AOTW June 7-13 Sonny Rollins...

[JSngry]

Posting this a day early, because I might be out of town tomorrow.

I'll just say at this early date that this is an album that I've owned since release, and it's appeal continues to grow as the years pass. Many will complain for all the usual reasons, but I suspect that a few or more will listen with open ears and minds and hear some delightful music, albeit of a smaller "scale" than the name SONNY ROLLINS might lead some to hope for. And the size of that scale might cause some to write off what is here simply because of what isn't. Different strokes and all that.

Selecting any Rollins Milestone side other than Next Album or, possibly, +3 is a risky gambit to be sure, and probably doomed to fail to one extent or another. But dammit, I dig this album!

Judge for yourself. If you're like me, it might take a while before it really sinks in that this a perfectly fine record on its own terms, and one with no lack of rewards, the type of rewards that only Sonny Rollins could offer.

But if you're lucky, you won't be like me. Take that any way you want!

[MartyJazz]

This definitely is one of the few Milestones I do listen to occasionally, primarily for the first track, "For All We Know". I always get a kick out of listening to Branford take a very good solo on this piece whereupon Sonny then puts him away by roaring in with a fantastic solo.

[Jazz Kat]

Hmmm... Can you describe the music on this one??

[JSngry]

Yes.

It's Sonny & some other guys playing some tunes.

[Jazz Kat]

That's what I was thinking, but I just wanted to make sure.

[Jazz Kat]

I guess it ain't fusion...

[Jazz Kat]

-_-

[JSngry]

Discussion begins next week. This week is Mister Gone.

[AllenLowe]

I'll stay outta this one -

[JSngry]

Chicken.

[Newk]

I love this one! Tennesse Waltz and Little Girl Blue are two of the most memorable tunes on record for me. If you like Sonny, but discount this period of his career, check this one out!

[JSngry]

Ok, let's get this show on the road...

This album was released in 1990, after most people had given up on Sonny ever releasing another "heavy" album like those of his glory days of the 1950s & 60. And if viewed in that light, and with those expectations, there's nothing here to get particularly excited about. After all, this is a very casual album in terms of production - Sonny and his usual gang of suspects playing a few standards, a few originals, and one "oddball" tune. Branford Marsalis stops by for two tunes, continuing what was then the Milestone tradition of adding a guest artist on all or part of a Rollins album. On the surface, it's "just another Rollins Milestone album", lacking in any earthshaking discoveries or epochal quests of self-discovery. But that's on the surface. Listened to without those preconceived notions of what a Sonny Rollins album "should" be, there's some damn fine playing going on here.

Let's start with Sonny's sound. Always larger than life, even in his lesser moments, it's freakin' HUGE here. Maybe you need to be a tenorist to fully appreciate how miraculous his fullness and evenness over the entire range of the horn is, but I'd think that a careful and informed listening would reveal that to anybody. The guy doesn't just fill up the horn, he blows through it so thoroughly that it's at once all you hear, and none of what you hear. It's no longer "just" a tenor, it's a VOICE, a rich voice that speaks fully, deeply, and knowingly, with none of the mechanical interferences that you hear out of so many players, even some truly great ones. I could get my groove on with this album just by luxuriating in Sonny's sound alone.

But there's no need for that, since what Rollins does with that glorious sound here is a cut above what he sometimes has done on his Milestone recordings. On some of them, he sounds like he’s just not feeling it, or not feeling it enough to push the issue. But here, there’s plenty of playing that reveals a full engagement in the moment, if not in scope (a fully engaged Rollins will literally play until the cows come home, have a snack, go to bed, wake up in the morning, have breakfast, and go back out again...), then definitely for the duration of the performance. And that's what I think some people miss out on in some of these Milestone records - what's there is often more than a little dazzling, there's just not always a lot of it. There'll be one really heavy chorus, and we want 50. Or more. As well we should. But that's just not how Sonny has decided to make records any more. For whatever reason(s) - and what those reasons may or may not be have sparked any number of debates that inevitably end up going nowhere slow, if fascinatingly - he's decided to doll it out in small doses. Sometimes those doses are too small to matter to anybody but the most devoted Newkophile (guilty), but sometimes, as here, the doses are small but potent. So you can either bitch about what's not there, or savor what is, when it is there. And it's definitely here. Whether or not it's "enough" is up to you. Far be it from me to tell you what you should or shouldn't like. But hey - this is definitely not one of those "phoning it in" albums that some people like to assume is the only type of record that Sonny Rollins makes anymore. Definitely not.

Let's look at the album track-by-track.

