Coming Soon: Sonny Goes West

By DownBeat I Apr. 18, 2023

One of the most-anticipated reissue releases of the year is Go West!, a three-LP opus exploring saxophone colossus Sonny Rollins’ historic output on Contemporary Records.

Set for a June 23 LP release date, the box has everything a vinyl freak could wish for: pressed on 180-gram vinyl, newly mastered from the original analog tapes by Grammy-winning engineer Bernie Grundman, pressed at RTI and 20 tracks of classic Rollins. The set presents Way Out West, Rollins’ 1957 masterpiece, and Sonny Rollins And The Contemporary Leaders from 1958, plus six alternate takes selected from both albums. Beyond that, the expanded booklet offers new liner notes from Grammy-winning music historian Ashley Kahn, including a new interview conducted by Kahn in 2021 specifically for the release.

In 1957, Rollins was 26 and ready to explore the world beyond New York, where he grew up. He took a headlong dive into the West Coast, where the cool jazz movement was heating up.

“The idea of freedom comes up often in chronicles of Rollins during this period,” Kahn writes in the liner notes. “It’s noted in the music he was creating — particularly in his decision to perform and record with piano-less rhythm accompaniment, allowing for a harmonic freedom, but also in his extended improvisations that developed into lengthy stories of their own. Rollins was developing his sound and approach on a daily basis.”

Rollins connected with Lester Koenig, the founder of Contemporary. Koenig was a former screenwriter and producer on the West Coast who was making a name with his nascent label.

As for the music, Way Out West connects Rollins in his first trio setting with bassist Ray Brown and drummer Shelly Manne. The results included the terrific title tune and the classic “Come Gone,” along with Duke Ellington’s “Solitude” and a wonderful jazz take on Johnny Mercer’s “I’m An Old Cowhand.”

A year later, Rollins continued his West Coast adventure, this time in a quintet setting with Leroy Vinnegar on bass, Barney Wessel on guitar, Hampton Hawes on piano and Manne again on drums. It’s an East-West affair of eight standards including “Alone Together” and “How High The Moon.”

For Rollins, going West was “like new beginnings to me,” he said. DB

(craftrecordings.com)