Sonny Rollins Quartet - Tenor Madness (1976 Japanese Prestige Vinyl LP Mono)

Vinyl: EX
Sleeve: VG+
Obi: VG+ (writing on back)

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Sonny Rollins Quartet - Tenor Madness | Vinyl LP Mono - 1976 Japanese Prestige Reissue (SMJ-6521, Victor Musical Industries)

Coltrane was in Van Gelder's Hackensack studio on the same day, and Rollins invited him to sit in on a blues. That's the origin story of the title track, and it produced the only studio recording of the two tenor saxophonists who would define the instrument for the next decade. The contrast in approach over 12 minutes is immediate. Rollins builds from short, blues-rooted phrases, leaving space between ideas and developing them with a patience that makes his solos sound like composed pieces. Coltrane runs harder, stacking rapid chromatic lines on top of each other in the style that Ira Gitler would soon call "sheets of sound." They trade fours towards the end, and neither player gives ground. The rhythm section holds steady underneath: Garland comping with that precise, block-chord touch, Chambers walking with authority, and Philly Joe keeping the tempo honest without pushing. These were the musicians Rollins had borrowed from Miles Davis for the session. At the time, Rollins was playing in the Max Roach/Clifford Brown Quintet, while Coltrane held the tenor chair in Davis's group. Both were at the start of the run that would produce Saxophone Colossus, A Love Supreme, and everything between.

The four remaining tracks are Rollins without Coltrane, and they're among his strongest quartet recordings of the period. "Paul's Pal" (named for Chambers) is a relaxed Rollins original that swings without forcing the point. "When Your Lover Has Gone" is a ballad reading that lets Garland stretch out. "My Reverie," adapted from Debussy, sits in a middle ground between ballad and mid-tempo. "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" starts as Rodgers and Hart's 3/4 waltz before Rollins pulls it into 4/4, modernising a 1935 show tune without losing its melody. Van Gelder recorded the session and Bob Weinstock supervised for Prestige. This is the 1976 Japanese mono reissue on SMJ-6521, number 21 in the Prestige Jazz Masterpiece Series, made by Victor Musical Industries with the lacquer cut at Victor Company of Japan.