TRACK ONE: For All We Know - continuing the Rollins Milestone era tradition of starting an album off slow (this goes back to the very first one - if you make it past "Playing In The Yard" on Next Album, you're in for one helluva ride, but if you don't you could be forgiven...), this is the cut that took me the longest to get inside. It's really nothing but a very, very casual runthrough of an old, but not overplayed, standard, with two choruses of Sonny & Branford playing cat-and-mouse before it opens up into the normal blowing section. Those two choruses have a lot more going on in them than might be apparent at first listen. Sonny's focusing on the melody, airing it out like he's taking a nice stretch after a refreshing afternoon nap, and Branford's like the kid who wants Dad to come outside and play catch NOW. Dig how going into the second chorus, Branford gets into the "lead" position in terms of the son structure - for a few bars, Sonny's answering him. But Sonny is slick - he waits it out, and then ever so slyly structures one of his answers in such a way that the only way that Branford can fill in the gap is to get back into the answering position. Took me years to pick up on that, but it's definitely there, and it shows that you don't play games with old folks - they got ways to kick your ass that they can pull off without you even knowing that you're getting your ass kicked.

Anyway, we get a pretty innocuous set of choruses by Tommy Flanagan, with Bob Cranshaw providing some two-beat, and then walking, bass that is interesting in a very subtle way, and Tain Watts providing some drumming that makes you wonder why he even bothered showing up. Branford's up next, and he's really eager to show Dad what all he's learned at school. He's playing Sonny right back at him, pulling out every Rollins device he can think of, and doing so very well, too. He's WORKING HARD! It's a damn fine piece of Rollins-inspired soloing, a chorus that on his own record he could well be proud of.

But this ain't his record, and Dad finally opens his mouth to speak his mind for one chorus. And JEEZUS does he have something to say. Where Branford was playing Rollins devices, Rollins himself is playing Rollins music, and it comes out simultaneously effortlessly and torrentially. Ain't NOBODY else can play like that. There's more music in that one brief chorus than most people could play in a lifetime.

And then, it's over. Would I have liked to have heard Sonny go on for another hour? Hell yeah. Could he have? Hell yeah, But that would have been a different type of record, required a different mindset, and it also would have meant that Branford might not have gotten out alive, literally. This one chorus speaks volumes, and it makes the point it was no doubt trying to make - let your old man go about his bizness at his own pace, and don't mistake my kindness for weakness, because I could easily kill you just by looking at you.

TRACK TWO: Tennessee Waltz - one of the most overlooked joys of Rollins' Milestone years is that he's turned into one of the most compelling readers of melody that the music has known since Louis Armstrong. Listen to how he sculpts the melody here. He remains true to it, but he also gives it nuance and subtle shifts in emphasis rhythmically and tonally that keeps it pure, but definitely don't keep it straight. He gives the melody a life and character far beyond what it might have ever known it had. This art of melodic paraphrase has had but a handful of truly great practitioners, and Rollins is surely one of them. This is but one of many examples.

The solo that follows is one of those things that sounds pretty easy until you really get inside it. So many little intricate twists and turns, none of them obvious, but all of them incredibly detailed and nuanced, all of them springing directly from the melody. As well, the solo displays as a few moments of harmonic movement that finds corners to go around that weren't necessarily there to be gone around. But Rollins navigates them effortlessly, as if they'd been there all along, and what's the big deal?

Jerome Harris follows with another innocuous solo, but it's grown on me over the years. Still... Then we get some fours that are sometimes sloppy, but in that patented Rollins "well, I know it's supposed to be four bars, but this idea ain't four bars long, so hang with me, will you?" kind of way. DeJohenette hangs. It could've been "tighter", yeah, but the old man ain't concerned about having freshly shined shoes on every time he leaves the house any more, if you know what I mean.

And then the out chorus, a combination of the logic of the opening melodic paraphrase and the further discovery of the solo all rolled into one. It sounds so simple, but it's anything but that. Again, maybe you have to be a player to fully grasp just how finely tuned this type of thing is, but I don't think you do. Suffice it to say that it takes full engagement in and with the instrument and the music, and there's no room for error or half-stepping It's so subtle, and so intricate on an interior level, that is sounds like it's really simple. It's anything but. Only a true master could do something like this.

TRACK THREE: Little Girl Blue - As fine a performance as "Tennessee Waltz" was, this is one for the ages. The fact that the former was selected for the Silver City box and this one wasn't is some kind a cruel joke. It's long been my contention that the focus of Rollins' playing of the last 25 years or so has been joy - the pure joy of being alive, playing music, and, especially, the purer than pure joy of playing the tenor as well and as honestly as you can play it at any given moment.

