Backgrounder: Brown & Roach - At Basin Street

Tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins recorded several live club albums with Clifford Brown and Max Roach, but only two were done in the studio—At Basin Street and Sonny Rollins Plus Four. Though the former LP's title (for EmArcy) infers they recorded live at New York's Basin Street (not Basin Street East, which wouldn't open until 1959), they actually were at New York's Capitol Studios.

Sonny joined the Clifford Brown and Max Roach Quintet in late 1955. In January and February 1956, they recorded At Basin Street. Sonny Rollins Plus Four was recorded the following month for Sonny's label, Prestige. Clifford Brown and Bud Powell's brother, Richie, would die in a car crash in June.

At Basin Street features extraordinary hard-bop playing by all: Clifford Brown (tp), Sonny Rollins (ts), Richie Powell (p,arr), George Morrow (b) and Max Roach (d).

Here's the superb At Basin Street without ad interruptions...