Mssr_Renard Sonny Rollins Plus 4 is essentially the Clifford Brown - Max Roach Quintet, but with Sonny Rollins, who replaced Harold Land.

The reason why this album is released under the name Sonny Rollins, is because he is the leader on this album, also supplying two original compositions, in addition to three standards.

This albums is also the last album to feature Brown and pianist Richie Powell, as they both die in a carcrash, later that year.

On a side-note, there is also a album under the name Max Roach Plus 4, but that album was recorded after the death of both Brown and Powell, and features both Rollins and bassist George Morrow. Trumpeteer Kenny Dorham, and pianists Ray Bryant and Bill Wallace replace Brown and Powell.

On this Rollins plus Four, you hear the original Brown/Roach Quintet as it also featured on the marvelous live album On Basin Street (recorded january, februari 1956). This album was recorded in march.

The quality of playing is high, as the band is very tight, maybe the tightest rhythmsection (Roach, Morrow, Powell) imaginable, and the solo's of Rollins and Brown are great. They are both on fire and their phrasing and delivery fit very well.

Most songs are mid- and uptempo, really delivering a punch. This album is an essential hard-bop album and also is an important historical document, because it is the last (studio)album with Brown and Powell.

siLLy puPPy To clarify the confusion of this album that seems to have different info with every source i encounter, it was recorded on 22 June 1956 and released in April 1957 and the excellent Rudy Van Gelder remaster finding its way onto the market in 2005. SAXOPHONE COLOSSUS is without a doubt the most revered album released by SONNY ROLLINS with the leading track “St. Thomas” being one of the most celebrated jazz standards of not only the 50s hard bop scene but of all jazz history. Although the track was a traditional calypso number, SONNY literally jazzed it up to make a classic of the ages.

This album finds many a jazz veteran lending a hand and an ear to the process. SONNY ROLLINS, of course, is the star here with his masterful melodic tenor saxophone, but we also get Tommy Flanagan on piano, Doug Watkins on bass and the inimitable Max Roach handling drum duties. By definition, hard bop incorporates everything from R&B and gospel music to the blues and beyond and this album is a great example of these mixings and commingling of styles.

The saxophone and piano are obvious contenders here but the beauty of this album is how well every musician on board weaves his magic around the cohesive whole. While jazz ballads can be a point of contention in my world, i must admit that “You Don’t Know What Love Is” comes across as a tender yet intricately beautiful piece of work that straddles the pop world’s sensibilities while keeping the jazzy touches as the dominant feature.

This is music well before my time but it has a sense of timelessness to it. I was particularly surprised to hear “Moritat” which is a jazz interpretation of a song composed by Kurt Weil originally titled “Mack The Knife” or in German “Die Moritat von Mackie Messer” which was in The Threepenny Opera which originated at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm in Berlin in 1928. While the original had lyrics and was a product of its time SONNY deftly tackles the vocal parts on his sizzling sax and retains the spirit of the original without sacrificing the hard bop sensibilities of the time of release.

“Blue” which is a ROLLINS written original is another satisfying track. It delivers all the beauty of a blues standard with all the jazz touches as the icing on the cake. Somehow these four guys keep the whole thing sounding like a blues song even when they break into clear jazz territory of syncopated drum solos and the like. Very impressive.

This was a grower indeed. While feeling underwhelmed upon first encounter i have really grown to like SAXOPHONE COLOSSUS a lot and understand the hype behind its majesty. While not fluent in ROLLINS’ massive discography, i as an abecedarian of his music, can gleefully advocate recommending this album as the perfect introduction into his hard bop and beyond universe. While it’s true that in the 50s jazz appears a little incestuous with every musician at one time playing on someone else’s albums just like marriages in a TV soap opera, on this particular occasion the stars aligned for all involved and a veritable masterpiece was born.

Amilisom What's new with Sonny Rollins? Apparently bossa nova. It was certainly the new thing back in '62, and Rollins decided to have a shot at it.

This album is a unique find. Being possibly Sonny Rollins' only bossa nova album in its entirety, here he experiments with new sounds and colors. You can tell when listening that Sonny Rollins does everything except approach the bossa nova style carefully. At times his improvisations become playfully outlandish, especially on tracks like "Jungoso" or "Bluesongo" when the space is very free and open. In other moments, he even disregards the feel and swings his eighth notes.

The album begins with a 12 minute bossa nova jam titled "If Ever I Would Leave You". Establishing a clear bossa nova feel, this track is one of the more "down-to-earth" tracks on this album where Rollins solos with melodic licks and doesn't make sounds as strange as the tracks that follow.

"Jungoso" begins with a percussionist playing on a drum with his hands. Rollins freely and tonally improvises over this, even by putting growl into his sound and bending notes. He continues this when the bass player comes in with a repetitive, modal groove that establishes the background. The effect sounds pretty good, but can be slightly unsettling when he gets a little too carried away with his growl sounds.

The next track, "Bluesongo" is similar to the previous track but has a walking bass line that gives it a touch of blues and swung eighths.

"The Night Has a Thousand Eyes" is similar to the first track of the album, in which the guitar and drum set establish a bossa nova feel and Rollins avoids growling.

The last track, "Brown Skin Gal", actually features a group of people singing the melody. The feel made by the percussion creates more of a calypso or caribbean feel.

In its entirety, this album isn't completely bossa nova, despite what it says on the cover. The 2nd, 3rd and 4th tracks seem to lend themselves slightly more to other South American sub-genres rather than bossa nova. Of the tracks that are bossa nova, Sonny Rollins doesn't have a tone that meshes well with the cool, laid-back feel. Instead, his tone comes across more as fat and aggressive here than is necessary.