This is a performance that virtually bursts with joy. Not "happiness", but a deeply knowing JOY. Happiness is for kids and newlyweds. Joy is what you're left with "after the honeymoon's over" but the love remains. There's so much love in this take, so much fullness of spirit, so much pure life energy, and the way it comes out/through Rollins' horn is as staggering in technical terms as it is in human ones.

Played by a drummerless quartet, the melancholy Rodger/Hart tune is transformed into a triumph of the spirit, as if to say that, yeah, life's a bitch and then you die, but if you get all hung up about it, you're going to miss something a helluva lot better, deeper, and truer. (stop me when I start sounding too much like Thom Jurek, ok? ) Jerome Harris is again pleasant enough, but this is Rollins' show, and as far as I'm concerned, it's one of the "best" things he's ever recorded, period. There's a fullness of spirit and completeness of technique here that, while not necessarily being as immediately "provocative" as his earlier work, but is somehow every bit as satisfying, and perhaps in the end, healthier from the standpoint of his specific and overall personal maturity. Perhaps. That ain't really none of my business. But if you gotta stay alive for the duration rather than go out in a blaze, then this is one helluva good place to end up.

All musings aside, this is one of my favorite Sonny Rollins performances on record, which is to say that it’s some of my favorite music ever. Call me Fan Boy, but there it is.

TRACK FOUR: Falling In Love With Love - Well, ok, if you want evidence of an energetic, creative, no-holds-barred Rollins still delivering the goods in a studio setting, here it is. Check it out. That sound, again, is HUGE, and it's perfectly controlled (have I mentioned how much joy I get just from this guy's sound? ). He hits the ground running, toying with the melody in a give and take with Clifford Anderson that is patient and impatient at once, then getting into a solo that shows that Larry Kart's beloved (and I say that with the fullest of respects) simultaneous multiple perspective Rollins is alive and well, albeit in a different way than before. One second he's playing straightforward and exuberant, the next he's deep off into some deeply personal zone that only he could inhabit. Back and forth he goes, feet on the earth looking us dead in the eye, then eyes closed and into a personal reverie of perfectly logical fragmentation and abstraction that comes from somewhere beyond. Whoa...

The rhythm section on this one kicks ass too, DeJohnette in particular. Listening to Cranshaw's lines is not without its rewards either, if you don't get hung up on it being an electric bass (a difficult task for many, I realize...). Mark Soskin has never thrilled me as a soloist, but as a comper for Sonny, he's done some very fine work over the years performing a task that is nowhere as easy as you might think (it's basically a no-win situation unless you just go ahead and do what it is that needs doing, which is not getting in the way), and his work here is no exception. Jerome Harris? Well, as elsewhere, he's grown on me over the years, I'll put it that way.

Again, I'd like to hear this type of Rollins thing go on indefinitely. But I'm not going to cut off my nose to spite my face and turn up said nose at the little "sampling" of it that is found here. No way.

TRACK FIVE: I Should Care - Another drop-dead gorgeous reading of the melody, replete with lots of dry commentary on the lyrics ("Funny how sheep...lull you to sleep...lull you to sleep...", he says at one point, which only heightens the irony of the original lyric), as well as Round Two of the Sonny/Branford match (and, in a sign of how times have changed, contrast how Rollins went into the "battle" with his father, Coleman Hawkins, with an eye to draw blood and declare an appreciative but irrevocable independence, whereas Branford goes into the battle with an eye to make his father happy by showing him how much he can be just like him. Hmmm....)

This round is nowhere near as slyly "lesson teaching" as the first - Sonny sings the melody, and Branford offers quiet obbligatos which display as much taste as they do derivitaveness (which is to say, LOTS on both counts. And then, at the end of the opening chorus, there’s a moment that still continues to fascinate me as to what it says/implies. You know how Miles used to set up Coltrane with a little upwardly spiraling thing, as if to say, "Ok, we're going to take it somewhere else now, get ready."? Well, Sonny sets up Branford with this loooong note that he just keeps lipping microtonally downward in pitch (a middle F on the tenor, a note that will break if you lip it down too much and/or too fast, but that doesn't happen here. To hear Rollins' truly virtuosic manipulation of this one note is something that maybe you do have to be a tenor player to fully appreciate, but now you know!). It's a note that slowly but surely disintegrates and fades away, and the effect is one of a gentle pulling/stepping aside, as if to say, "Son, I set you up nicely, now here's your spot. I'm gonna go take a quick nap. Have fun." And Branford does indeed have fun, even if he does so by again showing us how great his father is. Thing is, we already know that. But hey, if you're gonna do it like that, this is about as good as it can be done.

