Customer Reviews

+3

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

 

 

Sonny Rollins is indeed the last Tenor Saxophone master. No one else has the same depth and fluidity simultaneously. No one has the history of this music embedded. For Sonny it is not a style cut and pasted on top of competent Berkley School of Music Classroom Technique.

In this tuneful group of songs this genius goes from a simple song like Mona Lisa and moves into the depths of fragmented polyrhythmic phrasing. As is his style, Mr. Rollins returns to the melodic aspects of the song frequently enough so that the continuity of his improvisation and the tune are intimately connected.

I give this album the highest marks. The back up group is terrific and features Jack de Johnette and the late great Tommy Flanagan. I also recommend his concert for 9/11 because it was recorded live. Long Live Sonny, The Last Saxophone master.

Wow, this one is great! I fell in love with it the day I got it. On this CD, he has two different rhythm sections (one on tracks 1,2,4, 6, and 7, and another on tracks 3 and 5), but both back him up excellently. I especially like the piano playing of Stephen Scott. Rollins's tone is great as always. Although I wasn't familiar with any of the songs on the CD when I bought it, which is unusual for me, I still really enjoy listening to it. Buy it now!

Many feel as though Sony Rollins's band is not good enough, not in the same league as Sonny. On this CD that is not a problem. Bob Crenshaw plays bass on all tracks. The drumming is done by Jack DeJohnette and Al Foster, both great jazz drummers. The piano playes are Stephen Scott and Tommy Flanagan, both excellent pianists. Sonny plays great and so do the others. The sound quality is very good too. of my four Sonny Rollins Cds, this is my favorite.

In his rewarding book, Sonny Rollins: The Definitive Musical Guide, jazz critic Peter Niklas Wilson praises this 1995 album and describes its virtues in some detail. His analysis of Sonny Rollins + 3 may be worth quoting here as means of assisting those wondering whether to purchase this album:

"The album title brings back memories of the '50s, and evokes memories of classic Rollins LPs like Sonny Rollins + 4. Save for the Rollins originals 'Biji' and 'H. S.,' the repertoire is retrospective, too, and even the line-up goes back a long way: Flanagan was the pianist on Saxophone Colossus, and both Flanagan and Cranshaw participated on the 1965 live date There Will Never Be Another You. However, this is also the CD debut of Rollins' collaboration with Stephen Scott, his preferred pianist to this day. And if you listen closely to this CD, you will discover not only the similarities of the mid-90s Rollins with 50s Newk, but also the differences. And these differences are by no means negative, as some hard-core nostalgiacs would have it."

"True, Rollins timbre has changed with the years, and the somewhat gritty sound of recent Rollins may be an aquired taste. True, the not-so-young saxophonist on this recording has trouble controlling his vibrato in the ballad selections, and, on 'Cabin in the Sky,' there's noticeable difficulty with the instrument's high end. But consider 'H. S.,' a homage to hard-bop legend Horace Silver (another musician haunted by his glorious past). The theme with its catchy hookline, ending on a descending fifth, is pure hard bop, and in his solo, Rollins plays some of the archetypal percussive phrases that were his hallmark in hard bop's heyday. But then there are also sheets-of-sound departures from the beat, free harmonic investigations, short bursts of pure energy playing that prove that Rollins has drastically expanded his rhythmic and melodic/harmonic vocabulary since the good old days."

"And listen to how the funk sections of 'Biji,' one of the more memorable recent Rollins tunes, inspire Tommy Flanagan to some very fresh playing,and how beautifully Jack DeJohnette interacts with the leader on 'They Say It's Wonderful.' Yes, there are more than enough reasons for the old Rollins fans to like this album. But that doesn't by any means prove that Sonny Rollins + 3 is nostalgic."

Highly recommended for all fans of Sonny Rollins and for those who still appreciate the sounds and rhythms of classic hard bop.

I'm a jazz guitarist and diehard Sonny Rollins fan. For me, Sonny Rollins throughout his recording career is either pure magic, or somewhat searching for the muse. Perhaps, such is the nature of pure improvisers, which Rollins is (and maybe the greatest pure improviser that jazz has seen). I bought this after reading a good review somewhere. I must say, for my taste, I haven't heard anything from Sonny since "The Bridge" that I have liked as well. This is not to say that you'd buy this before any of his classics like "Saxophone Colossus", "Newks Time", "Live At the Village Vanguard", etc., but if you love Rollins, in my opinion, this is a must buy. The magic is here. That jubilant, playful, "going for it", Rollins is here. It's the same great sense of an inventive musical adventure that I got from his "good stuff". A very fine tenor sax friend of mine, and diehard Rollins fan (who felt that Rollins hadn't done anything great since the 1950's), was ecstatic when I loaned him this one. One thing that beats all his old records is the audio. Much greater is the depth of tone that we are able to experience from Sonny in this modern age of recording. That, and really great playing, add up to a real treat.