BLP 1542

 Sonny Rollins - Volume 1

Released - January 1957

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, NJ, December 16, 1956
Donald Byrd, trumpet; Sonny Rollins, tenor sax; Wynton Kelly, piano; Gene Ramey, bass; Max Roach, drums.

tk.1 Decision
tk.2 Plain Jane
tk.5 Sonnysphere
tk.6 How Are Things In Glocca Morra
tk.8 Bluesnote

Session Photos

Photos: Francis Wolff

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
Decision	Sonny Rollins	16/12/1956
Bluesnote	Sonny Rollins	16/12/1956
How Are Things in Glocca Morra?	Burton Lane, E.Y. "Yip" Harburg	16/12/1956
Side Two
Plain Jane	Sonny Rollins	16/12/1956
Sonnysphere	Sonny Rollins	16/12/1956

Credits

Cover Photo:	FRANCIS WOLFF
Cover Design:	REID MILES
Engineer:	RUDY VAN GELDER
Producer:	ALFRED LION
Liner Notes:	LEONARD FEATHER

Liner Notes

Jazz, like art and life and trees, is a family affair. Out of its trunk grow branches, and from the branches twigs emerge, and before long the leaves on these tender shoots are as fresh and green and pleasing to the senses as was the youthful tree itself.

In jazz the family tie is not visible to the eye, nor always immediately to the ear; it takes a discerning study of the habits and customs of the natives to figure out the heredity of jazzdom’s citizens. The tenor saxophone, perhaps more than any other instrument, has given birth to several generations of styles, all varying widely in their approach to the niceties of tone, phrasing, dynamics.

Theodore Walter Rollins is one tenor saxophonist who illustrates all the above observations. He is the student who has turned teacher, the scholar who became a school. During his high school days as an alto saxophonist he reputedly sounded like Louis Jordan, but in 1944 he heard Charlie Parker, and from that moment on his theme song could have been I’ll Never Be The Same Again. Bird was his main influence, though when he switched to tenor in 1948 it was evident that he had listened attentively to Coleman Hawkins, and presumably to Ben Webster and Lester Young. The Hawk impact was probably the most important of these three. (If this sounds incompatible with a Parker influence, play one of Hawkins’ LP records speeded up to 45 rpm. You'll be amazed at the Bird-like sound that will emanate from your speaker.)

Born in New York City, Sept. 7, 1929, the younger brother of a violinist, Sonny began piano studies at the age of nine. The above-mentioned alto debut, and the subsequent switch to tenor, led to his professional bow around 1948, gigging with Babs Gonzales. Sonny was only nineteen when Art Blakey came, saw and was conquered by his rapidly developing style and technique; Art hired Sonny for a series of dates, and during the next two years he was elevated to the companionship of the big-timers, notably Tadd Dameron, Bud Powell and Miles Davis. Miles was perhaps the first to recognize fully the Rollins potential, to the extent of offering him verbal encouragement, his first recordings, and a prominent featured solo spot on their joint in-person appearances.

In 1955 Sonny spent most of his time around Chicago. The following January, when Max Roach and Clifford Brown were in town with their combo, he subbed for Harold Land, tenor man with the group. When they were getting ready to leave town Max asked Sonny to continue with them; he has been driven by the spur of the Roach Rider ever since.

During the past year Sonny has emerged fully as an individual. The respect in which he is held among fellow-workers was most vividly demonstrated when I conducted a poll of 101 jazzmen for the “Musicians’ Musicians” poll in the Encyclopedia Yearbook of Jazz. As can be seen by an inspection of the pages that show a breakdown of each vote, Sonny was selected for the "Greatest New Star” in the tenor sax category by such people as Clifford Brown, Bill Holman, Osie Johnson, Quincy Jones, Red Mitchell, Max Roach, George Wallington, Randy Weston, Ernie Wilkins, and was even hailed as "Greatest Ever" by Miles Davis, Herb Geller, Bud Powell and Horace Silver. The Rollins qualities — an aggressively swinging style with a tone that is neither as transparent as Getz’s nor as opaque as Hawkins’ — can be seen reflected in the work of J.R. Monterose, Hank Mobley and many more of the younger tenor school.

For this session Sonny was joined by a superior and finely integrated quintet. Donald Byrd, a 24-year-old Detroiter, has been on the scene in the Apple since the summer of 1955 and has worked with Wallington, Blakey et al. Wynton Kelly, a native of Jamaica, B.W.I., but raised in Brooklyn, paid his dues in rhythm and blues, but graduated to work as Dinah Washington’s accompanist and has been associated with Dizzy Gillespie off and on for several years. Gene Ramey, born in 1913 in Austin, Texas, has seen service in bands of every school, from the Jay McShann crew of 1938-44 (in which Charlie Parker was his intermittent colleague) to the Count Basie orchestra of 1952-3, with frequent ventures into New York free lance work with various singers and instrumental combos.

Max Roach, who appears through the courtesy of EmArcy Records, need hardly be introduced at this point. Suffice it that in the above-listed poll he was accorded a unique honor: the musicians named him as "Greatest Ever” on drums. Even Lennie Tristano, who is reputed to hate drummers, voted for him.

The quintet starts provocatively and decisively with Decision. This is an unusual minor blues theme 13 bars long instead of the customary 12, characterized by little abrupt blocks of two-note phrases. Sonny’s solo, too, you will notice, is very much in the style of the composition itself at certain points. Byrd is in a somewhat Milesish mood here; Wynton delivers himself of a smooth single-note solo with occasional forays into fourths and thirds. Max's solo chorus, a simple exercise for brushes on snare, is delightful. Then back to the unison theme.

