Sonny Rollins Plus 4 CD

Personnel: Sonny Rollins (tenor saxophone); Clifford Brown (trumpet); Richie Powell (piano); George Morrow (bass); Max Roach (drums).
Recorded in New York, New York on March 22, 1956. Originally released on Prestige (7038). Includes liner notes by Ira Gitler.
Personnel: Max Roach (drums); Sonny Rollins (tenor saxophone); Kenny Dorham (trumpet); Ray Bryant (piano); Billy Wallace, George Morrow (acoustic bass).
Personnel: Sonny Rollins (tenor saxophone); Clifford Brown (trumpet);
Richie Powell (piano); George Morrow (bass); Max Roach (drums).
Recorded at Van Gelder Studios, Hackensack, New Jersey on March 22, 1956. Originally released on Prestige (7038-2). Includes liner notes by Ira Gitler.
All tracks have been digitally remastered.
This is a Hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.
Personnel: Sonny Rollins (tenor saxophone); Clifford Brown (trumpet);
Richie Powell (piano); George Morrow (bass); Max Roach (drums).
Recorded on March 22, 1956. Originally released on Prestige (7038-2). Includes liner notes by Ira Gitler.
Personnel: Sonny Rollins (tenor saxophone); Clifford Brown (trumpet); Richie Powell (piano); George Morrow (bass guitar); Max Roach (drums).
Audio Remasterer: Rudy Van Gelder.
After the tragic deaths of trumpeter Clifford Brown and pianist Richie Powell in a car accident a few months earlier, drummer Max Roach regrouped with trumpeter Kenny Dorham and pianist Ray Bryant filling in the unfillable holes; tenor great Sonny Rollins and bassist George Morrow remained from the earlier band. This EmArcy CD finds Roach taking plenty of solo space, including almost all of "Dr. Free-Zee" and the climaxes of "Just One of Those Things" and "Woody 'n You." The horns have plenty of good spots, and other highlights of this worthy set include George Russell's "Ezz-thetic" and a warm rendition of "Body and Soul." ~ Scott Yanow
In 1956 Sonny Rollins used the Clifford Brown-Max Roach Quintet (of which he was a member) as his sidemen for this Prestige set. The high points of this particularly strong hard bop set include "Valse Hot" (an early jazz waltz), a rapid rendition of "I Feel a Song Coming On," and Rollins's classic "Pent-Up House." Trumpeter Brown (heard on one of his final sessions) is in excellent form, as is the strong rhythm section and the young tenor-leader himself. This excellent music is also included as part of Rollins's seven-CD box set for Prestige. ~ Scott Yanow
Following his Chicago sabbatical of 1955-56, Sonny Rollins was spiritually and physically rejuvenated. And on this date, he's clearly inspired by Max Roach and Clifford Brown's depth of spirit. Multi-dimensional re-arrangements of popular songs were a Brown-Roach trademark. "Kiss And Run" is treated to a stop and go intro, then settles into a brisk 4/4, as Rollins, Brown and the perenially underrated Richie Powell fashion long dancing lines. "I Feel A Song Coming On" creates tension by alternating a vamp figure with a swinging release. Rollins takes an immense solo, contrasting chanting figures and foghorn-like long tones with Parker-ish elisions, and Brown answers with buzzing figures and daring harmonic extensions. Then Roach takes things out with sweeping melodic choruses and polyrhythmic fanfares, setting the stage for a torrid tenor-trumpet duel.
On "Valse Hot," we have an early example of a successful jazz waltz as Rollins offers up one of his most charming themes. Max Roach treats the European three with the dancing elan of an American four, and Rollins responds by floating in between the beat, syncopating in Monkish stabs and thrusts, as Brown answers with the kind of rhythmically complex, sweetly articulated melodic lines that have inspired every modern trumpeter.
PLUS FOUR is the first album Max Roach made after Clifford Brown and Richie Powell's death cast a gruesome shadow over his career in the summer of 1956. The trumpeter and pianist respectively had becomeDown Beat - 4.5 Stars - Very Good Plus - "...Rollins [plays] the most sustainedly creative tenor I've heard on record by him before. Very much recommended..."