Sonny Rollins: Newk's Time (Blue Note Classic Vinyl series) [BLUE NOTE]

Why you'll love it

Kevin Gray mastered this Blue Note Classic Vinyl edition from the original analog tapes at Cohearent Audio, pressed on 180g vinyl. Newk's Time opened the label's famous 4000 series, with Wynton Kelly, Doug Watkins and Philly Joe Jones alongside Rollins.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Blue Note Classic Vinyl series
• Mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog tapes
• Pressed in the EU
• Stereo mix

About the album

"Newk" was Sonny Rollins' nickname, earned because he looked a bit like Don Newcombe, the Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher. Rollins was throwing heat himself by September 22, 1957, when he walked into Rudy Van Gelder's studio in Hackensack, New Jersey, to record his third album for Blue Note.

Wynton Kelly on piano, Doug Watkins on bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums make up the quartet. They open with Miles Davis' "Tune Up," stretch out on Kenny Dorham's "Asiatic Raes" and turn "Wonderful! Wonderful!" into a proper blowing tune. The highlight is "The Surrey With The Fringe On Top," played as a duo with just Rollins and Jones, a high-wire act with no net. "Blues For Philly Joe" is Rollins' own nod to his drummer, and "Namely You" comes from the Broadway show Li'l Abner and makes a sweet, short closer.

Alfred Lion produced, Francis Wolff took the photographs, and the album became Blue Note 4001, the first catalogue number in the label's 4000 series. Rollins and Jones playing Rodgers and Hammerstein as a duo remains the most exciting thing ever done with a surrey.

Also at Kops: more Sonny Rollins on vinyl · browse Classic Jazz

Tracklist

Listen

On Blue Note (cat# 5524262), a reissue of the 1959 album.