Sonny Rollins: Tenor Madness [ORIGINAL JAZZ CLASSICS / PRESTIGE]

Why you'll love it

This Original Jazz Classics edition presents the session in mono, as Prestige first issued it. The title track is the one recorded meeting of Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane, two tenor giants on the rise.

This edition

• Mono
• Original Jazz Classics series

About the album

On May 24, 1956, in Hackensack, New Jersey, Sonny Rollins borrowed Miles Davis's rhythm section for the afternoon: Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums. Davis's tenor man, John Coltrane, came along too, and stayed for one tune.

Bob Weinstock's Prestige was recording at a furious pace that year. That tune is "Tenor Madness," a B-flat blues that runs 12 minutes and lets you hear two very different voices side by side: Coltrane bright and boisterous, Rollins smoother, with his warm, wet-reed tone. It sounds less like a contest than a conversation. The rest of the album is Rollins with the trio, easing through the ballads "When Your Lover Has Gone" and "My Reverie," his own bouncy "Paul's Pal" for Chambers, and a jaunty "The Most Beautiful Girl In The World." Garland's light touch and Philly Joe's crisp brushwork make the trio tracks as rewarding as the main event.

A month later Rollins cut Saxophone Colossus, and Coltrane's own debut as a leader followed the next year. Not a bad afternoon's work for a man who borrowed someone else's band.

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

Tracklist

Listen

On Prestige / Original Jazz Classics (cat# OJC-124), a reissue of the 1956 album.