Sonny Rollins

[danasgoodstuff]

+3 might be my favorite later period Sonny, some days at least, very good and very consistently so.

[Peter Friedman]

Here is my list of Favorite Sonny Rollins records.

As you can readily see, my preference is strongly for Rollins early period.

1. Saxophone Colossus - Prestige

2. Newk's Time  -  Blue Note

3. Vol.2  -  Blue Note

4. Worktime  -  Prestige

5. Live at The Village Vanguard  -  Blue Note

6. Way Out West  -  Contemporary

7. Vol.1  -    Blue Note

8. On Impulse   -   Impulse

9. The Sound of Sonny   -   Riverside

10. Alfi   -    Impulse

11. Sonny Boy   -  Prestige

12. Moving Out   -  Prestige

 

[felser]

31 minutes ago, Peter Friedman said:

Here is my list of Favorite Sonny Rollins records.

As you can readily see, my preference is strongly for Rollins early period.

1. Saxophone Colossus - Prestige

2. Newk's Time  -  Blue Note

Those are also my two favorites!  Haven't thought about rankings beyond that, but I also, and I think most people, do prefer his 50's work. 

[Eric]

8 hours ago, danasgoodstuff said:

+3 might be my favorite later period Sonny, some days at least, very good and very consistently so.

👍

The four I listen to regularly:

Volume 1 (Blue Note)

Now’s The Time (RCA)

Standard Sonny Rollins (RCA)

Silver City (best of Milestone comp)

I checked out the two RCA’s based on Mark Stryker’s list on the board.  I have come to adore them.  Same adoration for Volume 1.   Also spend a lot of time with +3.

Edited January 20 by Eric

[Mark Stryker]

10 minutes ago, Eric said:

👍

The four I listen to regularly:

Volume 1 (Blue Note)

Now’s The Time (RCA)

Standard Sonny Rollins (RCA)

Silver City (best of Milestone comp)

I checked out the two RCA’s based on Mark Stryker’s list on the board.  I have come to adore them.  Same adoration for Volume 1.   Also spend a lot of time with +3.

👍

1 hour ago, Peter Friedman said:

Here is my list of Favorite Sonny Rollins records.

As you can readily see, my preference is strongly for Rollins early period.

1. Saxophone Colossus - Prestige

2. Newk's Time  -  Blue Note

3. Vol.2  -  Blue Note

4. Worktime  -  Prestige

5. Live at The Village Vanguard  -  Blue Note

6. Way Out West  -  Contemporary

7. Vol.1  -    Blue Note

8. On Impulse   -   Impulse

9. The Sound of Sonny   -   Riverside

10. Alfi   -    Impulse

11. Sonny Boy   -  Prestige

12. Moving Out   -  Prestige

 

👍All great of course.

[JSngry]

1 hour ago, felser said:

...but I also, and I think most people, do prefer his 50's work. 

Most old farts yeah, the same type who "prefer" (i.e. understand) Max Roach with Clifford Brown.

There is so much more. Meaningfully more. All the way thru to the end.

But let's at least dispel the myth that 50s Sonny is what "most people" still like here in 2024.

Once the RCA material finally got general circulation (and it lay out of reach in any meaningful way for literally decades), a LOT of people fell in love with it.

And why not? In terms of sheer fluency and fearless spontaneity, it's some sort of apex. 

[mjzee]

I've posted this before, but it's worthwhile bringing it up again:

Page 694 (of the Sonny bio) reveals there may be an unreleased studio date from 2004.  Per the book, "Sonny hired his current working band: Cranshaw, Anderson, Jordan, and Dinizulu.  The recording took place at Clinton Studios in New York over two six-hour sessions at the end of September 2004...Lucille and engineer Troy Halderson spent two six-hour days mixing as planned, and by early October the album was (finished)."  But Lucille passed away November 27, 2004, and Sonny shelved the record.  Note that this is not the record "Sonny Please," which was recorded December 2005 and February 2006 at Carriage House Studios in Stamford, CT.

[Peter Friedman]

4 hours ago, JSngry said:

Most old farts yeah, the same type who "prefer" (i.e. understand) Max Roach with Clifford Brown.

