Sonny Rollins - East Broadway Run Down (1966)

Sonny Rollins sparring with Freddie Hubbard (title tune only) backed by the reunited Coltrane drum’n’bass section of Elvin Jones and Jimmy Garrison sounds like an enticing lineup for this May, 1966 session at Van Gelder’s and it is! Jones had left Coltrane earlier that year, as had McCoy Tyner, but Garrison remained, uniting again with Jones to back Rollins in this session recorded around the same time Coltrane’s Live At The Village Vanguard Again! was recorded.

The title tune, filling side one, is a long, rumbling, raucous effort that marches and rumbles along supported much of the way by Garrison’s one note pulse and Jones’s percolating tom rolls and splashy cymbal work. Rollins chews off big hunks of bluesy melody, sometimes sounding like he’s madly leading a cavalry charge and other times (occasionally with the mouthpiece detached!) sounding like squeaky subway wheels negotiating a curve, mostly way behind the beat. He locks up intensely with Hubbard only occasionally, on the piece’s main theme, which the two ride out for tune’s abrupt finale. It’s an oddly (un)structured, yet inviting album side of experimental free jazz that never wears out its welcome and sounds more daring as the years pass.

Side two opens with “Blessing in Disguise,” a tuneful Rollins composition featuring a catchy, riff based on Lionel Hampton’s “Hey Ba Ba Re Bop,” that Rollins burns into your subconscious with juicy, full throated repetitions and a great, loping Garrison solo.

The album concludes with the ballad “We Kiss In A Shadow,” a cover from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “The King and I,” that’s taken at a ultra-leisurely pace, with Rollins at first spilling the melody with gorgeous, straight-forward lyricism followed by a deconstructed rendering taken at a languid pace, that flutters and drifts off into the ether, ending both the album and Rollins’ recording career for a full six years.

A short, but important album in the Rollins discography, that has a powerful pull and, thanks to the rhythm section, a swagger and weight that doesn’t quit, even after decades of listening. Michael Fremer, Musicangle

Sonny Rollins - tenor sax
Freddie Hubbard - trumpet (on #1 only)
Jimmy Garrison - bass
Elvin Jones - drums

1. East Broadway Run Down
2. Blessing in Disguise
3. We Kiss in a Shadow

Recorded by Rudy Van Gelder.
Cover painting by Mel Cheren.
Released by Impulse! in 1966.
CD re-issue in 1995.

Dedicated to the memory of Frank Fontana, who first introduced me to this record some 15 years ago.

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Rodgers & Hammerstein - South Pacific (1958)

"With South Pacific, Rodgers and Hammerstein rose to new towering heights of success, both commercially and artistically, following their triumph with Oklahoma! and Carousel. There was hardly any question in anybody's mind at the première performance of South Pacific that this was a classic of the musical theatre of the stature of Oklahoma! and Carousel. The veteran producer Arthur Hammerstein called it the greatest musical show Broadway had ever seen, perfect in every respect. The critic Richard Watts, Jr., described it as "a thrilling and exultant musical play, an utterly captivating work of theatrical art". The response at the box-office was as exultant as that of critics and veteran theatre-goers. South Pacific ran five years on Broadway (1,925 performances), earning nine million dollars. The tour of the national company over a period of several years earned several more millions. The motion picture adaptation grossed domestically more than sixteen million dollars, the sixth highest (at that time) in the history of talking pictures in America. South Pacific played two and a half years in London, after which the company went on a tour that lasted another year and a half. It was also given in foreign translations in many other leading European capitals. The sheet music and the long-playing score also sold in record numbers. The name "South Pacific" was licensed for cosmetics, dresses and lingerie. In addition to all this, South Pacific received most of the coveted awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the New York Drama Critics Award as the season's best musical, seven Antoinette Perry and nine Donaldson Awards."

Mark Lubbock, The Complete Book of Light Opera


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This post is dedicated to Melvin of the Apes, who is now heading to the Pacific South.