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Sonny's Recorded Legacy
Access Sonny's recordings individually, using this pull down menu, or by decade. This list includes everything by Sonny currently available on CD or as a download.
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Featured Recordings
Road Shows, Volume 1
Sonny's latest release on his own Doxy Records is an exciting compilation of live performances. More...
The Definitive Sonny Rollins on Prestige, Riverside, & Contemporary
Covers almost an entire decade, from a December 1951 session in New York for Sonny Rollins with the Modern Jazz Quartet to an October 1958 session in Los Angeles for Sonny Rollins and the Contemporary Leaders. "That the marks of [Rollins'] genius were fully apparent in the music he made over a half-century ago has been obvious to all who have followed the trajectory of his unprecedented career," says Bob Blumenthal in his liner notes. "As a contract artist with Prestige Records between 1951 and 1956, and through his work on various labels from 1957 until the beginning of an extended sabbatical two years later, Rollins laid the foundation for his status as a master improviser, saxophonist and composer; an influence far beyond his chosen instrument and idiom; and a living icon of affirmative creativity. Concord Music Group is the steward of many of the finest Rollins performances of the '50s, and has culled them well in presenting this short course in what made Sonny Rollins Sonny Rollins."
Listen / Buy Definitive Sonny Rollins on Prestige, Riverside & Contemporary
All About Road Shows, Volume 1
Road Shows, Volume 1 is the exciting inaugural release in a planned series of outstanding live Sonny Rollins recordings from the last 30-plus years. The seven tracks on the new CD, culled from the Carl Smith collection and Rollins’s own personal soundboard tapes, were recorded in the U.S., Canada, Poland, Japan, France, and Sweden. Featuring the saxophonist with a variety of sidemen—including, on one track, the Christian McBride–Roy Haynes trio that appeared with him at his 50th Anniversary Carnegie Hall concert in 2007—Road Shows captures the Saxophone Colossus in full flight, dazzling audiences around the world.
In the late 1980s, Rollins began to record many of his concerts for archival purposes with possible future release in mind, and also to circumvent bootlegs, which have been a long-standing problem for the artist. “I was much less intimidated by the tape at live concerts” than in the studio, he admits. When the tape was always rolling, “it was much easier for me to get a natural performance.”
From the start the intention was to record all of Sonny’s concerts. Due to unforeseen technical problems or permission problems with venues, however, it was not always possible, according to Road Shows producer (and Rollins trombonist) Clifton Anderson. Of the approximately 600 concerts Rollins has performed since the late ’80s, Anderson estimates that as many as one-third are in their archive, in whole or in part.
“There were performances that at the time they were done, I thought they might be acceptable at a later date in case I chose to release,” says Rollins. “But I hadn’t really listened; I filed it in my mind, and later had to stir my memory as to which ones might be good.”
When the time came to program the new CD, says Anderson, “we both remembered that the concert in Toulouse was a pretty good show, and Sonny remembered that Tama was a good performance, so I went back and listened to those in particular. That’s how we arrived at our choices.”
Four tracks from the Rollins archive are included in Road Shows, vol. 1: More Than You Know (2006, Toulouse), which Sonny “brought out of retirement,” not having played it since the 1950s, when he recorded it with Thelonious Monk; Tenor Madness (2000, Tama City, Japan), whose last appearance on a Rollins disc was the live G-Man in 1987; Nice Lady (2007, Victoria, BC), the first recording of a new Rollins calypso; and Some Enchanted Evening (2007, New York City), from his 50th anniversary Carnegie Hall concert with Christian McBride and Roy Haynes.
Road Shows’ remaining three tracks were selected from Carl Smith’s collection—Blossom (1980, Umea, Sweden), a fascinating, little-known Rollins original that “came and went pretty fast in the repertoire,” says Rollins; Easy Living (1980, Warsaw), from Sonny’s first trip behind the Iron Curtain (“the people were starved for music”); and Best Wishes (1986, Tokyo), previously recorded on his 1982 Reel Life album.
For future Road Shows compilations, Anderson and Rollins will have not only their own archives and Carl Smith’s to draw from. “People have also submitted things to us,” says Anderson, “most recently a tape from Keystone Korner in the mid-1970s and a cassette from the Bottom Line. The bands are different, the material’s different; the one common denominator is Sonny killin’ through all of it.”
Track Listing
Best Wishes (Sonny Rollins)
Sonny Rollins, tenor saxophone; Clifton Anderson, trombone; Mark Soskin, piano; Bobby Broom, guitar; Jerome Harris, electric bass; Al Foster, drums.
Recorded at Kosei Nenkin Hall, Tokyo, Japan; May 25, 1986
More Than You Know
Sonny Rollins, tenor saxophone, Clifton Anderson, trombone; Bobby Broom, guitar; Bob Cranshaw, bass; Victor Lewis, drums; Kimati Dinizulu, percussion.
Recorded at La Halle aux Grains, Toulouse, France; May 15, 2006
Blossom (Rollins)
Sonny Rollins, tenor saxophone; Mark Soskin, piano; Jerome Harris, electric bass; Al Foster, drums.
Recorded at Umea (Sweden) Jazz Festival; October 25, 1980
Easy Living
Sonny Rollins, tenor saxophone; Mark Soskin, piano; Jerome Harris, electric bass; Al Foster, drums.
Recorded at Congress Hall, Warsaw (Poland) Jazz Jamboree; October 23, 1980
Tenor Madness (Rollins)
Sonny Rollins, tenor saxophone; Clifton Anderson, trombone; Stephen Scott, piano; Bob Cranshaw, bass; Perry Wilson, drums; Victor See-Yuen, percussion
Recorded at Pantheon Tama, Tama City, Japan; June 8, 2000
Nice Lady (Rollins)
Sonny Rollins, tenor saxophone; Clifton Anderson, trombone; Bobby Broom, guitar; Bob Cranshaw, bass; Steve Jordan, drums; Kimati Dinizulu, percussion.
Recorded at Royal Theatre, Victoria, B.C. Canada; June 24, 2007
Some Enchanted Evening
Sonny Rollins, tenor saxophone; Christian McBride, bass; Roy Haynes, drums.
Recorded at Carnegie Hall, New York City, September 18, 2007
