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Sonny Rollins complete live at the village gate 1962


uli

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I see that Amazon is offering this at various prices in the $20.00 range. If anybody gets it, please post if the deluxe packaging, illuminating historical essays, state-of-the-art remastering, and treasure trove of alternate cover/location photos are worth $20.00. I already have the music.

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got a copy of this from Jazz Messengers a few days ago - SQ is very good (compared the originally released titles on official CD to this boot & sound is equivalent)

Was very cheap considering its a 6CD set - in sturdy/glossy "clam box"

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The liner essay refers to the original album as "Our man in Paris " in places and at other times "Our Man in jazz " . There is no analysis of the music rather an essay around the group 's itinerary and Sonny's song book. A scathing review from DB is reprinted.

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Does anyone have any idea why this material has never been fully released by RCA? Given the differences in public domain laws in various countries, one would think that RCA (or whomever owns the rights) would have released this material a while ago to stay ahead of unauthorized releases.

It all goes back to this, French RCA, 1981:

114881496.jpg114881496-3.jpg

Not sure how THAT got released, but it was the first - and last - vault-dipping into RCA's fairly expansive Rollins holdings (Coda once pulished a discography of all known unreleased sessions, and the list was pretty...mind-boggling).

Sonny heard about this, immediately put the kibosh on further sales of this item (a few got imported into the US, but not many), went lawyerball on RCA and the final deal was that the vaults would forever more be sealed, this little bit of leakage excepted.

I'm pretty sure that not everything that's still left in there is going to be worthy of release. But the stuff that came out here was such a joyful mindfuck at the time, that I've got to think that there's more of merit to be found, if/when Sonny reassessess his attitude.

And funnily enough, watching the material on this set come out on the RCA box and the various individual releases of 60s Sonny that Bluebird did, people who hadn't known any better just assumed that it was all of a piece and so many of them were all holy shit, this is GREAT how did THIS get so overlooked, and the answer is, because it's never really been heard until now, that's why.

You can still get The Complete on RCA that contains these cuts from Amazon.

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Yes, welcome Olie.

I'm enjoying Somersaults

Likewise, great music and cover art too

I'm ordering it soon. Very envious that you played with Mark Sanders of Toby Delius. Two of my favorite musicians. Sorry I missed a recent NYC concert I heard about with you and Ingrid Laubrock. I do think a good friend of mine was there.

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I got mine this week; to me Sonny of the '60s was god-like. In addition to his rhythmic genius he was working at a kind of compound, layered harmony that I do not know how, exactly, to describe in technical terms; though there is some aimless 'free' playing on this that reminds me of what Bley said to me years ago, which was to the effect that "we didn't need Sonny to play free, we needed him to play standards."

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... he was working at a kind of compound, layered harmony that I do not know how, exactly, to describe in technical terms ...

Sometimes it sounds (to me) like Rollins is improvising harmonies, or harmonic counterpoint, to a melody that nobody else can hear. In other words, he's playing "under" an improvised melody that he's hearing but not necessarily playing.

Does that make any sense?

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  • 4 weeks later...

The music is superb.  This recording quality is excellent.  Lots of space for Cranshaw and Higgins.  Cranshaw is really impressive on this.  For me so far, this is the best release of the year.

I know that most of the recordings of the Rollins/Cherry band are in poor sound; I have one of the concerts that was released on Moon years ago.  Are any of the live European recordings of this band in good sound?  Also, does anyone know of any good in depth writing concerning this band? 

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I don't know.  I bought it, I'll keep it, but it didn't change my life, and I'm not sure it really works, though it is interesting.  But not the beauty of, say, the Coleman quartet.   Rollins doesn't really sound like he's at peace with it to me.  And I definitely prefer 'East Broadway Rundown' with Hubbard/Garrison/Elvin.

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This is a marvelous set. The SQ also. I am enjoying it a lot, all the more since it is one of the last purchases I managed to do before the banks collapse in Greece, the capital controls and especially the limitation of use of all credit/debit cards only within Greece... Let's see.

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This is a marvelous set. The SQ also. I am enjoying it a lot, all the more since it is one of the last purchases I managed to do before the banks collapse in Greece, the capital controls and especially the limitation of use of all credit/debit cards only within Greece... Let's see.

Wish to you and your people all the best to overcome this problematic situation ......

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This is a marvelous set. The SQ also. I am enjoying it a lot, all the more since it is one of the last purchases I managed to do before the banks collapse in Greece, the capital controls and especially the limitation of use of all credit/debit cards only within Greece... Let's see.

Wow.  My best wishes.  

Just got my set too.  I know this release is not ideal given that no proceeds are going to SR himself.  But if the first CD is any indication, this is a glorious set.  For me, it has a chance of getting up there with "Plugged Nickel" and Shelley Manne's "Black Hawk" recordings.   

I too would like to hear whether there are any European dates that have good sound quality like this release.

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This is a marvelous set. The SQ also. I am enjoying it a lot, all the more since it is one of the last purchases I managed to do before the banks collapse in Greece, the capital controls and especially the limitation of use of all credit/debit cards only within Greece... Let's see.

Wish to you and your people all the best to overcome this problematic situation ......

This is a marvelous set. The SQ also. I am enjoying it a lot, all the more since it is one of the last purchases I managed to do before the banks collapse in Greece, the capital controls and especially the limitation of use of all credit/debit cards only within Greece... Let's see.

Wow.  My best wishes.  

Just got my set too.  I know this release is not ideal given that no proceeds are going to SR himself.  But if the first CD is any indication, this is a glorious set.  For me, it has a chance of getting up there with "Plugged Nickel" and Shelley Manne's "Black Hawk" recordings.   

I too would like to hear whether there are any European dates that have good sound quality like this release.

Thanks guys!

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  • 4 weeks later...

Have been listening to this the past few days and am continually being knocked out.  '60s Rollins is heaven for me and there are some absolutely fantastic takes on this compilation, e.g., all the takes of "Oleo" plus single takes of "Lover", "Three Little Words", etc.  A dream come true to hear Newk at length during this particular period of his marvelous career.  BTW, Billy Higgins' support - fabulous!

Edited by MartyJazz
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