Sonny Rollins Volume 1

Sonny Rollins was 27, born in New York and raised on Charlie Parker and Coleman Hawkins. Leonard Feather, in the original notes, gives the early years quickly: alto in high school, tenor by 1948, a run of dates for Art Blakey at 19, then work with Tadd Dameron, Bud Powell and Miles Davis, who was among the first to see what he had. He spent most of 1955 in Chicago. There he filled in for Harold Land in the Max Roach and Clifford Brown quintet, and Roach asked him to stay. Brown was killed in a car crash in June 1956. That December, Rollins made his first record for Blue Note.

Feather had just polled 101 musicians for a yearbook, and several had named Rollins the best new tenor. Roach did well on drums too.

Even Lennie Tristano, who is reputed to hate drummers, voted for him.

Leonard Feather, original liner notes

The date was Sunday, December 16, 1956, at Van Gelder's in Hackensack, with Alfred Lion producing. Roach came on loan from EmArcy. Donald Byrd, 24 and from Detroit, played trumpet. Wynton Kelly, born in Jamaica and raised in Brooklyn, had played piano for Dinah Washington. Gene Ramey, on bass, went back much further: he had been in Jay McShann's band with Parker in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Five tunes were taped, and all five made the record. Four are Rollins originals.

Side one opens with "Decision," a minor blues that runs 13 bars instead of 12. Roach takes his chorus on snare with brushes.

Max's solo chorus, a simple exercise for brushes on snare, is delightful.

Leonard Feather, original liner notes

"Bluesnote" is a medium blues, with solos from Byrd, Rollins, Kelly, Roach and Ramey, and then some trading of fours. "How Are Things in Glocca Morra," from Finian's Rainbow, is the ballad and Rollins's feature, with Byrd heard only at the start and the end.

Side two holds two long tracks. On "Plain Jane" Kelly gets funky and Rollins trades fours with Roach. "Sonnysphere" has almost no written theme: Rollins blows on the chords of "I Got Rhythm," using the bridge of "Honeysuckle Rose."

The sleeve was designed by Reid Miles, with a photograph by Francis Wolff. "Decision" and "Plain Jane" also went out on a Blue Note 45.

Four months later Rollins was back at Van Gelder's for a second Blue Note record.