Road Shows, Vol. 1 [Digipak]

Performer: Sonny Rollins
Producer: Clifton Anderson; Clifton Anderson
Distributor: Universal Distribution

Notes: Personnel: Sonny Rollins (tenor saxophone); Bobby Broom (guitar, electric guitar); Clifton Anderson (trombone); Mark Soskin (piano, electric piano); Stephen Scott (piano); Bob Cranshaw (upright bass, electric bass); Christian McBride (upright bass); Jerome Harris (electric bass); Steven "Steven J." Jordan, Al Foster, Roy Haynes, Steve Jordan , Victor Lewis, Perry Wilson (drums); Victor See-Yuen, Kimati Dinizulu (percussion). Liner Note Author: Gary Giddins. Recording information: Carnegie Hall, New York, NY (10/23/1980-09/18/2007); Kosei Nenkn Hall, Tokyo, Japan (10/23/1980-09/18/2007); La Halle, Toulouse, France (10/23/1980-09/18/2007); Pantheon Tama, Tama City, Japan (10/23/1980-09/18/2007); Royal Theater, Victoria, British Colombia, Canada (10/23/1980-09/18/2007); Umea Jazz Festival, Umea, Sweden (10/23/1980-09/18/2007); Warsaw Jazz Jamboree, Congress Hall, Warsaw, Poland (10/23/1980-09/18/2007). Author: Gary Giddins. Editor: Richard Corsello. Photographers: Clifton Anderson; John Abbott . After Lester Young and before John Coltrane, perhaps the most influential popular tenor saxophonist remains Sonny Rollins. (He's even played with the Rolling Stones.) With a rich, piercing tone and a gift for brilliant, exhilarating improvisations, Rollins has thrilled generations of jazz fans. ROAD SHOWS, on Rollins's own label, Doxy (distributed by Emarcy), collects live recordings from 1980 through 2007. Backed by a crew of mostly younger players (younger than Rollins, at least), ROAD finds the saxophonist roaring in superb form, ranging from a trio lineup (with drummer Roy Haynes!) to sextet settings (with guitarist Bobby Broom). The occasional presence of Jerome Harris's rippling electric bass is a nice plus, too. Sonny Rollins is featured in a variety of performances culled from his personal archives along with soundboard tapings by collector Carl Smith from concerts recorded between 1980 and his historic 50th anniversary concert at Carnegie Hall (which honored his first concert there in 1957). Rollins is in peak form on every selection, while this first compilation in what is likely to be an extensive CD series is a virtual highlight reel from over a quarter-century span of his career. He works his way through the theme of his blistering "Best Wishes" 35 times, never running short of ideas in his variations. The subtle take of "More Than You Know" cools things down a bit, showcasing longtime trombonist Clifton Anderson and guitarist Bobby Broom, followed by Rollins' explosive entrance on his powerful tenor. "Blossom" is a real find, a previously unrecorded original, heard here in a 1980 Swedish concert, an engaging piece with a strong Latin undercurrent. Rollins' revisit to "Tenor Madness" finds him throwing down the challenge to his musicians with his opening salvo, though all of them end up winners in this uptempo blues. The breezy calypso "Nice Lady" is followed by the compelling 2007 trio performance of Rodgers & Hammerstein's ballad "Some Enchanted Evening" (accompanied solely by bassist Christian McBride and drummer Roy Haynes), one of Rollins' most expressive performances on record. Every Sonny Rollins fan should consider this collection essential. ~ Ken Dryden

Down Beat (p.74) - 5 stars out of 5 -- "The opener is breathtaking, with Rollins pulling and twisting the melody like taffy, adorning and rethinking it for a jaw-dropping stream-of-consciousness stretch." JazzTimes (pp.79-80) - "The fidelity is superb, and the performances are the cream of the crop. They range from a 1980 show in Japan to a concert from last year at Carnegie Hall."

"Saxophone colossus" is not a bad description for a tenor player who is one of the greatest living jazz artists. Sonny Rollins made his first record date at the age of 19 in the late 1940s, and unlike Parker and Coltrane, the magnitude of his talent was immediately apparent. After strip-mining the hard-bop vein in the early '50s, he absorbed from Monk the notion of using the melody rather than the changes in his improvising. An urbane, sardonic counterpart to Coltrane's incantatory searcher, Rollins is capable of playing hour-long unaccompanied solos of flawless invention with the most powerful sound ever wrung from a saxophone.

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