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Backgrounder: Sonny Rollins - Alfie (1966)

Sonny Rollins
No album better reflects Sonny Rollins's personality than his Alfie: Original Music From the Score, arranged by Oliver Nelson. Recorded in New York in January 1966, the original music has his energy, passion, tenderness and his melancholy in one fell swoop. It's all very mid-1960s.

To learn more about the recording, consult my two-part post on The Making of Alfie, from 2010. The first part was devoted to the popular song by Hal David and Burt Bacharach and the second part is on Sonny's original score and why there were three different Alfie music projects in the marketplace back then—Sonny's, Cilla Black's and Cher's.

The band: J.J. Johnson (tb); Jimmy Cleveland (tb-track 1) replaces J.J. Johnson; Phil Woods (as); Sonny Rollins and Bob Ashton (ts); Danny Bank (bar); Roger Kellaway (p); Kenny Burrell (g); Walter Booker (b); Frankie Dunlop (d) and Oliver Nelson (arr,cond).

Here's the entire Alfie: Original Music From the Score, a masterpiece,without ad interruptions. Dig Roger Kellaway's piano throughout!...

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This story appears courtesy of JazzWax by Marc Myers.
Copyright © 2025. All rights reserved.

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