Sonny Rollins (tenor sax), John Coltrane (tenor sax), Red Garland (piano), Paul Chambers (bass) and Philly Joe Jones (drums). Extraído del álbum Tenor Madness (1956).
In this album Sonny Rollins plays with the Miles Davis’s rhythm section of the band, which gives him the opportunity to free himself and expand his skills. It’s exceptional because this track, which gives the album its title, was the only time Sonny Rollins and John Coltrante were recorded playing together. It was this album that made Rollins one of the most important tenor saxophonists in jazz history.
Album cover
Jazz critic Michael G. Nastos said of it that it’s “a recording that should stand proudly alongside Saxophon Colossus as some of the best work of Sonny Rollins in his early years, it’s also a testament to the validity, vibrancy, and depth of modern jazz in the post-World War era. It belongs on everybody’s shelf.”
John Coltrane versus Sonny Rollins
The theme starts right away and Coltrane enters with a moderate solo at medium tempo with some phrases with which he shoots notes in all directions. Next comes Rollins with a fairly quiet solo following the structure of the blues and ends up doing acrobatic phrases. Then comes Garland, who likes speed more, but continues his solo in a gentle way. After that, Chambers appears playing coherent melodic lines with his double bass. Then Coltrane enters exchanging four-bars solos with Jones and after a while it’s Rollins who exchanges the solos. Rollins and Coltrane then swap four-bar solos with each other extensively to see who is the most daring. At last, the group re-exposes the theme.
