Sonny Rollins - Way Out West (1979 Japanese Contemporary Jazz Library 1500 LP)

Vinyl: NM
Sleeve: NM
Obi: NM

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Sonny Rollins - Way Out West Vinyl LP - 1979 Japanese Contemporary Jazz Library 1500 Reissue

• Rollins' first piano-less album, the tenor carrying the full harmonic weight over Ray Brown's bass and Shelly Manne's drums
• Widely regarded as one of the finest recordings of his career. Six tracks ranging from Johnny Mercer's "I'm an Old Cowhand" to Duke Ellington's "Solitude" to two Rollins originals
• 1979 Japanese Contemporary Jazz Library 1500 series pressing on King Record Co. Ltd., issued with obi and insert

Recorded at Contemporary's studio in Los Angeles in 1957, Way Out West was Sonny Rollins' first album without a pianist or guitarist, the decision to record in piano-less trio format giving his tenor saxophone complete harmonic freedom over Ray Brown's bass and Shelly Manne's drums alone. Neither Brown nor Manne had previously played with Rollins before the session, yet the three musicians arrived at Contemporary's studio in the early hours and recorded the album in a single night, producer Lester Koenig later recounting in the sleeve notes that after four hours of intense playing, with Brown and Manne exhausted, Rollins declared he was only just warming up. Engineer Roy DuNann, working with two AKG C12 microphones routed directly to his Ampex tape recorder, captured the three instruments with a clarity and presence that has made this one of the most admired recordings in jazz for its sonic quality as much as its musical content. The six tracks move between two Rollins originals, "Come, Gone" (built on the changes to "After You've Gone") and the title track, and a group of standards and Western-themed songs including Johnny Mercer's "I'm an Old Cowhand" and "Wagon Wheels", each given the kind of extended, harmonically inventive treatment that the piano-less format made possible. William Claxton's cover photograph, Rollins posed in the Mojave Desert in a ten-gallon hat with his tenor at his side, is one of the most reproduced images in jazz photography.

Without a chordal instrument to outline the harmony, Rollins is left to imply it entirely through his melodic lines, and the album stands as a sustained demonstration of his ability to do exactly that, his tenor at once authoritative and exploratory, always in conversation with Brown's deep, grounded bass and Manne's responsive drumming. Released in Japan in 1979 on Contemporary Records (GXC-3104) as part of the Jazz Library 1500 series and manufactured by King Record Co. Ltd., this pressing is issued with obi and insert. King Record Co. Ltd.