Sonny Rollins The Sound of Sonny CD

Personnel: Sonny Rollins (tenor saxophone); Sonny Clark (piano); Percy Heath, Paul Chambers (bass); Roy Haynes (drums).
Recorded at Reeves Sound Studios, New York, New York on June 11, 12 & 19, 1957. Originally released on Riverside (241). Includes liner notes by Orrin Keepnews.
Digitally remastered by Joe Tarantino (1987, Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, California).
This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.
A new phase in Sonny Rollins' career began in 1957. He started what was at the time an almost blasphemous trend of recording for a number of different labels. His pioneering spirit yielded a few genre-defining albums, including this disc. His performances were also at a peak during 1957 as Down Beat magazine proclaimed him the Critics' Poll winner under the category of "New Star" of the tenor saxophone. This newfound freedom can be heard throughout the innovations on The Sound of Sonny. Not only are Rollins' fluid solos reaching newly obtained zeniths of melodic brilliance, but he has also begun experimenting with alterations in the personnel from tune to tune. Most evident on this platter is "The Last Time I Saw Paris" -- which is piano-less -- and most stunning of all is Rollins' unaccompanied tenor solo performance on "It Could Happen to You." Indeed, this rendering of the Jimmy Van Heusen standard is the highlight of the disc. That isn't to say that the interaction between Sonny Clark (piano), Roy Haynes (drums), and bassists Percy Heath and Paul Chambers -- who is featured on "The Last Time I Saw Paris" and "What Is There to Say" -- is not top-shelf. Arguably, it is Rollins and Heath -- the latter, incidentally, makes his East Coast debut on this album -- who set the ambience for The Sound of Sonny. There is an instinctually pervasive nature as they weave into and back out of each others' melody lines, only to emerge with a solo that liberates the structure of the mostly pop standards. This is a key component in understanding the multiplicities beginning to surface in Rollins' highly underappreciated smooth bop style. ~ Lindsay Planer
THE SOUND OF SONNY shows everything that makes Sonny Rollins one of the titans of the tenor saxophone. He has a tone which can evoke heart-rending passions with a smoothness just this side of Ben Webster. Add to that the man's warm and playful sense of humor, and you've got a sax that's every bit a full and well-rounded emotional being. Without ever cheapening humor into novelty, it's a staple of his persona. This time out he finds the wacky joy in playing "Toot, Toot, Tootsie" as if it's some kind of after hours national anthem (this is, after all the same man who recorded "I'm An Old Cowhand" on his WAY OUT WEST album). The session boasts a superlative rhythm section of Sonny Clark on piano, Paul Chambers or Percy Heath on bass, and Roy Haynes on drums--all stellar players of the post-bop era.