1963-66, live in Europe, with different lineups drawn from Don Cherry, Henry Grimes, Billy Higgins, Milt Jackson, Kenny Drew, Percy Heath, Art Blakey, Jimmy Meritt, and Max Roach.

Massive, incandescent studio and live trio recordings from 1967, with Han Bennink on the eve of Machine Gun, and bassist Ruud Jacobs in the form of his life. Precious retrievals from Rollins’ long studio hiatus between East Broadway Run Down, the previous year, and Next Album in 1972.

“It really represents a take-no-prisoners type of music. That’s sort of what I was doing around that period of time; that was sort of Sonny Rollins then — a wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am approach.”

Blazingly interrogative — three cuts run over twenty minutes — it attests magnificently to Jacobs’ memory of “something spiritual… a very special atmosphere on the stage where I felt I could do anything.”
Expertly presented, with beautiful photos and engaging notes.
Hotly recommended.

Rollins’ LPs for Impulse! are neglected. Here is the first of three he recorded in 1965-66, taking fierce flight from five standards. It’s all wonderful, but check the scorching calypso, Hold ‘Em Joe — with Rollins’ characteristic carnivalesque, askance danceability, his ‘impudent swing’, writ large — and the deconstruction of Three Little Words to close, as if to say, Okay, enough of that, now watch this space.
Great sound, too, this Acoustic Sounds issue.

‘Classic Vinyl’ series.