Quantcast
NEWS: Summer Jazz Festival Guide 2008 STORES: CDs/DVDs/Vinyl/Sleeves | Downloads | Posters | Art
jazz
HOME NEWS REVIEWS ARTICLES MUSICIANS PHOTOS FORUMS
  Login   |   MY AAJ Signup  
Intro Site Map Free Daily MP3s Videos Upcoming Releases Guides Editorial Calendar Help Wanted  
Advanced
Contact Us   |   Advertise   |   For Contributors   |   For Musicians





Infinita
Lawson Rollins
Storyteller
Rob Mullins
Jammin' Uptown
Alvin Queen
Cover Up!
George Kahn
Let's Play
Project Grand Slam
Child In My Heart
Tanja Maritsa
Advertise Here


Jazz Excursion Radio



"Na Sengi Oa Bwam"
Henri Dikongue
Mot'a Bobe

Listen Now






Featured Visual Artist
Scott Friedlander



Push AAJ Content
AAJ Live | RSS | Widsets

The Freelance Years:The Complete Riverside & Contemporary Recordings

Sonny Rollins | Fantasy Jazz

Discuss  

In the collective media catalog that has been developed by Sonny Rollins over the past many decades there is much that is of tangible worth, while only his recordings of the past 15 years or so tend to be dispensable in the long run. Taken together as a group, first-rate Rollins would have to include his Prestige sessions, the RCA-Victor sides, and three dates apiece for both Blue Note and Impulse. Just after the aforementioned Prestige period and prior to the Blue Notes lie the performances assembled here together for the first time in The Freelance Years, a 5-CD boxed set which comes as Rollins gets ready to celebrate his 70th birthday later this year.

The Riverside Recordings

This set is made up of two parts, with the Riverside dates being of the earliest vintage, getting underway with tracks from the 1956 Thelonious Monk album Brilliant Corners. Of the other sessions that present Rollins as a sideman, you'll also find selections from trumpeter Kenny Dorham's Jazz Contrasts and Abbey Lincoln's That's Him, yet all three have one or two performances that don't include Rollins in the line-up and have thus not been included here.

Of the two Riverside collections under Rollins' leadership, clearly The Freedom Suite from 1958 is the most well known and critically-acclaimed. This lean trio affair with bassist Oscar Pettiford and drummer Max Roach would foreshadow the type of extended piano-less offerings that would reach a peak in such later albums as East Broadway Rundown. Slightly less brave, but equally gratifying, The Sound of Sonny has much to recommend it, not the least being rare Riverside appearances from pianist Sonny Clark and drummer Roy Haynes. It should also be noted that this set contains three cuts only previously available on the1957 Period release Sonny Rollins Plays. These hard-to-find gems sport a superior line-up that includes trombonist Jimmy Cleveland and pianist Gil Coggins.

The Contemporary Recordings

Both of the albums Rollins did on the West Coast for Contemporary have become avowed classics, namely Way Out West and Sonny Rollins and the Contemporary Leaders. The former is in a trio setting with Ray Brown and Shelly Manne and highlights Rollins' sly sense of humor on “I'm an Old Cowhand” and “Wagon Wheels,” while the latter is a meeting of giants with Hampton Hawes, Barney Kessel, Leroy Vinnegar, Victor Feldman, and Shelly Manne on hand. If you don't know these recordings then you're missing out on some of the better recorded jazz of the past 40 years.

A serviceable addition to the previous packaging of all of Rollins' Prestige sides, this shrewd pairing of Rollins' Riverside and Contemporary oeuvre was a sharp move on Fantasy's part and should serve as a perfect birthday gift for Sonny when he gets ready for the big seven-o come September.Collective

Visit Sonny Rollins on the web.
Sonny Rollins at All About Jazz.

Personnel:

Collective Sonny Rollins- tenor saxophone; Abbey Lincoln- vocal; Ernie Henry- alto saxophone; Clark Terry, Kenny Dorham- trumpet; Jimmy Cleveland- trombone; Hank Jones, Thelonious Monk, Sonny Clark, Hampton Hawes, Wynton Kelly- piano; Barney Kessel- guitar; Victor Feldman- vibes; Paul Chambers, Percy Heath, Oscar Pettiford, Ray Brown, Leroy Vinnegar- bass; Roy Haynes, Shelly Manne, Max Roach-drums

Track Information:58 performances, including one previously unissued track

Style: Mainstream | Published: April 01, 2000


  Discuss   Add to Google  
2005 nominee for the Lona Foote-Bob Parent Award For Excellence in Photography, Hovan is a Cleveland-based writer/photographer and regular contributor to AAJ, Cleveland Free Times, and Down Beat More about Chris...


More Articles by C. Andrew Hovan
Day In Night Out
New Groove
Outside In
Encounters
Return to Forever in Cleveland
A Jones for Bones Tones
Jim Rotondi with Joe Locke at Jazz Cafe, Detroit

More Recent Reviews
Sam Rivers - The Complete Blue Note Sam Rivers Sessions Sam Rivers
The Complete Blue Note Sam Rivers Sessions
Edmund Velasco - The Blues In Me Edmund Velasco
The Blues In Me
Yellowjackets - The Best of Yellowjackets Yellowjackets
The Best of Yellowjackets
Benny Golson Funky Quintet - That’s Funky Benny Golson Funky Quintet
That’s Funky
The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra - Thad Jones Legacy The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra
Thad Jones Legacy
Joe Maneri - Mat Maneri - Barre Phillips - Tales Of Rohnlief Joe Maneri - Mat Maneri - Barre Phillips
Tales Of Rohnlief



CD Review Search
Artist Name  
Album Title  
Record Label  
Author  
 
Most Read: CD Reviews
Last 30 Days | All Time
Most Read: Articles
Last 30 Days | All Time

Upcoming events for Sonny Rollins:



 

More CD Reviews






Alvin Queen
New CD: Jammin' Uptown









  Privacy Policy | Dedicated Servers All material copyright © 2008 All About Jazz and/or contributing writers/visual artists. All rights reserved.