Bluesnote is a medium-tempo twelve-bar blues with plenty of solo space for all five — Byrd, Rollins, Kelly, Roach, Ramey — followed by some fours.

How Are Things in Glocca Morra is a ballad from Finian's Rainbow that has often appealed to modern musicians. It is done more or less as a solo vehicle, with Byrd used only for the intro and coda. Sonny plays the first chorus hewing fairly closely to the melodic line; Wynton then wanders on the changes, and Sonny ad libs a little more freely in his second solo, building to climactic high notes.

Plain Jane, third of the four Rollins originals in this set, is actually just one eight-bar block of two- and four-note phrases, constituting the "A" of an A-A-B-A chorus in which the B comprises tenor improvisation. Listen closely to Sonny’s wonderful control during his solo here, particularly in the sixteenth-note runs, and in the little up-and-down cascades of clustered notes. Byrd continues the mood with a similarly fleet performance; Wynton, during his solo, becomes increasingly funky, and Sonny has some healthy workouts at fours with Max.

Sonnysphere is a bright-tempoed item with no theme to speak of. After an eight-bar sendoff it plunges straight into Sonny's extemporaneous view of I Got Rhythm with a Honeysuckle Bridge. Byrd’s work here is mainstream bop, fluent and well coordinated, as is the Kelly piano. Sonny has some exciting fours and twos with Max.

This is an unpretentious session, displaying Sonny Rollins in the kind of setting that can consolidate the recognition, long-overdue but none the less welcome, that is finally coming his way.

— LEONARD FEATHER
(Author of The Encyclopedia Yearbook of Jazz)

Photo by FRANCIS WOLFF
Cover Design by REID MILES
Recording by RUDY VAN GELDER

RVG CD Reissue Liner Notes

A NEW LOOK AT VOLUME ONE

December 1956 marked a turning point in the career of Sonny Rollins, recording artist. Rollins completed a six-year run at Prestige Records on December 7, and immediately launched an intense two years of freelancing on several labels that represent as prodigious a stretch of studio activity as any single artist in jazz history can claim. The present session is the first that Rollins taped as a leader in this historic period.

Prestige had been Rollins's home base since 1951, and until earlier in 1956, when he appeared on the EmArcy disc Clifford Brown And Max Roach At Basin Street, his exclusive base of recording operation. During these years Rollins rose to prominence as the new tenor saxophone star, thanks in large measure to his recorded work with such giants as Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and the members of the Modern Jazz Quartet. Like these and other Prestige artists of the period, however, Rollins was dissatisfied with the way in which the label did business. He was particularly unhappy with the advances-against-royalties arrangement that left him gaining in stature and record sales without commensurate financial rewards. Rollins decided not to sign another exclusive contract with Prestige or one of its competitors, but rather to accept payments without royalty provisions on a session-by-session basis from those producers he trusted. Fortunately for Rollins and for posterity, the saxophonist quickly hooked up with three of the period's most talented and honest producers - Lester Koenig of Contemporary and Orrin Keepnews of Riverside, for whom Rollins recorded two albums each, and Alfred Lion of Blue Note, for whom he cut four. There were additional appearances as leader or sideman on ErnArcy, Period, Verve, Metrojazz and Atlantic prior to the now-legendary sabbatical that found Rollins retreating from studio work for over three years beginning in late 1958.

It would be foolish to argue that the body of Rollins recordings on any one of these labels is superior to that on any other during this period. There are simply too many classic performances all over the Rollins discography of these years to make such judgments, as might be made more defensibly in the case of Bud Powell and Blue Note during the same span. It goes without saying that Rollins and Lion worked extremely well together, and their output grew stronger as time passed. This initial meeting of artist and producer presents a program more conventional than the Rollins norm. Only one of the saxophonist's left-field pop-song choices is included, and three other tracks rely on the time-tested structures of the blues ("Bluesnote"), "Lady Be Good" ("Plain Jane") and "l Got Rhythm" ("Sonnysphere"). "Decision," however, is something new, a 13-bar form that imposes a hitch at bar nine of a conventional blues pattern.

If the program is relatively unpretentious, the playing is superior. Donald Byrd, who had worked briefly with Rollins and Roach in the drummer's quintet after the death of Clifford Brown, is a most sympathetic ensemble partner on "Decision" and "Plain Jane," and solos with more of his own ideas and fewer Brownie licks than was Byrd's wont during the period. Wynton Kelly, first heard with Rollins on a Babs Gonzalez date in 1949, had spent most of his working time since his 1951 Blue Note trio dates supporting Dizzy Gillespie and Dinah Washington. Kelly's place as a first-call supporting player on numerous studio sessions had yet to be established, yet his sparkling personality is obvious enough on most tracks. (On "Plain Jane," his solo might pass for the equally exceptional and soon to be Blue Note mainstay Sonny Clark.) Roach is strong as ever, and anticipates a future Rollins classic on Blue Note with a swaggering beat on "Bluesnote" closer to the 1958 "Blues for Philly Joe" (from Newk's Time, with Philly Joe Jones on drums) than the earlier Rollins/Roach Prestige triumph "Blue Seven."

Little need be added to Leonard Feather's original liner notes, except to correct a common error of the time and revise the year of Rollins's birth to 1930. As for additional comments on the music, it might only be noted that a comparison between the belligerent "Decision" and the tender "Glocca Morra" testify to Rollins's mastery of sound, and that the tenor/drum exchanges of "Sonnysphere" capture one of jazz history's greatest horn/percussion teams.

— Bob Blumenthal, 2003