Our Man in Jazz

chronology
Our Man in Jazz
Live album by Sonny Rollins
Publication ; (s)	1962
Label (s)	RCA Victor
Format (s)	LP, CD
Genre (s)	Jazz , free jazz , post bop
Title (number)	3, 6
running time	48:57
occupation	Sonny Rollins - tenor saxophone ; Don Cherry - cornet ; Bob Cranshaw - bass ; Billy Higgins - drums ;
production	Bob Prince, George Avakian
Location (s)	Live at the Village Gate Club

Our Man in Jazz one is live - jazz album of the American saxophonist Sonny Rollins . It was recorded in July 1962 and published in the same year on the RCA Victor label as part of a Our Man ... series. With just three pieces, including the Rollins classic Oleo with a duration of 25 minutes, it is considered to be one of the “most entertaining” highlights of free jazz .

background

At the first peak of its popularity, Rollins withdrew from the public with a spectacular two year hiatus in 1959. During this time he practiced on the Williamsburg Bridge in New York, which leads to Brooklyn . Rollins wrote about this time:

“I was getting very famous at the time and I felt I needed to brush up on various aspects of my craft. I felt I was getting too much, too soon, so I said, wait a minute, I'm going to do it my way. I wasn't going to let people push me out there, so I could fall down. I wanted to get myself together, on my own. I used to practice on the Bridge, the Williamsburg Bridge because I was living on the Lower East Side at the time. "

“I became very famous at the time, and I felt I needed to brush up on various aspects of my craft. I felt I was getting too much, too soon, so I said wait a minute, I'll do it my way. I wasn't about to let people push me out there so I could fall. I wanted to find myself, alone. At that time I was practicing on the bridge, the Williamsburg Bridge, because at that time I was living on the Lower East Side. "

Furthermore, Rollins saw his break as a sign against the artistic exploitation of jazz musicians, some of whom had a hard time getting their royalties. He called the first recording after his comeback in reference to his sabbatical The Bridge . In the five months between The Bridge and Our Man in Jazz , Rollins broke up the quartet with Jim Hall and played a Latin album What's New? and only kept bassist Bob Cranshaw . In response to the work of Ornette Coleman and his groundbreaking album Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation , he hired Coleman's trumpeter Don Cherry and his drummer Billy Higgins . Together with Cranshaw, Rollins played in a quartet with these during a multi-day guest performance in New York's Village Gate; Parts were recorded and immediately released on RCA as Our Man in Jazz .

The album

Sonny Rollins (2011)

The album begins with a 25-minute version of "Oleo" which consists mostly of extended solos based on harmonic changes. Cherry starts with tremoli before developing free, melodic riffs and long, tricky phrases that only hint at the underlying chords. Rollins and Cherry play freely, rhythmically supported by Cranshaw and Higgins.

The third track, "Doxy", is characterized by a solo full of ideas from Rollins, which, according to Giddins, have little to do with the theme presented. The climax of the piece is a chorus with call and response between Rollins and Cherry, before a long end follows.

The highlight of the album is Dearly Beloved , an impressive performance of free improvisation, although it sticks to Jerome Kern's melody . After a bass solo by Cranshaw, Rollins initially continues to play the melody as a march before returning to Kern's ideas in the cadenza. Garry Giddins remarked, "It's a number that makes people laugh with pleasure".

Rollins went on a European tour with Cherry and Higgins as well as bassist Henry Grimes at the turn of the year 1962/63. He also continued to experiment with free jazz in the 1960s, for example on Sonny Meets Hawk .

reception

The album, later dubbed a “still disputed masterpiece” by Francis Davis, did not sell at the time and the connection between Rollins and the label was seen as disappointing. In his 1964 review, Amiri Baraka highlighted the quartet's emotional and artistic balance; it is so moving that every time you listen to the album again, it increases in musical depth and charm instead of flattening out.

For Peter Niklas Wilson the music on the album is "clearly Coleman-inspired" Scott Yanow wrote about the album on Allmusic :

“A very interesting CD of material from Sonny Rollins… These are among Rollins's most avant-garde improvisations for he seems inspired by trumpeter Don Cherry's presence (although Cherry clearly could not keep up with the great tenor)”

"A very interesting CD with material by Sonny Rollins ... These are Rollins' most avant-garde improvisations that seem inspired by the presence of the trumpeter Don Cherry (although Cherry clearly couldn't keep up with the great tenor)."

Rollins biographer Richard Palmer comes to a different conclusion. The album contains breathtakingly beautiful music. Cherry's work is impressive because of the “fertility of his imagination”; few musicians have such a quick grasp. "Rollins responds with tremendous clout and competitive vigor, and while the music often seems untamed, it swings from start to finish."

David Dicaire looks back on the album as a success; it shows that Rollins' time out was worth it. Even if he could no longer take the position of the best saxophonist (this role would now go to Coltrane and Coleman), "Rollins was still a dominant force in jazz".

Editorial notes

In addition to the titles of the original LP, the CD reissue also contains three tracks that were recorded in February of the following year; Henry Grimes replaced Cranshaw on bass. These recordings originally appeared on 3 in Jazz (an LP also with performances by Gary Burton and Clark Terry ). In 1996 the album was re-released on RCA under the title On the Outside .

In 1997, RCA Victor published for the first time all of the recordings of Sonny Rollins they produced between 1962 and 1964 in a 6-CD set. In 2007, Sony brought out the five albums again as a 5-CD set in the series RCA Victor Original Album Classics in Germany.

Track list

All compositions by Sonny Rollins, unless otherwise noted

Oleo - 25:26
Dearly Beloved ( Jerome Kern , Johnny Mercer ) - 8:17
Doxy - 3:17 pm
Taken at Village Gate , New York , July 27-30, 1962

Bonus tracks on the CD

You Are My Lucky Star ( Nacio Herb Brown , Arthur Freed ) - 3:46
I Could Write a Book ( Lorenz Hart , Richard Rodgers ) - 3:16
There Will Never Be Another You ( Mack Gordon , Harry Warren ) - 5:43
Recorded at RCA Studios in New York on February 20, 1963, with Henry Grimes on bass instead of Cranshaw.

literature

Gary Giddins: Visions of Jazz: The First Century . 3. Edition. Oxford University Press, USA (1998), ISBN 0-19-507675-3

Web links

Review of Our Man in Jazz , at musicweb-international.com
On the Outside at Allmusic (English)

Individual evidence

^ ^A ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Gary Giddins: Visions of Jazz: The First Century . 3. Edition. Oxford University Press, USA 1998, ISBN 0-19-507675-3 , pp. 417 f.
↑ Sonny Rollins' biography ( memento of the original from October 11, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , at sonnyrollins.com @1@ 2