1. There's No Business Like Show Business
2. Paradox
3. Raincheck
4. There Are Such Things
5. It's All Right With Me
Sonny Rollins - Tenor sax
Ray Bryant - Piano
George Morrow - Bass
Max Roach - Drums
1955 was an important year for Sonny Rollins. He was
recovering from his drug habit and, in December, he recorded this fine
album as well as joining the great quintet led by Max Roach and Clifford
Brown. It was the beginning of one of Sonny's many golden ages, which
produced numerous classic recordings, such as the four I reviewed here
recently.
This CD is another of Rudy Van Gelder's remasterings
of Prestige albums, and the sound is better than on several such CDs.
Above all, this is a high-powered session on which Rollins blows for
all he is worth, and Max Roach drums up a storm. There is only one ballad
but four faster numbers which give the musicians a chance to let their
hair down, with some splendid interplay between Rollins and Roach. As
an example, listen to the duet between the two in Raincheck,
when the pianist and bassist lay out to leave the pair to spark off
one another.
The album opens with Irving Berlin's There's No Business
Like Show Business: a typically startling Rollins choice of a song
which is seldom used as a vehicle by other jazz musicians. It steams
along at a speedy tempo, with George Morrow's sturdy bass tethering
the tune to the ground while Max Roach adds gutsy punctuations and Rollins
works all kinds of wonders with what might seem an unpromising chord
sequence. He keeps referring back to the tune but he also creates an
astonishing rain of notes which anticipates John Coltrane's "sheets
of sound". By contrast, Ray Bryant's bebop piano solo seems restrained
but things soon warm up again when Max Roach solos with some of his
trademark patterns.
Sonny's own composition Paradox is slightly slower
but still packs a punch. Rollins' solo exhibits his blues roots. Once
again, Bryant's piano solo calms things down and Roach's drum solo shakes
them up again. Billy Strayhorn's Raincheck is taken at a fair
lick, opening with more interchanges between Rollins and Roach. The
only ballad is There Are Such Things (an early hit for Frank
Sinatra when he sang with Tommy Dorsey), which Sonny delivers with his
unique mixture of sensitivity and power. Ray Bryant and George Morrow
provide stylish solos before Sonny takes the tune out with a poetic
extended coda which is almost a song in itself.
The quartet returns to up-tempo for the closing It's
All Right With Me, which is even more of a storming performance
from Rollins than the other tracks. Max Roach responds with equal vigour
as they exchange fours. Despite its short playing-time (33 minutes),
this is as exciting an album as you'll hear anywhere.
Tony Augarde
CD Reviews
Prestige
0888072312234