Flanagan follows with 3/4 of a chorus, a pretty odd length when you think about it, and then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, Dad wakes up, steps up as if he'd never been away, and delivers a short closing message to the piece (but with incredibly compacted energy), one that wraps it up, takes it home, and leaves no room for doubt who's yer Daddy.

This is one of those performances that is so casual on the surface that it would be easy to not pay attention to all the interior/dramatic interaction/dynamics going on. The scale might not be large, but the action is nevertheless as real as you want it to be. Of such seemingly mundane but actually meaningful events is life ultimately made if you live long enough and pay attention.

TRACK SIX: Sister - the obligatory "feature the band" tune. Sonny's tact on these things is to play a little sumppinsumppin and then get outta the way while everybody else gets their kicks, and this one is no exception. He sounds like he could really get into something here, an almost "worried" examination of the harmonic implication of the one chord vamp (and Soskin again compliments him perfectly as he does), but he gets out of the way fairly soon. Too soon for my tastes, but these type of tunes are never ones that Sonny really gets into. Call it "noblesse oblige" if you like, I guess.

Sometimes, these tunes turn out to be a snooze, but this one is actually pretty nice. Anderson plays with a good spirit, if not a lot of originality, Soskin doesn't suck, and Jerome Harris, stepping into Electric Land, seems to be interested in further exploring the harmonic and emotional implications of Sonny's solo, and does so nicely. Not at all a "heavy" performance, but as an example of a group playing and feeling together (as opposed to a star fronting a band) and staying within themselves to get somewhere good, it ain't bad either. Special mention again goes to DeJohnette, who keeps things lively.

TRACK SEVEN: Amanda - I first bought this album on cassette so I could have it handy for driving, and didn't actually get the CD until about 5 years ago. So imagine my surprise when I first heard this "CD-Only Bonus Cut". WHOA! It's one of those "stand up tall, stand up proud, forget the bullshit and just PLAY" tunes like "The Cutting Edge", the type of tune where you either go all out or else just leave it be, the design of the tune being to create and keep a good, strong energy to ride on and over for the duration (there's more tunes like that in the Rollins Milestone catalog than is generally noted, and I think attention should be paid to this aspect of his career, as a player's composing is usually a signal of what their intent and perspective to life in general is. But that's another matter entirely...)

This bad boy is in high gear from Jump Street, electric instruments to the fore unapologetically and confidently, with Jack locked into everybody's pocket (or is it the other way around?). Then the melody - a HELL YEAH if ever there was one! Palpable physicality is the order of the day, as if life is meant to be lived as well as examined and thought about. I'm down with that! This tune is the type that cats should be pulling at jam sessions instead of the old tired and true faves. WAKE UP AND LIVE!

And then Sonny gets going. He's INTO it, Jack, and the band is with him. Nobody else could play the tenor like this. It's another case where I wish he'd have gone on forever, but there's nothing, absolutely nothing to complain about what he does play here. It's compact yet complex (listen yet again to the tonal nuances and the rhythmic deftness), accessible in spirit yet deep in content (check out the various "out" harmonic choices he makes along the way, and how effortlessly he goes in and out of them), in short, a master at work, editing and compressing on the fly. I'm telling you, this is a master at work here, make no mistake. The solo's perfectly crafted and paced to fit in the space of an under-six-minute cut on a record, and it's chock full of energy, spirit, and surprises, to say nothing of a wisdom and maturity that is a lot easier to take for granted than it is to appreciate as the personal triumph that it is.

Anderson & Soskin follow, and they sound fine - energetic and involved. Jack continues to kick everybody in the ass, and every time the melody is reprised between solos, its infectiousness grows. Then Sonny takes it home, but not at all casually. He sounds like he could have kept going. And live, he probably would. Oh well, it's only a record!

And with that, our Album Of The Week comes to a close. Except - if you set you player to Repeat Mode, the seemingly low key opening cut gains a fresh perspective and higher energy by following "Amanda" than it does as an opening cut. And that fresh perspective and energy carries through as the album repeats. I'm not kidding when I say that this is one that, for me, gets better and better with repeated listenings. It's relatively devoid of blatant "greatness", but there is a depth to the playing here that comes through the more inside the music you get, and that takes repeated listenings.

Not all Rollins Milestone albums are like that (then again, not all of his Prestige/Blue Note/etc albums are, either...), but this is one that has ample rewards for those willing to take the time to (excuse me while I redundantize yet again) listen to what is happening in the music rather than get freaked out over what isn't. If Falling In Love With Jazz isn't Saxophone Colossus or the like, so be it. What it is is a damn fine album by one of the greatest musicians that jazz has produced, one that shows him to be alive, well, and still full of imagination and energy. If it displays those qualities on the "reduced scale" of a commercially produced studio recording with short-ish tunes and casual (by today's standards, anyway...) production values, so be it. It's still a damn good record, and it's a damn good Sonny Rollins record at that.

