Customer Reviews

Volume 1

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Sonny Rollins' first effort for Blue Note is a solid, if not stellar, album. Recorded on December 16, 1956, "Sonny Rollins Volume One" features Donald Byrd on trumpet, Wynton Kelly on piano, Gene Ramey on bass, and the great Max Roach on drums. Roach, by the way, brings much needed cohesion to the recording. (At this time Rollins was member of the Max Roach Plus Four, so they knew how to play well together.) Unfortunately, Byrd and Rollins don't always mesh, and Sonny often pulls along Kelly. Otherwise, it's a spirited session featuring four Rollins originals, recorded (as always) impeccably, and now remastered too, by Rudy Van Gelder. It just seems that an album sandwiched between three of the greatest jazz albums of the 1950s ("Tenor Madness," "Saxophone Colossus," and "Volume 2") would be better, but then we all have to be entitled to an off day. If only my off days could be as successful....

It seems to be conventional wisdom that Sonny's albums for Blue Note are "less exciting" than his records from Prestige and later Riverside during the same time frame, and while this album may not have peaks of intensity to the degree of the title track of Tenor Madness, it does benefit from some of that wonderful Blue Note pacing, and proves to be a more consistently interesting album throughout. Although it's not Saxophone Colossus in terms of introducing instant standards, Sonny's compositions are all stellar, as are the standards he reworks. Byrd proves a perfect foil to Rollins, and although some reviews of this album seem to imply that they somehow do not fit with each other, rest assured that they a perfect pair of hard boppers , each dully influenced by the bebop era, which shows through heavily on Sonnysphere. Max Roach, is of course Rollin's perfect match in a drummer, and Wynton Kelly proves why he was an invaluable accompanist at that time. Gene Ramey is a name you do not see too much during this period, but that is because he of an older generation (usually choosing to accompany other seminal bop players like Dexter Gordon, Monk, and J.J. Johnson), which lends this album a driving, vital, bop energy. This album is a more up tempo affair than most of Rollins' offerings from this period, and it really shows off Sonny's unique rhythmic sense during his solos, as well as his spontaneous composition of great melodic lines. To me this album is one of the best indices of the classic Rollins sound/style, and to anyone even mildly versed in jazz, it will leave no excitement to be desired. To anyone else out there, this a great album- melodic and accessible enough for anyone to grasp, yet capable of providing depths of detail for the more careful listener, whatever their usual genre preference may be.

Sonny Rollins released four LPs for Blue Note; each different in mood, yet, all outstanding. This one includes Donald Byrd, a positive addition to good music, anywhere. Four of the five tracks here are Rollins originals. The opener, "Decisions", is a cool, laid-back "smoker" with very good lines. Sonny's opening solo is right out of the blues. Byrd's solo is incredibly 'funky'. Max Roach's solo is equally serious. Medium-tempo(ed) "Bluesnote", a good theme, has spirited, energetic solos from Rollins and Byrd. Of particular note here is Wynton Kelly's great piano work, behind Byrd, and especially Sonny, which leads Max to some great work of his own. Byrd intros (and closes) "Glacca Morra", the only ballard and standard. Sonny uses more straight lines here than on, say, 'Time On My Hands','The House I Live In', or 'Namely You', but his solo is soulful, and very good. Gene Ramey's bass is very supportive, here and throughout. Max intros the two-noted "Plain Jane", a clever 'cooker' with some sharp solos from Sonny, Byrd, and Kelly, before some powerful 'fours' between Sonny and Max, and out. The up-tempo(ed) "Sonnysphere" has a brief theme, and is off and running. Great solos from Sonny, Byrd, Kelly, some long and fast fours with Max. An excellent session!!!

The main problem with "Sonny Rollins: Volume One" is that it precedes "Sonny Rollins: Volume Two," which for many Rollins followers is his strongest album. The difference has less to do with frontline companions (Byrd on Vol. One, J. J. Johnson on Vol. Two) than the explosiveness of the rhythm sections. The team of Wyn Kelly, Gene Ramey and Max Roach just doesn't have the "push" of Silver/Monk, Chambers and Art Blakey.

Although the first tune sounds somewhat "contrived," this is overall a relaxed, unpretentious, exceptionally lyrical, melodic, satisfying session by Rollins, with "Glocca Morra" showing a rarely seen sentimental, even tender, side of the muscular-sounding player. What Byrd lacks in Johnson's precision, he makes up for in lyricism, and Kelly, if a less insistent accompanist than Silver, is certainly a far more infectious, felicitous, swinging soloist. Roach's "short stroke" and busy, chattering snare often seem out of the place on this session, interfering with the more groove-minded Byrd and Kelly.

In sum, a Rollins recording that deserves to be placed much higher in his "most essential" discography.