a great way to pick up a whole bunch of Rollins albums in one hit, and I always find these multi album sets become fire starters that ignite a passion to learn more about an artist.
Acrobat Music ACTRCD9168 (3CD Set)
Personnel includes Sonny Rollins with Kenny Drew, Percy Heath, Art Blakey, Miles Davis, Roy Haynes, Milt Jackson, John Lewis, Kenny Clarke, Kenny Dorham, Elmo Hope, Thelonious Monk, Ray Bryant, Clifford Brown, Richie Powell, George Morrow, Max Roach, John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, Philly Joe Jones, Tommy Flanagan and others
Featuring the albums Sonny Rollins Quartet, Sonny Rollins with the Modern Jazz Quartet, Sonny Rollins Quintet featuring Kenny Dorham, Sonny Rollins and Thelonious Monk, Work Time, Sonny Rollins Plus Four, Tenor Madness & Saxophone Colossus
This 3 CD set from Acrobat covers an important part of Rollins discography and most be regarded as excellent value containing as it does of no less than seven albums from the saxophonists early years with Prestige. In a remarkably creative period we witness not so much the emerging Sonny Rollins but the first outpouring of a fertile and inventive improviser discovering the repertoire that suits his musically inquisitive mind and a musician with a seemingly endless flow of ideas to pack into his solos.
The timing could not have been better for Rollins with the advent of the LP, first as a ten inch disc before evolving into the 12 inch record that allows for longer playing time, and the ability to play longer solos than the previous 78rpm records. Working chronologically, this set actually pre-dates 1953 as stated in the title with some tracks recorded for the imprint with Rollins and a rhythm section of Kenny Drew on piano bassist Percy Heath and on drums, Art Blakey. These early tracks from 1951 show the saxophonist as not just a formidable technician but also as a decisive soloist with a sound all his own.
The Modern Jazz Quartet from just two years was a shrewd move by Prestige boss Bob Weinstock in introducing a new album form the relative new comer Rollins with an established group who were beginning to become very popular, however with the passing of time and the weight of history it does now highlight the differences as much as the compatibility of the pairing.
The album Sonny Rollins Quintet featuring Kenny Dorham has also been released as Moving Out and mirrors the popular hard bop quintet line up favoured at the time. Again while the music is often interesting, Dorham is a totally different stylist from the saxophonist and one feels that the quartet is the more natural home for Rollins at this period. This is made ever more apparent in the titles that feature the tenorist with Thelonious Monk and this is a happy meeting of two musical geniuses.
As if to play devil’s advocate, Rollins shows that he is not quite with hard bop in his Sonny Rollins Plus Four album which is simply the Max Roach/Clifford Brown Quintet recording under the saxophonist’s leadership and produces some timeless music and superb compositions.
Either side of this recording are the albums Work Time and Tenor Madness (although programmed out of chronological sequence in order to fit on the CDs) that show Rollins penchant for selecting less than obvious compositions on which to hang his improvisations. Just check out ‘There’s No Business Like Show Business’ on Work Time and ‘The Most Beautiful Girl In The World’ from Tenor Madness. With the latter album recorded with Miles Davis’s rhythm section, Sonny is in his element and even features a two tenor workout with John Coltrane on the title track.
The jewel in this particular crown is with out a doubt the inclusion of Rollins’s first acknowledged classic album, Saxophone Colossus. Here the saxophonist is totally sure of himself and the material and takes composer credit on four of the six titles, and his playing on the calypso influenced ‘St Thomas’ and his incredible solo on ‘Blue Seven’ that has been analysed by theorist and composer Gunther Schuller are the stuff of jazz legend.
All in all a great way to pick up a whole bunch of Rollins albums in one hit, and I always find these multi album sets become fire starters that ignite a passion to learn more about an artist. The story of course doesn’t end here and there are more albums from Prestige, Blue Note and Riverside that were to follow in an a creative spate of recording activity for the saxophonist that would see him reach even greater heights.
