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Sonny Rollins


Alexander Hawkins

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Everything from Arid Andersen's solo on "In A Sentimental Mood" on is some of the most nerve-wracking live footage I've seen in quite a while. Not in a bad way, but...talk about seeing right in front of you why things that would happen for all concerned over the next few year pretty much had to happen, that's intense.

I'm trying to imagine Sonny Rollins recording for ECM with that trio, and it's a good thing, just not with that Sonny Rollins, the real one. Not then, not ever.

That cadenza...damn. Eicher should have been the one to do the Sonny Rollins Solo Album, with that Sonny Rollins, the real one. And at that time.

And really, for all the legend that has been earned about the improvisational peaks and valleys of Sonny Rollins, is it just me, oh is the notion of Sonny Rollins being one pf the most consistently authoritative deliverers of interpretative melodies (no matter what happens in the improvisation) one of the most overlooked facts of jazz? I heard "Stairway To The Stars" from Sonny Please on Pandora this evening, and jeez, talk about a statement, just the opening melody statement, you could stop right there and have the best life has to offer.

That's another project, Sonny Rollins Plays Just The Original Melodies. But not with that Sonny Rollins, or even this Sonny Rollins, the real ones both. I don't know if that would be something he'd view as anything he felt an impulse towards doing. So I guess it befalls us, the listener, to pay attention to it while its happening, lest it be done and moved on from.

And that is Sonny Rollins. The real one.

That's why I love "Sonny Rollins and the Contemporary Leaders," his statement of the melodies of songs like "In The Chapel in the Moonlight" and "You" (best known to many as the theme song of the "Art Linkletter Show").

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" (...) When Mr. Rollins hit the national jazz scene in the early 1950s, he seemed to possess a new kind of energy. Unlike Coleman Hawkins or Lester Young, whose mantle he picked up, Mr. Rollins rarely purred into his horn. He sounded as if he were trying to push himself fully into every note, intentionally and bodily and without guile — as if it were the only way he would have any shot at getting his point across. (...)"

Did Hawk ever purr into his horn? :huh:

" (...) When Mr. Rollins hit the national jazz scene in the early 1950s, he seemed to possess a new kind of energy. Unlike Coleman Hawkins or Lester Young, whose mantle he picked up, Mr. Rollins rarely purred into his horn. He sounded as if he were trying to push himself fully into every note, intentionally and bodily and without guile — as if it were the only way he would have any shot at getting his point across. (...)"

Did Hawk ever purr into his horn? :huh:

Edited by EKE BBB
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  • 2 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Same record re-titled, I think. Probably done when MGM bought Verve.

http://www.jazzdisco.org/sonny-rollins/catalog/#metro-jazz-e-1002

Sonny Rollins And The Big Brass  (Metrojazz E 1002)

Sonny Rollins (tenor sax) Henry Grimes (bass -1/3) Charles "Specs" Wright (drums -1/3)

Beltone Recording Studios, NYC, July 10, 1958
1. What's My Name (mono edit)
2. If You Were The Only Girl In The World
3. Manhattan
4. Body And Soul

Nat Adderley (cornet) Reunald Jones, Ernie Royal, Clark Terry (trumpet) Billy Byers, Jimmy Cleveland, Frank Rehak (trombone) Don Butterfield (tuba) Sonny Rollins (tenor sax) Dick Katz (piano) Rene Thomas (guitar) Henry Grimes (bass) Roy Haynes (drums) Ernie Wilkins (arranger, conductor)

Metropolitan Studios, NYC, July 11, 1958
  Who Cares
  Love Is A Simple Thing
  Grand Street (mono ending)
  Far Out East

** also issued on Metrojazz SE 1002.

Sonny Rollins And The Big Brass  (Metrojazz SE 1002)

Sonny Rollins (tenor sax) Henry Grimes (bass) Charles "Specs" Wright (drums)

Beltone Recording Studios, NYC, July 10, 1958
  What's My Name

Nat Adderley (cornet) Reunald Jones, Ernie Royal, Clark Terry (trumpet) Billy Byers, Jimmy Cleveland, Frank Rehak (trombone) Don Butterfield (tuba) Sonny Rollins (tenor sax) Dick Katz (piano) Rene Thomas (guitar) Henry Grimes (bass) Roy Haynes (drums) Ernie Wilkins (arranger, conductor)

Metropolitan Studios, NYC, July 11, 1958
  Grand Street (stereo ending)

** reissue of Metrojazz E 1002.

Sonny Rollins - Brass And Trio  (Verve V/V6 8430)

same session

Metropolitan Studios, NYC, July 11, 1958
  Grand Street (Verve ending)
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  • 6 years later...
On 5/29/2017 at 6:12 PM, JSngry said:

30ROLLINS4-blog427.jpg

DISCO MONK - Larry Coryell, Jerome Harris, Al Foster, Bill Summers, Mark Soskin go in too.

