
Sonny Rollins - Plus 4
Sonny Rollins – tenor saxophone [click here to see more vinyl featuring Sonny Rollins]
Max Roach – drums [click here to see more vinyl featuring Max Roach]
Richie Powell – piano
George Morrow – bass
Clifford Brown – trumpet (A1 to B1, B3)
Written by Sonny Rollins (A1, B3), Sam Coslow (A2), Dorothy Fields (B1), Jimmy McHugh (B1), George Oppenheimer (B1), Irving Berlin (B2)
1 LP, standard sleeve
Original analog Master tape : YES
Record color : black
Speed : 33 RPM
Size : 12'’
Stereo
Studio
Record Press : Record Technology Inc.
Label : Craft - Original Jazz Classics Series
Original Label : Prestige
Recorded on March 22, 1956 at Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, New Jersey
Engineered by Rudy Van Gelder
Produced by Bob Weinstock
Mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio
Design by Tom Hannan
Liner Notes by Ira Gitler
Originally released in August 1956
Reissued in 2025
Tracks :
Side A:
1. Valse Hot
2. Kiss and Run
Side B:
1. I Feel A Song Coming On
2. Count Your Blessings
3. Pent-Up House
Reviews :
“1956, Sonny Rollins was spiritually and physically rejuvenated. And on Sonny Rollins Plus 4, he's clearly inspired by Max Roach and Clifford Brown's depth of spirit. Multi-dimensional re-arrangements of popular songs were a Brown-Roach trademark. "Kiss and Run" is treated to a stop-and-go intro, then settles into a brisk 4/4, as Rollins, Brown, and the perennially underrated Richie Powell fashion long dancing lines. "I Feel a Song Coming On" creates tension by alternating a vamp figure with a swinging release. Rollins takes an immense solo, contrasting chanting figures and foghorn-like long tones with Parker-ish elisions, and Brown answers with buzzing figures and daring harmonic extensions. Then Roach takes things out with sweeping melodic choruses and polyrhythmic fanfares, setting the stage for a torrid tenor-trumpet duel. On "Valse Hot," there's an early example of a successful jazz waltz as Rollins offers up one of his most charming themes. Max Roach treats the European three with the dancing elan of an American four, and Rollins responds by floating in between the beat, syncopating in Monk-ish stabs and thrusts, as Brown answers with the kind of rhythmically complex, sweetly articulated melodic lines that have inspired every modern trumpeter.” AllMusic Review by Rovi Staff
Ratings :
AllMusic : 5 / 5 , Discogs : 4.51 / 5