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Sonny Rollins: Swiss Radio Days, Vol. 40 - Zurich 1959
by Chris M. Slawecki
The quantity and quality of music released in 1959 have led many to call it a watershed year for modern jazz. Even just cursory research calls up such landmark titles as John Coltrane's Giant Steps (Atlantic), Ornette Coleman's The Shape of Jazz to Come (Atlantic), Dave Brubeck's Time Out (Columbia) and Miles Davis's Kind of Blue (Columbia). Recorded live at Radio Station Zurich that March, Sonny Rollins Trio & Horace Silver Quintet: Zurich 1959 hoists another pillar in 1959's monument ...
Continue ReadingSonny Rollins Trio & Horace Silver Quintet: Swiss Radio Days, Vol. 40 - Zurich 1959
by Dan Bilawsky
To some extent, the concept of glory days equates to fiction based on romanticized truth. When you talk to those who walked the walk at any seemingly important time, you learn that very quickly. Many of them would likely say that there's no time like the present, and the truth is that there's great music and history to be gleaned from any era and area if you know where to look. But then again, you can't argue with the facts ...
Continue ReadingSonny Rollins: Holding the Stage: Road Shows Vol. 4
by Chris M. Slawecki
At this point in his long and storied career, tenor saxman Sonny Rollins is probably incapable of releasing genuinely bad music (which isn't as obvious a statement as it may seem if, for example, you've tried to listen to Bob Dylan's Shadows in the Night Sinatra homage). Still, some sets are better than others, and Sonny recorded live onstage, spontaneously captured in the improvisational moment, is about as good as Sonny gets. “Something about the interaction of human being to ...
Continue ReadingSonny Rollins: Holding The Stage: Road Shows, Vol. 4
by Maurizio Zerbo
Sax Rhapsody. Si potrebbe definire così questo CD che documenta alcuni tour de force rollinsiani tra il 1996 e il 2012. Le otto tracce proposte offrono un'efficace rappresentazione di un genio in concerto, in tutta la sua carica espressiva. A fare da trait d'union è la volatile fantasia improvvisativa, immersa in un aureo classicismo capace di incantare diverse generazioni di jazzofili. Senza voler entrare nel merito di una cifra artistica ampiamente storicizzata, se ne apprezza ancora la ...
Continue ReadingSonny Rollins: Holding The Stage: Road Shows, Vol. 4
by Dan Bilawsky
The day may come when the well runs dry, but that day is not upon us. The fourth installment of Sonny Rollins' Road Shows series has arrived, bringing more beauties from the archives to light while bearing out that the genius of the Saxophone Colossus is best demonstrated on the stage. That's where the magic has always happened for him, and that's why these offerings have been so well-received. The first three volumes are already considered to be indispensable items ...
Continue ReadingSonny Rollins, Volume Two – 1957
by Marc Davis
There are no bad records by Sonny Rollins, but some are better than others. This is one of the better ones. Sonny Rollins Volume Two is, as the name suggests, Rollins' second recording for Blue Note. It's uniformly excellent with a fantastic band, especially the great J.J. Johnson on trombone and two tracks with the utterly unique Thelonious Monk. If only the title were better. That may be a dumb thing to criticize, but ...
Continue ReadingSonny Rollins, Volume One – 1956
by Marc Davis
It's easy to like Sonny Rollins. The guy is bluesy, edgy and clever. And it almost doesn't matter which period of Rollins' career you choose. It's all pretty terrific. But there's an unexpected down side: Because Rollins has so many fantastic recordings, listening to ones that are merely good can be a little disappointing. That's how I feel about Sonny Rollins Volume One--the first of four recordings that Rollins made for Blue Note in 1956 and ...
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