Sonny Rollins Brass

 

What's My Name?

Sonny Rollins Brass

Sonny Rollins Trio

Verve V6-8430

1962

Personnel on Side One: Sonny Rollins, tenor saxophone; Nat Adderley, cornet; Clark Terry, Reunald Jones, Ernie Royal, trumpets; Billy Byers, Jimmy Cleveland, Frank Rehak, trombones; Dick Katz, piano; Rene Thomas, guitar; Roy Haynes, drums; Henry Grimes, bass; Ernie Wilkins, conductor and arranger; Don Butterfield, tuba. Recorded in New York City, July 11, 1958, at Metropolitan Studios

Personnel on Side Two: Sonny Rollins, tenor saxophone; Charles Wright, drums; Henry Grimes, bass. Recorded in New York City, July 10, 1958, at Beltone Studios. Supervision Leonard Feather

From the back cover: In the chapter devoted to the story of the tenor saxophone in The Book Of Jazz I describe Sonny Rollins as "one of the most influential figures since Getz, fashioning his own work from a blend of Lester Young, Charlie Parker and possibly Coleman Hawkins.

It now appears that I was a trifle conservative. Theodore Walter Rollins is the most influential young figure in his field today; I believe he is a source of inspiration for even more young tenor saxophonists than was Sam Getz at the height of his influence (around 1950, the year after Stan left the Woody Herman band and began to win the music magazine polls). And the "possibly" qualification concerning the relationship between Rollins and Hawkins is expendable. There can be no doubt that the fully animated style and sanguine, coursing Rollins tone found some of its impulse in the work of that earliest of the tenor giants.

Rollins is a dedicated artist who discovery of a personal voice in jazz was the outgrowth of several years of concentrated, calculated experimentation. His first records, with Bats Gonzales in 1948 (only two years after he had switched from alto to tenor) reveal a degree of fluency commendable and at that time unusual for a 19-year-old. The later combo dates with Art Blakey and Gadd Dameron in 1949-50, with Bud Powell and Miles Davis in 1950-51, show a firmer, more confident sound and a great technical control of the horn. When he joined the combo led jointly by Max Roach and the late Clifford Brown, in January of 1956, Sonny found himself established for the first time in a setting that offered a perfect propulsive background, a rhythmically stimulating framework for which he now mature personality was strikingly well suited.

Rollin left Roach in the summer of 1957. By this time the word had spread; the brush-fire enthusiasm that rapidly gains fervor among jazzmen when a new talent is recognized had convinced him that he was ready for the role of leader.

Because he demands nothing less than complete sympathy from those working with him, and because the intense desire for self-expression sometimes is thwarted when he becomes merely one of the convention of soloists, Sonny soon found that the quintet format, no matter how valuable it had been during his days as a sideman with Roach, was not compatible with his desires as a leader. After a couple of weeks fronting a quintet he dropped the trumpet player; a week later he let the pianist go. Since that time he has worked almost exclusively with a trio, only occasionally letting down his defenses and admitting a pianist into the entourage. A bassist who walks the right notes with a firm, crisp tone can supply him with all the harmonic suggestion he needs, at the same time leaving him greater freedom to say anything he cares to on the horn without fear of contradiction.

For his first session Sonny decided to retain, on one side of his initial LP, the trio setting in which he has worked for the past year; on the other side he arranged to offer a contrasting session that would display his sound, for the first time, with a large orchestra.

The bassist on both sessions, trip and Big Brass, was Henry Alonzo Grimes. Born November 3, 1935 in Philadelphia, he is a member of an all-musical family; a twin brother plays tenor, his mother is a pianist and father a former trumpeter. Grimes studied at Juilliard, toured for a while with rhythm and blues bands, and in the past two years has gigged with Rollins, Tony Scott, Gerry Mulligan, Charles Mingus and with the Benny Goodman band at Newport.

Charles "Specs" Wright, drummer on the trio date, also a Philadelphian, born in 1927, and heard in 1949-50 with the Dizzy Gillespie band; in recent years he has toured with Earl Bostic, Cannonball Adderley and Carmen McRae.

The rhythm section on the big band date includes Dick Katz, who played in Sonny's quartet at Birdland; Roy Haynes, the drummer from Boston best known as part of Sarah Vanghan's accompaniment since 1953; and Grimes. Functioning occasionally as section and  but more significantly as soloist is the Belgian-born guitarist Rene Thomas, who now lives in Montreal but was in the U.S. in 1957 playing in a Rollins combo in a Philadelphia night club. Thomas is the favorite guitarist not only of Rollins but of many who heard him during their European travels before he emigrated to Canada a couple of years ago.

The personnel of the brass section is so strong is distinguished names that no elaboration is required here here. Though the men function solely as a backdrop, their musicianship is of a caliber that assured the kind of teamwork necessary for an interpretation of Ernie Wilkin's moving arrangements.

Wilkins, a member of the Hines, Basie and Gillespie saxophone sections until the demands for his services as an arranger made him too busy to play, was born in 1922 in St. Louis and arranged for the bands of Basie, Tommy Dorsey, Harry James, and for innumerable New York record sessions. Since Rollins had never previously been served by orchestrations this was of course Ernie's first opportunity to write for him, an association welcomed by both participants and brought to fruition after extensive consultations on the size, shape and nature of the setting Sonny had in mind for his big-band bow. – Leonard Feather

From Billboard - April 28, 1962: This album, originally issued on the metrojazz label in 1958, should do well as a result of all the new publicity on Sonny Rollins' return as a performer. The set features Rollins almost at the peak of his career in a flock of free-wheeling performances, including "Body & Soul," "Who Care?" and "Love Is A Simple Thing," both with trio and full ork. Good blowing here and good wax for the current market.

Who Cares?

Love Is A Simple Thing

Grand Street

Far Out West

What's My Name

If You Were The Only Girl In The World

Manhattan

Body & Soul