There is so much more. Meaningfully more. All the way thru to the end.

But let's at least dispel the myth that 50s Sonny is what "most people" still like here in 2024.

Once the RCA material finally got general circulation (and it lay out of reach in any meaningful way for literally decades), a LOT of people fell in love with it.

And why not? In terms of sheer fluency and fearless spontaneity, it's some sort of apex. 

Jim, your snide comment here seems to be ignoring that taste is a personal thing.  What you consider an apex is not shared by all.

While I did not have an opportunity to see Sonny Rollins live in the 50's, I did see his quartet with Don Cherry live, and also saw him live a number of times over a number of different decades. Once in Detroit, once in New York City, Once in Rochester New York, and once here in Tucson. 

While many (though not all) of those live performances were highly enjoyable for me, nonetheless my personal preference is for his early recordings.

 

[felser]

4 hours ago, JSngry said:

Most old farts yeah, the same type who "prefer" (i.e. understand) Max Roach with Clifford Brown.

 

I'll take my preferred Sonny Rollins 50's style (though I like his work into the early-70's fine and own it), and my preferred Max Roach is 'Members, Don't Get Weary' and all those great 70's quartet recordings with Billy Harper which are so difficult/impossible to find.  I guess that makes me a schizophrenic old semi-fart or something! 🙂

[JSngry]

"most people" is an assumption that may be rooted in not paying attention to changing realities.

It was 1986-1987 before RCA began reissuing Rollins in earnest. That was a lot of time for the narrative about the 50s material to take root, even though they weren't all gems.

But the 60s were huge for Rollins creatively, and people are figuring this out. Still. 

My Milestone overview thread is still coming. I know that "most people" don't prefer that stuff. I don't either. But I still like it, listen to it often. and hear in it a continuation of the ongoing Rollins arc in terms of tenor playing. In terms of record making, maybe not so much. But in terms of tenor playing, if you don't know (or get) 60s Rollins, you really might be lost by what came later. 

Taste is indeed subjective but the realities/specifics of music are not. 

[medjuck]

I think I saw Sonny Rollins in every decade from the '60s through when he retired. IIRC The first time I saw him he had Grant Green on guitar and I thought he was suffering from too much a Coltrane influence.  The next time I saw him was with a pick-up group in Toronto in late'60s or early '70s and he blew me away (though the concert got a bad review in Coda).

Saw him often with the trombone-guitar group and enjoyed every concert. 

However the records I enjoy the most are the ones with Don Cherry.

[Eric]

6 hours ago, JSngry said:

My Milestone overview thread is still coming.

Looking forward to this!

[BFrank]

I got to see him at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1978. Quite an experience.

Edited January 23 by BFrank

[danasgoodstuff]

I saw Sonny maybe 5-7 times, from the '70s on.  OR, MN, & SK.  Can stumble my way through a few of the tunes on sax.  Have transcriptions of some solos but generally don't bother.  Favorites include:

Friday the 13th session with Monk

Oleo/Doxy etc. 4 song 10" session with Miles

Dizzy G session with Sonny Stitt

Colossus

any and all with Clifford

Night @ the VV

Freedom Suite (the suite itself)

Way Out West

various boots from the late '50s just before he went on hiatus

The Bridge (and the stray tracks with Jim Hall after)

Django as if he were Ayler

theme from Alfie as a tune, not so much the ST performances, great fun to play

Next album

Live in Japan

"To a Wild Rose" @ Montreux 

3 tracks on the Stones Tattoo You, esp'ly Waiting For a Friend

G Man

+3

Parts of the various Road Show albums

Edited January 26 by danasgoodstuff

[Gheorghe]

On 1/21/2024 at 12:34 AM, JSngry said:

"most people" is an assumption that may be rooted in not paying attention to changing realities.

It was 1986-1987 before RCA began reissuing Rollins in earnest. That was a lot of time for the narrative about the 50s material to take root, even though they weren't all gems.

But the 60s were huge for Rollins creatively, and people are figuring this out. Still. 