Despite this, this album creates a sound of its own that is worth looking into for either Sonny Rollins or latin/bossa nova listeners. For that I give it 7/10.

Matt Sonny Rollins must have liked hearing Billy Holiday with two of her absolute classic numbers included and a composition he composed himself which has no familarity with Billy Holiday's classic "Loverman" but the title "Love Man" sandwiched in between the two Billy Holiday numbers does make one think. Anyway recorded in 1973 and this album "Horn Culture" is Sonny's second album after his last absence from the Jazz scene in the late sixties and early seventies doing yoga and the Eastern thing but he sure came back vibrant and as usual he played beautifully with this album being no exception. Many of his albums from this period in the seventies are not as highly regarded as his classics from the fifties and sixties but if one maintained that thought you would miss out on some absolute fantastic Jazz which is what Sonny has played from day one when he arrived on the scene all those years back in the early fifties. Walter Davis Jr. is on piano, Masuao, guitar, Bob Cranshaw, electric bass, David Lee, drums and Mtume percussion with some slight changes at times throughout by three of the band members on their usual instruments. One thing it is great to see the album cover mentions that there are over-dubs used and "honesty is the best policy" with Sonny's sax being where but it is done very well as it applied only sparingly. Bit of a mixture of styles contained within bringing a great variety to the album with Post and Hard Bop, touch of Funk and the composition "Sais" could have fitted nicely on to a Jazz Fusion album with the use of the electric, accoustic piano combined and Masuo's electric guitar added. One thing Sonny has the lions share and his glorious horn is all over the album which is precisely why one listens to Sonny Rollins and although things seem to have changed within the music his horn has not belting out some absolute gloriously linked Bop based solos.

"Pictures In The Reflection Of A Golden Horn" and I wonder whose? but this is the album commmencement and things start of with a nice Soul feel from Sonny and the band but it is not long before the intensity picks up and Sonny keeps just blowing harder on this wonderful album starter which is one of the three compositions by Sonny included for the album. The next one though is written by the percussion player Mtume being "Sais" and is the longest track on the album going for just under twelve minutes and one of the most striking with Mtume playing basically a constant repitition of piano chords with a solo included instead of percussion and Walter Davis Jr is playing the keyboard bringing that underlay with Bob Cranshaw's electric bass on this just below mid tempo composition. Sonny Rollins puts a beautiful solo on soprano and tenor with it gradual intensity increase with Masuo following him on electric guitar and I do find this reminscent of a Wayne Shorter style composition with its own distinct structure and perhaps one of the best tracks on the album. "Notes For Eddie" is another Sonny composition and Sonny is his usual great self with the drum and percussion mix giving the song a great feel and another great stabber of a guitar solo from Masuo within. Billy Holiday gets the Rollins treatment first up on Side B with her absolute classic ballad "God Bless The Child" being played beautifully with a slight jaunt to open the number and Sonny pretty much keeps too the tune with Masuo back on guitar and Walter finally getting his chance on piano within this beautiful version. "Love Man" is side two's variety with its up-tempo approach with a little funk thrown in which just rips along and of course Sonny is good. The album closer is another Billy Holiday classic "Good Morning Heartache" and the other ballad on the album and it is played as all the other numbers within the album are, at a great high standard but it is Sonny near the end when he plays the song unaccompanied which he would do more frequently in the future to come after this album and I for one just love it.

Think outside the box with this one and although I would be the first to say the Sonny's albums from that classic late fifties to early sixties are his best there is nothing wrong with this and we should all be grateful that he did change bringing this other variety to his music which he still uses today in concert with Bob Cranshaw playing his electric and a percussion player in his current band in 2011. Once again, "it is just that Sonny Rollins magic".

Sean Trane After the steaming Horn Culture, one could’ve hoped this “Live in Montreux” album to have the same kind of Cutting Edge, but it’s surprisingly lower key than one would expect, despite featuring a similar line-up, consisting of Mtume, Lee, Masuo, Cranshaw and Cowell. Actually, the concert set was a mixed bag of oldie-trad jazz pieces, laced in with some rather inventive fusion numbers. Apparently (according to producer Orrin Keepnews) the mix had the crowd demanding three encores and not letting Sonny & The Gang hit the bed until the middle of the night.

The opening title track features an odd mix of funk-fusion with clunky ethnic jazz, but the resulting music is rather interesting fusion, where Rollins’ sax reigns king. The following Wild Rose is an oldie-sounding (it’s a cover) slow middle-of-the-night piece that could serve as a lullaby to most kids. A much more enthralling First Move returns to a modern funky fusion, with much energy and hinting slightly at the previous Horn Culture album. Indeed the deep funky groove allows plenty of room for Rollins to pack up the crowd and airmail them to Evian, on the other Geneva lake shore.

On the flipside, the mellow cover of House Is Not A Home is a rather un-daring standardy-jazz affair that could’ve been played a decade sooner for more pertinence. The real surprise of the album is with the closing (but centrepiece) almost 15-mins Sweet Chariot track, where guest Rufus Harley brings out bagpipes (yes, believe it!!!) and blows a different Mull Of Kintyre tune. Of course the opening solo lines blends-in rather fine with Rollins’ sax, and both engage in a sort of call & response, before the others engages hostilities and turn things into a strange funky fusion. A rather uneven and schizophrenic live album, one that is not able to make up its mind between trad or modern, even if the fusion weighs heavier in the overall balance.