A Night At The Village Vanguard (The Complete Masters - Mono Remastered by Rudy Van Gelder) Sonny Rollins

• 1Introduction 1 (Live At The Village Vanguard/1957)00:38
• 2Old Devil Moon (Live At The Village Vanguard/1957)08:00
• 3Softly As In A Morning Sunrise (Afternoon Take / Live At The Village Vanguard/1957)07:51
• 4Striver's Row (Live At The Village Vanguard/1957)05:52
• 5Sonnymoon For Two (Live At The Village Vanguard/1957)09:06
• 6A Night In Tunisia (Afternoon Take / Live At The Village Vanguard/1957)08:02
• 7I Can't Get Started (Live At The Village Vanguard/1957)04:31
• 8A Night In Tunisia (Evening Take / Live At The Village Vanguard/1957)08:54
• 9I've Got You Under My Skin (Live At The Village Vanguard/1957)10:00
• 10Softly As In A Morning Sunrise (Evening Take / Live At The Village Vanguard/1957)06:55
• 11What Is This Thing Called Love (Live At The Village Vanguard/1957)13:50
• 12All The Things You Are (Live At The Village Vanguard/1957)06:37
• 13Introduction 2 (Live At The Village Vanguard/1957)00:22
• 14Woody 'N You (Live At The Village Vanguard/1957)08:24
• 15Four (Live At The Village Vanguard/1957)08:36
• 16I'll Remember April (Live At The Village Vanguard/1957)09:34
• 17Get Happy (Live At The Village Vanguard/1957)08:51
• 18Get Happy (Alternate Take / Live At The Village Vanguard/1957)04:38
• Total Runtime02:10:41

Info for A Night At The Village Vanguard (The Complete Masters - Mono Remastered by Rudy Van Gelder)

Newly remastered! Sonny Rollins’ tour-de-force 1957 live trio album is expanded with the three album Edition "A Night at the Village Vanguard: The Complete Masters".

The mid-fifties was an astonishing period for this saxophone genius. And for all his great work in this era, this daring album and "Saxophone Colossus" remain his crowning achievements. With just bass (Wilbur Ware) and drums (Elvin Jones) in support, Rollins creates tenor saxophone improvisations of increible beauty and inexhaustible creativity. Twenty years after the initial album, a double album containing the rest of the releasable material from this magic night at the Village Vanguard was issued. With the recent re-discovery of the original tapes, the performance has been assembled as it happened and beautifully remastered by original engineer with superb depth of sound. Several of Sonny's stage announcements have been added to master for the first time.

"I was so involved in what I was doing. I was a young guy. Playing the music was paramount in my mind, that was the only thing I was thinking about: having fun and getting the musical vibe right… I know it was a good record and I was completely happy playing with those guys: Elvin Jones and, of course, Wilbur Ware. Everything just fit together perfectly." (Sonny Rollins)

“As we began to prepare for this album, I made my customary call to Capitol tape vault archivist Jack Arenas to inquire about the analog master tapes. Naturally, I assumed there would be a set of Rudy Van Gelder assembled 15ips analog masters of all the material. Indeed, there was, but then Jack said something that caught my ear. ‘Now there are these other tapes, but they haven’t been assembled, and they are all recorded at 7.5ips.’ I sat straight up and probably looked a bit like the mind-blown emoji. With this issue of Sonny Rollins ‘A Night At The Village Vanguard: The Complete Masters’ we are finally able to hear the actual masters that were recorded that afternoon and evening.” (Joe Harley)

AFTERNOON SET:
Sonny Rollins, tenor saxophone
Donald Bailey, bass
Pete LaRoca, drums
EVENING SET:
Sonny Rollins, tenor saxophone
Wilbur Ware, bass
Elvin Jones, drums

Recorded on November 3, 1957 at the Village Vanguard, New York City

Produced by Joe Harley, the album has been remastered from the never-before-used original analog master tapes by Kevin Gray