My Milestone overview thread is still coming. I know that "most people" don't prefer that stuff. I don't either. But I still like it, listen to it often. and hear in it a continuation of the ongoing Rollins arc in terms of tenor playing. In terms of record making, maybe not so much. But in terms of tenor playing, if you don't know (or get) 60s Rollins, you really might be lost by what came later. 

Taste is indeed subjective but the realities/specifics of music are not. 

Well, I try to think about that "most people" phrase. 

In jazz, most people, who write, are music lovers. They spend more time at home listening to their favourite albums which is mighty fine. I also like much of Rollin´s old work, like the mentioned "Friday the 13th" and "Let´s Call This" and so, and the old compositions "Doxy", "Oleo", "Valse Hot" , "Airegin" "St. Thomas" "Tune Up" and whatever it is, but in my case it is more the occasion away from home, that get´s my attention, rather than listening to a whole album at home. 

 
When I was a budding player and could play let´s say "Doxy" which is easy, and "Oleo" since it is just another rhythm changes, both in B-flat, the most easy key, and saw that more experienced guys eat up the changes of "Tune Up" and "Airegin" at high speed, sure I went home and listened to those tracks on some of those Prestige samplers, to LEARN them. 
 

And for seeing Rollins live, as a 1959 born you can be sure that it was during his Milestone Years, that´s what it was and it was the sounds that I was surrounded by. Those musicians like Rollins and Roach where not "be bop preservation societies" , they were creating and developing. As @felser mentioned the ´70´s Roach Quartets with Billy Harper (and later Odean Pope) this is the same thing. This is not a veteran drummer, who kept playing Bird/Diz/Brown style, but a living and creating artist. That´s what we wanted to hear when it happens. 

Another example of "most people". "Most people" for me is "younger people" and they have a different approach to the things. Serena, my wife is much younger and would not listen to so much jazz if she had married another guy. But about music she didn´t think historically , but from personal tastes. So, when we missed a Sonny Rollins concert in the States because it took place just in the night we arrived, a few days later,  smoking a cigarrette outside the club during intermission, and talking about Sonny Rollins, a guy approached us with that angry look and without having been asked , barked:

                    "I don´t like what Sonny Rollins has done since 1975". 

Now you might have seen Serena, with all her youth and beauty, with wide eyed surprise: "Since 1975 ????? When was 1975 ?????  And what is left if you don´t like what Rollins did since a year (that in hear thinking sounded like Marco Polo´s time😄 .

She liked the more modern sounding tunes from the "Road Tracks" albums she bought me. There is a short version of "Don´t Stop The Carneval" which has the more contemporanous sound, and some thing that is titled "Nice Lady" , that´s what seems to be danceable to her ...

 

So, the definition "most people" can be seen from different points of view, the environment you have, and and and .....

[Hoppy T. Frog]

Very early, when I was getting into jazz, I was sort of listening to Sonny chronologically, but the RCA stuff when I got to it, blew my punk rock and 90s techno-trained ears away

[Eric]

13 hours ago, danasgoodstuff said:

Django as if he were Ayler

!! - when/where is this from?  Thanks

[JSngry]

Or:

[Eric]

26 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Or:

Thanks - have both the physical incarnations in the house!

Bought that Alternative LP many, many years ago in college.  Always enjoyed it.

[Hardbopjazz]

The best recording with Sonny Rollins I've ever heard is a live recording I got from the person that taped it. Since this isn't official I can share it if someone wants to hear it. I know a copy was given to Sonny's team. They loved it. The sound is fine for an audience recording, but not for commercial release. 

Sonny Rollins Quartet

The Walnut Street Theater, Philadelphia

1979-05-03

Sonny Rollins- ts, lyricon; Mark Soskin- p, e-p; Jerome Harris- b; Al Foster- d. Set 1 63:27 01. Strode Rode (Sonny Rollins) 15:04, 02. Arroz Con Pollo (Sonny Rollins) 10:46, 03. Easy Living (Ralph Rainger / Leo Robin) 11:16, 04. Isn't She Lovely (Tape Flip) (Stevie Wonder) 8:58, 05. Isn't She Lovely (Continues) (Stevie Wonder) 1:06, 06. Keep Hold of Yourself (Sonny Rollins) 14:59, Set 2 58:51 01. Title 5:28, 02. Sonny's unaccompanied solo 9:22, 03. Don't Stop the Carnaval (Sonny Rollins) 5:03, 04. The Cutting Edge (Sonny Rollins) 9:08, 05. Tai-Chi (Tape flip) (Sonny Rollins) 2:13, 06. Tai Chi (Continues) (Sonny Rollins) 8:35, 07. Alfie's Theme (Sonny Rollins) 5:48, 08. Impressions (John Coltrane) 13:08

