Sonny Rollins Freelance Years CD

This box set contains tracks recorded by or featuring Sonny Rollins while recording for Riverside & Contemporary Records between 1956 & 1958.
Personnel: Sonny Rollins (tenor saxophone); Abbey Lincoln (vocals); Ernie Henry (alto saxophone); Clark Terry, Kenny Dorham (trumpet); Jimmy Cleveland (trombone); Victor Feldman (vibraphone); Thelonious Monk (piano, celeste); Sonny Clark, Hank Jones, Wynton Kelly, Gil Coggins, Hampton Hawes (piano); Barney Kessel (guitar); Ray Brown, Paul Chambers, Oscar Pettiford, Percy Heath, Wendall Marshall, Leroy Vinnegar (bass); Max Roach (drums, tympani); Shelly Manne, Roy Haynes, Kenny Dennis (drums).
Producers: Orrin Keepnews, Lester Koenig, Leonard Feather.
Compilation producer: Eric Miller.
Engineers include: Jack Higgins, Sam Morse, Roy DuNann.
Recorded at Reeves Sound Studios, New York, New York between December 1956 and October 28, 1957; WOR Recording Studios, New York, New York in February 1958; Contemporary's Studio, Los Angeles, California on March 7, 1957 and from October 20-22, 1958; Beltone Studios, New York, New York on November 4, 1957. Includes liner notes by Zan Stewart.
Digitally remastered by Kirk Felton (2000, Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, California).
Personnel: Sonny Rollins (tenor saxophone); Abbey Lincoln (vocals); Barney Kessel (guitar); Ernie Henry (alto saxophone); Clark Terry, Kenny Dorham (trumpet); Jimmy Cleveland (trombone); Thelonious Monk (piano, celesta); Gil Coggins, Hampton Hawes, Hank Jones (piano); Victor Feldman (vibraphone); Max Roach, Shelly Manne, Kenny Dennis (drums).
Recording information: 12/17/1956-10/22/1958.
Picking up only ten days after Fantasy's Complete Prestige Recordings box leaves off, these five discs run through one of Rollins' most fertile (some insist, the most fertile) periods. Not only are Rollins' Riverside and Contemporary sessions as a leader and sideman collected in toto; Fantasy also includes three tracks recorded for Period in 1957, which can finally be heard within the context of Rollins' late-'50s hot streak. The box kicks off at the end of 1956 with almost all of Thelonious Monk's Brilliant Corners album, where Rollins alternates with alto saxophonist Ernie Henry. Then comes a quantum leap in inspiration, Way Out West, which is just bursting with invention and wry humor as well as cyclical references to previously played tunes; it relies only upon bassist Ray Brown and drummer Shelly Manne for support without needing anything more. Four tracks from Kenny Dorham's Jazz Contrasts find Rollins taking a subdued or conventionally frenetic bop backseat, while The Sound of Sonny approaches Way Out West's level as Rollins operates with piano trio backing and alone. Sonny appears only in flashes on Abbey Lincoln's sometimes melodramatic That's Him. Following the Period tracks, where Rollins' tone is especially grandiose in the Ben Webster tradition, Rollins, bassist Oscar Petitford, and drummer Max Roach extend themselves astonishingly well through the colossal, nearly 20-minute title track of The Freedom Suite. The odyssey concludes on the West Coast with another great session, the unquenchably swinging Sonny Rollins Meets the Contemporary Leaders -- Rollins' last before his first "retirement" -- where various combinations of sidemen provoke some especially creative playing from Sonny. All previously released alternate takes are included, but there is only one unreleased track -- a rip-roaring alternate of "You" from the Contemporary Leaders sessions -- which will drive Rollins completists entirely mad. If the budget allows, it's worth the splurge. ~ Richard S. Ginell
This beautifully crafted set encompasses a vital and fruitful period in the career of Sonny Rollins. Gathering the sessions for both Riverside and Contemporary Records between 1956 and 1958, this five-disc box is chock-full of the magic that has made Rollins the legendary icon he is. Not only are the saxophonist's essential records WAY OUT WEST,JazzTimes (6/00, pp.99-100) - "...Never less than excellent and often great....Rollins is in great from here, utterly relaxed....don't bother to buy any contemporary tenor sax releases until you have [this]..."
Mojo (Publisher) (10/00, p.106) - "...This was as fertile a 2 years as any jazz man ever had....he is belligerently melodic, swaggeringly rhythmic, witty and profound..."