Celebrating Sonny Rollins / Octavia Spencer

Fresh Air - A podcast by NPR

Today is the 90th birthday of the great tenor saxophonist and improviser Sonny Rollins. We celebrate by hearing some of his music spanning five decades, with commentary from our jazz critic Kevin Whitehead. And we'll listen back to Terry Gross' 1994 interview with Rollins.

Also, we revisit Terry's interview with Octavia Spencer. She's nominated for a best actress Emmy for her performance in the Netflix limited series 'Self Made,' inspired by the story of Madam C.J. Walker, who was born in 1867 to parents who had been slaves. Through marketing hair products for black women, she became the first American female self-made millionaire.