Edited January 26 by Hardbopjazz

[Gheorghe]

On 1/26/2024 at 6:50 PM, Hardbopjazz said:

The best recording with Sonny Rollins I've ever heard is a live recording I got from the person that taped it. Since this isn't official I can share it if someone wants to hear it. I know a copy was given to Sonny's team. They loved it. The sound is fine for an audience recording, but not for commercial release. 

Sonny Rollins Quartet

The Walnut Street Theater, Philadelphia

1979-05-03

Sonny Rollins- ts, lyricon; Mark Soskin- p, e-p; Jerome Harris- b; Al Foster- d. Set 1 63:27 01. Strode Rode (Sonny Rollins) 15:04, 02. Arroz Con Pollo (Sonny Rollins) 10:46, 03. Easy Living (Ralph Rainger / Leo Robin) 11:16, 04. Isn't She Lovely (Tape Flip) (Stevie Wonder) 8:58, 05. Isn't She Lovely (Continues) (Stevie Wonder) 1:06, 06. Keep Hold of Yourself (Sonny Rollins) 14:59, Set 2 58:51 01. Title 5:28, 02. Sonny's unaccompanied solo 9:22, 03. Don't Stop the Carnaval (Sonny Rollins) 5:03, 04. The Cutting Edge (Sonny Rollins) 9:08, 05. Tai-Chi (Tape flip) (Sonny Rollins) 2:13, 06. Tai Chi (Continues) (Sonny Rollins) 8:35, 07. Alfie's Theme (Sonny Rollins) 5:48, 08. Impressions (John Coltrane) 13:08

The track list sounds very similar to what I had heard the same year. I think, his quartet with Soskin, Harris and Foster was his very best group in the late 70´s early 80´s. Each of them so great. This here must have been recorded around the time he made that great album "Don´t Ask" one of my favourites. 
On the setlist from the show I have seen it was also "Isn´t She Lovely" on schedule, and they also played the brand new "Disco Monk" , which - surprising enough for that kind of number - had a superb piano solo by Soskin. 

[clifford_thornton]

On 1/25/2024 at 2:11 PM, JSngry said:

Or:

yeah, I have a Japanese pressing of the Alternative Rollins and it's probably my favorite of his in the racks too...

[JSngry]

I found the original (French iirc) issue in a Shakespeare and Company store that otherwise had nothing but popular selections. Literally. How it got there was beyond me.

Sonny had his people shut it down ASAP. Only allowing it's contents to see USA issue once a deal has been reached that nothing else from the RCA vaults was to be issued.

I hope that he reconsiders. That was a while back. 

[MomsMobley]

On 1/20/2024 at 6:34 PM, JSngry said:

"most people" is an assumption that may be rooted in not paying attention to changing realities.

It was 1986-1987 before RCA began reissuing Rollins in earnest. That was a lot of time for the narrative about the 50s material to take root, even though they weren't all gems.

But the 60s were huge for Rollins creatively, and people are figuring this out. Still. 

My Milestone overview thread is still coming. I know that "most people" don't prefer that stuff. I don't either. But I still like it, listen to it often. and hear in it a continuation of the ongoing Rollins arc in terms of tenor playing. In terms of record making, maybe not so much. But in terms of tenor playing, if you don't know (or get) 60s Rollins, you really might be lost by what came later. 

Taste is indeed subjective but the realities/specifics of music are not. 

Tai-Chi & lyricon!

**

Nat Cole in "Indochina"

[danasgoodstuff]

I thought I had replied but I probably forgot to hit send again, anyway that is the version of Django I was thinking of.  Quite wondrous to me.