Ken Burns Jazz

Performer: Sonny Rollins
Artist: Phil Woods; Sonny Stitt; Coleman Hawkins; Miles Davis; Dizzy Gillespie; Horace Silver; Ray Brown; Max Roach
Distributor: Universal Distribution

Notes: Personnel: Sonny Rollins (tenor saxophone); Phil Woods (alto saxophone); Sonny Stitt, Coleman Hawkins, Bob Ashton, Oliver Nelson (tenor saxophone); Danny Bank (baritone saxophone); Miles Davis, Clifford Brown, Dizzy Gillespie (trumpet); Jimmy Cleveland, J.J. Johnson (trombone); Horace Silver, Richie Powell, Tommy Flanagan, Ray Bryant, Paul Bley, Roger Kellaway (piano); Jim Hall, Kenny Burrell (guitar); Percy Heath, George Morrow, Doug Watkins, Ray Brown, Wilbur Ware, Tommy Bryant, Bob Cranshaw, Walter Booker (bass); Kenny Clarke, Max Roach, Shelly Manne, Elvin Jones, Charli Persip, Ben Riley, Roy McCurdy, Frankie Dunlop (drums). Compilation producers: Richard Seidel, Ben Young. Recorded between 1954 and 1966. Includes liner notes by Francis Davis. Digitally remastered by Kevin Reeves (Universal Mastering Studios-East). This is part of the Verve Records Ken Burns JAZZ series. Personnel: Sonny Rollins (tenor saxophone); Jim Hall, Kenny Burrell (guitar); Paul Bley (saxophone); Phil Woods (alto saxophone); Bob Ashton, Oliver Nelson, Sonny Stitt (tenor saxophone); Danny Bank (baritone saxophone); Clifford Brown , Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis (trumpet); Jimmy Cleveland (trombone); Horace Silver, Ray Bryant, Tommy Flanagan, Roger Kellaway (piano); Elvin Jones, Kenny Clarke, Max Roach, Roy McCurdy, Shelly Manne, Frankie Dunlop, Charlie Persip (drums). Liner Note Author: Peter Keepnews. Recording information: ??/??/1954-01/26/1966. Arranger: Oliver Nelson. With cooperation from the Verve and Columbia Legacy catalogs, the Ken Burns Jazz series on CD individually spotlights the musical excellence of 22 jazz originators whose careers and influence are explored in Burns' PBS documentary Jazz. Tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins is represented beginning with his composition "Oleo" performed with the Miles Davis Quintet in 1954. Ken Burns Jazz then chronologically (but all too briefly) touches on a few Prestige dates such as "I'm an Old Cowhand" from his inventive 1957 Way Out West album, but includes only one Blue Note date! Rollins also trades licks with Dizzy Gillespie and Sonny Stitt on the Verve date "I Know That You Know," while "Body and Soul" rounds out his '50s recordings. Rollins' legacy is picked up with "Bridge" from his 1962 comeback album The Bridge, and the CD concludes with "Alfie's Theme Differently" from the 1966 soundtrack Alfie on Impulse. While it's impossible to sum up Rollins' history on a single disc, the highlights here should keep the novice listener interested enough to continue searching out more material. However, there is nothing for the Rollins aficionado in this installment of the Ken Burns Jazz series. ~ Al Campbell

"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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