Dennis George Rollins was born in
Birmingham, England, of
Jamaican parents, and raised in Bentley,
Doncaster, where he attended
Don Valley High School. When he was 14 years old, he joined The Doncaster Youth Jazz Association, with which he studied and performed for some years before moving to
London in 1987. Rollins has recorded, performed, and toured with a host of musicians and bands in jazz and pop, including
Courtney Pine, and
Maceo Parker,. In 1995 he formed his own
jazz-funk band, Dee Roe, with which he performed at such venues as the
Jazz Café,
Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club, the
London Forum, and
Brixton Academy. In 2000 he again formed a band, the quintet Dennis Rollins' BadBone and Co., launched at the
Barbican Centre in March of that year, again specialising in
funk-inflected jazz. In 2005 he formed Boneyard, an ensemble featuring 10 trombones,
sousaphone (or "sousabone"), and drums; this band performed a series of live gigs throughout the U.K. that summer as well as a performance on
BBC Radio 3. Boneyard featured the British jazz trombonists Barnaby Dickinson, Matt Colman, Julian Hepple, Andy Derrick, Kevin Holborough, Harry Brown, and Lee Hallam, with Andy Grappy on
sousaphone. Current band members of Badbone&co are: Jay Phelps on trumpet, Johnny Heyes on guitars, Courtney Thomas on bass, Ross Stanley on keys and Jack Pollit on drums. Rollins is an artist/clinician for
Michael Rath Trombones. His personal instrument is a yellow brass/nickel silver Rath R3. In the
2018 Queen's Birthday Honours list Rollins was awarded an
MBE for services to music. ==Recordings (as leader)==