Posted in: Woodwind by sneijder10 on December 28th, 2011 | 0 Comments
The arrival of Sonny Rollins to Los Angeles in 1957 with Max Roach Quintet, led to the producer Lester Koenig and immediately proposed a recording saxophonist to his label Contemporary Records.
The pace of work in the clubs made it impossible for musicians to be available in hours “normal”, so the recording took place between three and eight in the morning of March 7, 1957, in an unusual format minimalistic but full jazz potential.
With Ray Brown on bass and Shelly Manne on drums, Way Out West not only became one of the greatest jazz albums of the 1950s, but became an essential of the extensive discography of the great tenor sax.
With several editions in time, almost all new releases included three alternate takes that were not part of the original LP but retained the classic William Claxton photo taken in the Mohave desert, with Rollins paying tribute to his childhood heroes, in pose challenging and saxophone as a weapon. A curiosity was the reissue made in 1986 for Europe and Japan for which one of the photos selected alternative Claxton, aggregates announcing three additional outlets as a “Plus” in black or red.
The edition presented here is the latest of all, launched by Contemporary in 2010 and which, in addition to the original notes are those of Marc Koenig Myers, who prepared them from his interview with Rollins in October 2009 published in JazzWax place to be, in my opinion, one of the best ways to introduce yourself to this classic.
In the first part, Marc is responsible for contextualizing Sonny’s passion for the “western”, while the second part delves extensively about the genesis of the album, a unique recording with a tour “hard-bop” rich in melodies memorable and brilliant solos.
Image via Wikipedia
