Freedom Suite
| Freedom Suite | ||||
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| Studio album by Sonny Rollins | ||||
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| Label (s) | Riverside Records | |||
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CD, LP |
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running time |
40 min 43 s |
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Studio (s) |
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Freedom Suite is a jazz album by saxophonist Sonny Rollins . The album is one of his last recordings for the Riverside label with Oscar Pettiford and Max Roach .
background
The album was recorded with a trio from Rollins, his long-time companion Oscar Pettiford on bass and Max Roach on drums. The title track is a five-part themed suite. This suite is dedicated to Rollins' "The common African American's struggle" with the situation in the United States. It was recorded on March 7, 1958.
The second page of the original LP edition consists of Broadway numbers and standards recorded on February 11, 1958.
reception
Despite the album's “comparatively harmless title” there were “protests on the part of the conservative jazz press against the feared politicization of jazz.” These “were so vehement that the Riverside company decided to take the record out of circulation as quickly as possible in order to save it relaunched a short time later under the beautiful title Shadow Waltz . ”The original title was considered“ too controversial ” in a nation divided over civil rights . Rollins' original liner notes have also been omitted. According to Ekkehard Jost , the "manipulation" of Rollins' intentions was not difficult, since his Freedom Suite "as purely instrumental music could be politically defused at any time by simply changing its title".
Fifty years later, the political scandal is less relevant to the importance of the album; according to Loren Schoenberg and Wynton Marsalis "the album remains unsurpassed as a pure demonstration of the genius [von Rollins] as an improviser." Scott Yanow wrote at Allmusic : ".. Rollins is very creative, stretches out on his long Freedom Suite , clearly enjoys the exploration of the obscure Noël Coward melody Someday I'll Find You , transfers the show song Till There Was You to jazz and sets out in search of beauty in Shadow Waltz and Will You Still Be Mine? . Almost a masterpiece ”. According to the authors of The Essential Jazz Records , it is "a smaller masterpiece." For Scott Yanow, the album is "quite impressive".
Track list
- The Freedom Suite (Sonny Rollins) - 19:17
- Someday I'll Find You (Noël Coward) - 4:35
- Will you still be mine? (Tom Adair, Matt Dennis ) - 2:54
- Till There Was You ( Meredith Willson ) - 4:54
- Till There Was You [Alternate Take] (Willson) - 4:55
- Shadow Waltz ( Al Dubin , Harry Warren ) - 4:08
Individual evidence
- ^ A b David Dicaire Jazz Musicians, 1945 to the Present MacFarland 2006, p. 68
- ↑ Discography Sonny Rollins (jazzdisco.org)
- ↑ Which was to be understood purely musically. In 2000, for example, Hans-Jürgen Schaal said that Rollins had " only announced free jazz in name". See loners with humor: tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins turns 70
- ↑ a b Ekkehard Jost: Social history of jazz . 2nd Edition. Zweiausendeins, Frankfurt am Main 2003, ISBN 3-86150-472-3 , p. 222
- ↑ James L. Conyers and James Brewer Stewart African American Jazz and Rap: Social and Philosophical Examinations of Black Expressive Behavior: Social and Philosophical Examinations of Black Expressive Behavior MacFarland 2001, p. 85
- ↑ Loren Schoenberg, Wynton Marsalis The NPR Curious Listener's Guide to Jazz 2002, pp. 144f.
- ↑ Review at allmusic
- ↑ Rollins is very creative, stretching out on his lengthy "Freedom Suite," clearly enjoying investigating the obscure Noel Coward melody "Someday I'll Find You," turning the show tune "Till There Was You" into jazz, and finding beauty in "Shadow Waltz" and "Will You Still Be Mine?" A near masterpiece.
- ↑ Max Harrison , Eric Thacker, Stuart Nicholson : The Essential Jazz Records: Modernism to Postmodernism , London, New York, Mansell 2000, p. 322
- ^ S. Yanow Jazz on Record - the first 60 years, 1917-1976 Backbeat Books, San Francisco 2003, 427