Search - Sonny Rollins :: Ballads: Sonny Rollins

SONNY PLAYS PHILIP (MORRIS) MARLOWE.

Richard J. Oravitz | 01/28/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"BOY, IS THIS A GREAT ALBUM!!! Break out that bottle of malt scotch and light up a whole pack of smokes, this is as good as it gets! Moody film-noir/jazz that really hits the mark. Sonny is in top form (when isn't he?)& every track is a KNOCKOUT! So,like what are you waiting for?...for this cd to become unavailable? If you like your Ballads with a sax, then, really, you need this cd...and the cover art work never reflected the mood/style of an album better than this!...Get this cd, I love it!!!"

The high quality any jazz fan would expect...

William E. Adams | Midland, Texas USA | 03/31/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Not much can be said about Sonny Rollins. He is still going strong, 50 years after becoming a top jazz sax player. This compilation involves seven performances captured in 1956-57, lovely but not lazy renditions. A couple of them are done live, a couple are Rollins compositions, and most have jazz greats joining in, such as Art Blakey, Elvin Jones, J.J. Johnson, Horace Silver, Paul Chambers, Thelonious Monk, Wynton Kelly, Philly Joe Jones, Donald Byrd and Max Roach. My favorites are two show tunes that are not done on any of the other 200 jazz CD's on my shelves: "Namely You" the love ballad from the Broadway musical "Li'l Abner" which was a hit in 1956, and "How Are Things in Glocca Mora?", a lovely wistful song from "Finian's Rainbow", another Broadway hit of that era. This is sexy sax, sometimes sad, sometimes serene. One of those discs that one can listen to three or four times in a row while driving without getting tired of it, Sonny is mostly conventional here, but there are moments within his solos in which he goes off on brief adventures in free jazz---just enough to keep it lively."