by Aidan Levy | Hachette Book Group