Record Reviews

SONNY ROLLINS ~ COMPLETE LIVE AT THE VILLAGE GATE 1962 FINGERPOPPIN` 117022 (Barcode: 8436563184284) ~ USA ~ Jazz Recorded: 1962 Released: 2022 This is an archival Box Set, which presents the complete recordings made during the four-days residence of the Sonny RollinsFind albums by this artist quartet at the NY Village Gate club in July 27-30, 1962. The pianoless quartet included also trumpeter Don CherryFind albums by this artist, bassist Bob CranshawFind albums by this artist and drummer Billy HigginsFind albums by this artist. The 6CD Box Set presents twenty-one tracks (totaling in over six hours), only three of which were previously released (one in edited / shortened version) on the “Our Man In Jazz” album originally released in December 1962. Most of the music was composed by Rollins or co-composed by Rollins and Cherry, but a few standards are also present. The sound quality of the live recording is brilliant. The excellent twenty-page booklet explains in detail the background of the music in the Box Set. The music was recorded following a self-imposed three-year long music exile by Rollins, which he dedicated to crystalizing his musical identity and perfecting his technique. It was also the first ever meeting between Rollins and Cherry. It offers a radical change in his Jazz aesthetics, leaving Bebop behind and moving towards Free Form highly improvised and extensive compositions. Three of the tracks in this Box Set are over 30 minutes in duration and six are between twenty and thirty minutes in duration. All this an obvious and immediate of the exploding Free Jazz revolution spearheaded by Albert AylerFind albums by this artist, John ColtraneFind albums by this artist and Ornette ColemanFind albums by this artist, which flourished at the time. In retrospect this Box Set definitely documents some of Rollins´ most Free Form oriented playing in his entire career. The quartet is an absolute jewel of Jazz collaboration, with Cherry at his best, completely different from all trumpet players around him and the brilliant rhythm section playing along splendidly when the music shifts the gear from steady rhythmic patterns to Free exploration, doing so with ease and elegance. Rollins’ performances perfectly support his “Saxophone Colossus” status, even when his playing explores new musical spheres. Overall, this is a sublime document of the era as much as the career of one of the greatest American Jazz personalities, presenting a little known aspect of his flirt with Free Form Jazz at the early 1960s. The fact that these recordings remained dormant for so long a travesty, as they an immensely important document of the last days of the primacy of American Jazz.

Updated: 04/04/2025Posted: 04/04/2025

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