Digitally remastered

Sonny Rollins
will go down in history as not only the single most enduring tenor saxophonist of the bebop and hard bop era, but also the greatest contemporary jazz saxophonist of them all. His fluid and harmonically innovative ideas, effortless manner, and easily identifiable and accessible sound have influenced generations of performers, but have also fueled the notion that mainstream jazz music can be widely enjoyed, recognized, and proliferated. Born Theodore Walter Rollins in New York City on September 7, 1930, he had an older brother who played violin. At age nine he took up piano lessons but discontinued them, took up the alto saxophone in high school, and switched to tenor after high school, doing local engagements. In 1948 he recorded with vocalist Babs Gonzales, then Bud Powell and Fats Navarro, and his first composition, "Audubon," was recorded by J.J. Johnson. Soon thereafter, Rollins made the rounds quickly with groups led by Art Blakey, Tadd Dameron, Chicago drummer Ike Day, and Miles Davis in 1951, followed by his own recordings with Kenny Drew, Kenny Dorham, and Thelonious Monk.

In 1956 Rollins made his biggest move, joining the famous ensemble of Max Roach and Clifford Brown, then formed his own legendary pianoless trio with bassist Wilbur Ware or Donald Bailey and drummer Elvin Jones or Pete La Roca in 1957, doing recorded sessions at the Village Vanguard. Awards came from Down Beat and Playboy magazines, and recordings were done mainly for the Prestige and Riverside labels, but also for Verve, Blue Note, Columbia, and Contemporary Records, all coinciding with the steadily rising star of Rollins. Pivotal albums such as Tenor Madness (with John Coltrane), Saxophone Colossus (with longstanding partner Tommy Flanagan), and Way Out West (with Ray Brown and Shelly Manne), and collaborations with the Modern Jazz Quartet, Clark Terry, and Sonny Clark firmly established Rollins as a bona fide superstar. He also acquired the nickname "Newk" for his facial resemblance to Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Don Newcombe.

But between 1959 and 1961 he sought a less superficial, more spiritual path to the rat race society of the times, visiting Japan and India, studying yoga and Zen. He left the music business until 1962, when he returned with the groundbreaking and in many ways revolutionary recording The Bridge with guitarist Jim Hall for the RCA Victor/Bluebird label. Rollins struck up a working relationship with trumpeter Don Cherry; did a handful of innovative LPs for the RCA Victor, MGM/Metro Jazz, and Impulse! labels; did one record with his hero Coleman Hawkins; and left the scene again in 1968. By 1971 he came back with a renewed sense of vigor and pride, and put out a string of successful records for the Milestone label that bridged the gap between the contemporary and fusion jazz of the time, the most memorable being his live date from the 1974 Montreux Jazz Festival, The Cutting Edge. Merging jazz with calypso, light funk, and post-bop, the career of Rollins not only was revived, but thrived from then onward. He was a member of the touring Milestone Jazz Stars in 1978 with McCoy Tyner and Ron Carter, and gained momentum as a touring headliner and festival showstopper.

His finest Milestone recordings of the second half of his career include Easy Living, Don't Stop the Carnival, G-Man, Old Flames, Plus Three, Global Warming, This Is What I Do, and Without a Song: The 9/11 Concert. He has worked extensively with road and recording bands that have included such artists as electric bass guitarist Bob Cranshaw; trombonist Clifton Anderson; pianists Tommy Flanagan and Stephen Scott; keyboardist Mark Soskin; guitarists Bobby Broom and Jerome Harris; percussionist Kimati Dinizulu; and drummers Jack DeJohnette, Perry Wilson, Steve Jordan, and Al Foster. Rollins formed his own record label, Doxy, through which he issued the CD Sonny, Please in 2006. Well into his eighth decade of life, Rollins continued to perform worldwide. As a composer, he will always be known for three memorable melodies that have become standards and well-recognized tunes in the jazz canon -- "Oleo," "Airegin," and especially "St. Thomas." (Michael G. Nastos). Source: Blue Note Records.

This album contains no booklet.