We used to roller skate to this!

Sonny solo starts 3:36, goes to about 6:15, then it's time again to boogie!

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3 hours ago, MomsMobley said:

DISCO MONK - Larry Coryell, Jerome Harris, Al Foster, Bill Summers, Mark Soskin go in too.

We used to roller skate to this!

Sonny solo starts 3:36, goes to about 6:15, then it's time again to boogie!

Heard it live just few weeks after it was recorded on "Don´t Ask" . But Rollins and Coryell performed separatly, so it was the Sonny Rollins Quartet with Soskin, Harris, Foster. 

On one of the Road Shows albums there is a live track of it , I think from Finlanda, same period - festival tour early summer 79. 

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7 hours ago, JSngry said:

Slow to get going, but once it does...whoa... 

 

Thinking about Rollins with McCoy Tyner: 

I´m not sure if I have any  elseSonny Rollins from the 60´s than  the pianoless quartet with Don Cherry. 

It seems that the 60´s with the exception of the "Stuttgart Concert" with Don Cherry and the "Graz Concert" with Max Roach were quite a dead "Sonny Rollins period" for my listening experiences. It´s also possible that when I became interested in the music, speakin about the 60´s Coltrane was so overwhelming that everything musically was "Trane-ish", and this fenomen lasted much into the 70´s after Tranes death. 

So some of the first post 60´s Rollins I bought was the world famous "Milestone Allstars" WITH McCoy, Ron, and Al. 
I´m sure many of you guys from the States have seen those giants together, since the album was the result of an US-Tour. 

Well I love it, how couldn´t I, but as "Massey Hall" or "VSOP" this was gathering of 4 leaders, but sure some of  the best moments of the return of the interest in acoustic jazz. 

I felt it, I lived it, and it was interesting how my buddies, who mostly were into jazzrock thru much part of the earlier 70´s got big fans of the acoustic masters, and considered them "super cool". Guys that almost could have been our daddies (Hubbard, McCoy, Ron) were so super hip they became our idols....

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52 minutes ago, JSngry said:

There are many great Rollins records from the 1960s.

Yes, probably my favorite Rollins era.  That RCA box is wonderful and I return to those sessions often.  I have to say that I previously slept on this time period until enlightened by board members here!

Edited by Eric
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Sonny Rollins: A Personal Top 10 and Bonus Tracks. Official releases, unreleased material,  and bootleg live
performances. The order of a couple of these could shift but titles probably not, though I am still trying to figure out how to squeeze "G-Man" into my bonus tracks. The center of gravity is weighted decisively toward the 1960s.

Top 10
1.    A Night at the Village Vanguard, 1957 (Blue Note)
2.    Paris concert, 11/4/65
3.    The Standard Sonny Rollins, 1964 (RCA)
4.    Alfie, 1966 (Impulse)
5.    Newk’s Time, 1957 (Blue Note)
6.    The Sound of Sonny, 1957 (Riverside)
7.     Now’s The Time, 1964 (RCA)
8.     Saxophone Colossus, 1956 (Prestige)
9.    Newport Jazz Festival, 7/7/63 
10.  Falling in Love with Jazz, 1989. (Milestone)

Bonus Tracks in chronological order
1.    There’s No Business Like Show Business (Worktime), 1955 (Prestige)
2.    Misterioso (Sonny Rollins Vol. 2), 1957 (Blue Note)
3.    Freedom Suite (Freedom Suite), 1958 (Riverside)
4.    If Ever I Would Leave You (What’s New), 1962 (RCA)
5.    Lover, Village Gate, 7/28/62
6.    Oleo, Paris, 10/31/65
7.    Three Little Words, Copenhagen concert, 9/6/68
8.    First Moves (The Cutting Edge), 1974 (Milestone)
9.    Best Wishes (Road Shows Vol. 1), 1986 (Milestone)
10.  Darn that Dream (Old Flames), 1993 (Milestone)

Break Down by Decade:

1950s: 4 LPs, 3 bonus tracks

1960s: 3 LPs, 2 complete bootleg performances, 4 bonus tracks

1970s:  0 LPs, 1 bonus track

1980s: 1 CD, 1 bonus track

1990s: 0 CDs, 1 bonus track 
 

Edited by Mark Stryker
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