Milestone Profiles [Milestone]

Performer: Sonny Rollins
Producer: Lucille Rollins; Orrin Keepnews; Sonny Rollins; Nick Phillips (Compilation)
Distributor: Universal Distribution

Notes: Includes bonus sampler. Tracks: 1. The Kicker - Joe Henderson 2. Song For My Lady - McCoy Tyner 3. Dindi - Flora Purim 4. St. Thomas - Ron Carter Duo/Jim Hall 5. I'm Old Fashioned - Sonny Rollins 6. One Mint Julep - Jimmy McGriff & Hank Crawford Quartet 7. No Doubt About It - Jimmy Smith 8. I Thought About You - Jimmy Scott Personnel: Sonny Rollins (tenor saxophone); Jerome Harris (electric guitar, electric bass); Aurell Ray (electric 12-string guitar); Clifton Anderson (trombone); Stephen Scott (piano, kalimba); George Cables, Mark Soskin, Tommy Flanagan (piano); Bob Cranshaw (electric bass); Tony Ruption Williams , David Lee , Jack DeJohnette, Al Foster, Marvin "Smitty" Smith, Perry Wilson (drums); Victor See-Yuen (percussion). Audio Remasterer: George Horn. Liner Note Author: Neil Tesser. Photographer: Phil Bray. Many Sonny Rollins compilations focus on his work from the 1950s and '60s, which is a shame given that Rollins continued to produce interesting, innovative work all through the '70s, '80s, '90s, and beyond. The saxophone legend recorded off and on for the Milestone label during those decades, and this PROFILES set collects work made between the early '70s and 2000. Rollins not only maintains his superior standards as a composer and improviser on these cuts, but he also shows himself to be an adventurous arranger, as many of the cuts employ electric instrumentation and auxiliary percussion. Full of great, definition-testing music, PROFILES is a great way to sample the lesser known part of Rollins's prolific career. A bonus disc containing selections from other PROFILES discs (including work from McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Smith, and Joe Henderson, among others) sweetens the deal. As part of the Milestone Profiles series, tenor saxophone legend Sonny Rollins is spotlighted with material recorded between 1972 and 2000. The compilation is especially interesting given that Rollins incorporates electric bass on the majority of these cuts, not to mention the occasional use of 12-string electric guitar and kalimba. Also appearing on these dates is an extraordinary roster of musicians, including Clifton Anderson, Jack DeJohnette, Tommy Flanagan, George Cables, Tony Williams, Al Foster, and Bob Cranshaw. Milestone Profiles presents the tip of the iceberg of the saxophonist's recordings for that label. Anyone who is only familiar with Rollins' Blue Note or Fantasy sessions will be amazed at the consistency and level of creativity captured on these sides. [There is a bonus disc included in the package that features cuts from the other volumes in the Profiles 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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