Tenor Madness

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Tenor Madness
Studio album by Sonny Rollins

Publication
(s)

1956

Label (s) Prestige PRLP 7047 / OJC 124

Format (s)

LP, CD

Genre (s)

Jazz , hard bop

Title (number)

5

running time

35:21

occupation

production

Bob Weinstock

Studio (s)

Van Gelder Studio , Hackensack, New Jersey

chronology
Sonny Rollins Plus 4
(1956) 		Tenor Madness Saxophone Colossus
(1956)

Tenor Madness is a jazz album by Sonny Rollins , recorded in New York City on May 24, 1956 and released on Prestige Records .

The album

At the beginning of 1956, Sonny Rollins had a brief guest appearance in the legendary Clifford-Brown / Max-Roach sextet when he stood in for Harold Land . With Brown, Roach and their band members George Morrow and Richie Powell , the prestige album Sonny Rollins Plus 4 (PR 7038) was created in March 1956 . When the Brown / Roach band wanted to return to Chicago , Rollins was asked if he wanted to continue playing in the band. The saxophonist stayed in New York and then recorded another album for Prestige in May , Tenor Madness , with the resident and temporarily unemployed band of Miles Davis , with the pianist Red Garland , the bassist Paul Chambers and the drummer Philly Joe Jones . The saxophonist John Coltrane , who was also playing with Miles Davis at the time , joined in for the title track; it turned into a tenor battle , a “test of strength between the two giants of the tenor saxophone”, according to Coltrane biographers Filtgen and Auserbauer. “Tenor Madness” is a “ bop-oriented piece with strong borrowings from Charlie Parker's “ Now's the Time ”and is downplayed by the two musicians as a matter of course. Four pieces, three standards and a Rollins own composition, the calypso “Paul's Pal”, followed in a quartet .

Rating of the album

Richard Cook and Brian Morton rated the album in the Penguin Guide to Jazz with the highest rating of four stars and count it among the best of his prestige recordings by the saxophonist. Michael Nastos on the All Music Guide , who rates the album four and a half stars, notes that it was this album that established Rollins' reputation as a premier saxophonist. In retrospect, this album gives an impression of why the young musician was so popular back then; Nastos emphasizes the solid construction of his melodies and solos, which earned him the title of a new Coleman Hawkins or Lester Young . With the team from Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones, Rollins has all the rhythmic ammunition to strike, play himself freely and develop the topics as only he can. This is particularly clear in his version of “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World”, which starts in a normal moving waltz, followed by a saxophone / drum prelude, a solo by Jones, and from then on there is a hot riot 4/4 start. Garland was at times exceptional in his ability to keep up with this recording. A bluesy version of the “When Your Lover Has Gone” standard is enlivened by Jones; the legendary title track contains long solos by Rollins and John Coltrane; it has the character of the blowing session typical of Prestige .

"Paul's Pal," a feature for Chambers, became a jazz standard with its serene, easily recognizable melody and showing Rollins' particular sense of humor; his ability to let sounds work like singing is shown particularly in the light ballad "My Reverie".

Nastos considers the album to be just as significant as the follow-up album Saxophone Colossus . The recording is one of the best recordings in the saxophonist's early work and is proof of the expressiveness, the resonance and depth of modern jazz in the post-war era. The album therefore belongs on every shelf.

The titles

  • Sonny Rollins Quartet / Quintet - Tenor Madness (Prestige PRLP 7047 / OJC 124)
  1. Tenor Madness (Rollins) 12:14
  2. When Your Lover Has Gone (Einar Aaron Swan) 6:07
  3. Paul's Pal (Rollins) 5:08
  4. My Reverie (Larry Clinton, Claude Debussy ) 6:03
  5. Most Beautiful Girl in the World ( Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart ) 5:31

literature

Web links

References and comments

  1. ↑ The Coltrane biographers Filtgen and Auserbauer note that Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones were in New York for recordings; on May 11, 1956, the first "marathon" session of the Miles Davis Quintet took place, with which Miles Davis fulfilled his contractual obligations with Prestige Records. On June 5, further recordings were made in New York for the Columbia album 'Round About Midnight .
  2. ↑ Filtgen and Auserbauer, p.