Such things are not to be taken for granted.

[MartyJazz]

Beautiful, Jim, a terrific review. This is the one Milestone that I listen to with some kind of frequency and your analysis is quite insightful for the lay person and I'm sure, enlightening to the reed player who reads it. Much appreciated!

[indigo]

Beautiful, Jim, a terrific review.  . . .  your analysis is quite insightful for the lay person

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Absolutely! I just wish I had the album so I could listen along while rereading your wonderful explication. I may not have this one, but what you wrote is helpful in appreciating the Rollins material I do have . . . and I think I'll be listening to some of it tonight, very closely.

Many thanks from a lay person.

[skeith]

I have always liked this album and it is perhaps my favorite of the Milestones.

[JSngry]

I am glad to hear that the review was appreciated, and even more glad to hear that there are some who like the album. Since I get the impression that there are many who haven't really gotten into any (or very little) post-1960s Rollins, I hope that all this will give them the nudge to check this album out, and to maybe question the "convventional wisdom" that the Milestone recordings are inconsequential at best, or, at worst, a total waste. To say that those albums as a whole are uneven is a fair statement, but going too much beyond that is a lot more complicated than the blanket dismissals allow for. This album in particular is evidence of that, I believe, and I do hope that this discussion hips some people to that.

[Alexander Hawkins]

I very much enjoy this record, as I do many of the other Milestone Rollins I own.

However, this is usually in spite of:

1) the other musicians on the dates (obviously, there are exceptions!) and

2) the horrendously glossy production of the sound

If I were going to 'name and shame' on 1), I'd have to say that Jerome Harris and Mark Soskin just do not do it for me, the former in particular.

What has always struck me about this is that despite Branford playing very derivative Rollins, he does VERY well. He does get whooped, but in a friendly way, and he comes out of it well. I think it's because he correctly realised that in a situation like this, he was never going to scorch Rollins technically, and so had to 'play the music', which he did. Maybe just not as well as the master.

[BruceH]

Yes.

It's Sonny & some other guys playing some tunes.

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EXCELLENT!!

[Rupertdacat]

Hi JSngry.

I've been lurking here awhile and have to take this opportunity to thank you for your generosity on these boards. I just ordered my copy of "Falling In Love With Jazz".

Rupe

[JSngry]

You're welcome, Rupe. Hope you enjoy it.

Red, I hear you on Soskin & Harris. All I can say is that the former has earned my respect over the years for his accompanying skills, and that the latter's talents are probably best displayed elsewhere, notably on Henry Threadgill's Song Out Of My Trees. Although I will say that over time I've come to get a small grin out of his ragged-but-not-QUITE-right (apologies to Riley Puckett) attempt to get a "country" flavor on "Tennessee Waltz". It's naive as hell, to be sure, but after a while, it's come to have a certain goofy charm to me.

[White Lightning]

Joe Christmas ?!

Edited June 10, 2005 by White Lightning

[JSngry]

Same avitar, but I don't think so.

[Alexander Hawkins]

I'll try to have a listen to that Threadgill. I wonder if it's just coincidence he's on it - from what little Threadgill I know (a couple of the Air albums, basically), he and Rollins seem to be pretty cognate players.

[Rosco]

Have never gotten round to this album, but JSngry's insights make me want to hear it.... right *now*!

I do feel Sonny's latterday output has been undervalued though. Even with less than challenging back-up the man's sound still gives thrills and chills in equal amounts and the flow of ideas still has the mark of one of the most original creative minds this music has given us.

Branford should (and probably did) thank his lucky stars even to be allowed to touch the hem of his garment...

[JSngry]

The thing I dig about Branford is that he's not afraid to go into situations where he knows he'll get his ass kicked. Remember the carving that Betty Carter gave him on the old Night Music show? He took it like a man!

You don't grow without getting handed some ass-kickings along the way, and Branford seems to have realized that early on in his career, and he's been cool enough to get them publicly, w/o trying to B.S. his way around the fact. I still think that the contrast between how he approached this date with Rollins is an interesting (and, in a way, disappointing) contrast (in results as well as in implications) to how Rollins went up with/against Hawkins, but I also agree that Branford did what he did superbly. His solo on "I Should Care" is right up there with his solo on Shirley Horn's "It Had To Be You" as some of the finest "traditional" ballad work of his generation/stylistic leaning, and seeing as how ballads are a B!TCH to play well, I'd say that props are due.