Saxophone Colossus
Occupation
- Tenor Saxophone: Sonny Rollins
- Piano: Tommy Flanagan
- Bass: Doug Watkins
- Drums: Max Roach
Saxophone Colossus is a jazz album by Sonny Rollins, released in 1956 and is considered the masterpiece of his work for the Prestige label. According to the magazine " Rondo ", the plate of " Milestones of Jazz" is.
The music of the album
On the album five pieces can be heard, be attributed to three of which Rollins. St. Thomas is an inspired piece of Calypso, named after the island of Saint Thomas in the Virgin Islands, of which his mother was. The Komponistion appeared in 1955 under the name " Fire Down There." In the liner notes to The Complete Prestige Recordings Box Set Rollins makes it clear that prestige insisted to publish the traditional pieces under his name. This recording of Rollins applies According to Allmusic as definitive.
You Do not Know What Love Is is a ballad by Don Raye and Gene De Paul in a distinctive, bleak treatment by Rollins. Strode Rode is a fast hard bop number, notable for its staccato theme and a short, peppy duet between Rollins and Doug Watkins on bass. The piece is named after the Strode Hotel in Chicago, a tribute to the trumpeter Freddie Webster, who died there in 1947.
The second side of the original LP consists of two longer captions in B flat minor. Moritat is a standard from Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill 's Threepenny Opera, better known as The Ballad of Mack the Knife. As the liner notes point out the Threepenny Opera was at the time of the recording of the album very popular. Rollins version is kept dark, but cheerful and differs from the former interpretations of other musicians who were often frivolous and exalted. The last track of the album, Blue 7, is a blues, over eleven minutes.
The plate was added funds on June 22, 1956 by Rudy Van. A remastered version was released in 1999, in which no further pieces were added. Another remastered version was released in 2006, this time edited by Van Gelder.
The in many ways very appropriate title of the album comes from advertising manager of Prestige Records, Robert Altshuler.