Plus 4 (Mono Remastered 2025) Sonny Rollins

• 1 Valse Hot (Remastered 2025) 08:39
• 2 Kiss And Run (Remastered 2025) 07:10
• 3 I Feel A Song Coming On (Remastered 2025) 05:12
• 4 Count Your Blessings (Remastered 2025) 02:28
• 5 Pent-Up House (Remastered 2025) 08:53
• Total Runtime 32:22

Info for Plus 4 (Mono Remastered 2025)

The fantastic Clifford Brown-Max Roach Quintet with Sonny Rollins was destined to end in tragedy, for in the early hours of June 26, 1956, Clifford Brown died in a car accident along with pianist Richie Powell. In the short time between Rollins' arrival and Brownie's death, the group had entered the recording studio on just three occasions. The results of those three sessions, the quintet's only official legacy, originally appeared on two Prestige albums. 'Sonny Rollins Plus Four' was the last of them and includes such Rollins classic compositions as 'Valse Hot' and 'Pent-Up House'.

Rollins’ band here is, as usual, not only solid, but capable of matching the tenor man’s inventiveness and intensity at every turn. Clifford Brown is in fine form, as is his oft-times collaborator, drummer Max Roach. Richie Powell, Bud’s younger piano-playing brother, turns in some fine work, and bassist George Morrow, another member of the Brown/Roach contingent, keeps the rhythm section bubbling along. This group of musicians worked together quite a bit in the year or so leading up to this session, and their tightness as a group is well documented here. Three months after this recording was completed Brown would be dead, derailing his iconic collaboration with Roach and cutting off one of the major trumpet voices of all time.

Three carefully chosen, not frequently heard standards are book ended by two classic Rollins compositions, “Valse Hot” and “Pent-Up House.” “Valse Hot” is just that—it is a waltz, but it feels more like an off-kilter bop burner in a standard time signature. It’s graceful and floating, but not eviscerated.

Rollins demonstrates just what Ira Gitler attempted to illustrate in his chart of influences on major tenor sax players emerging at the time. He is thoroughly indebted to Charlie Parker for his harmonic conception, though he plays not at all like Parker in the note-for-note sweepstakes. But he plays with rhythm in a manner suggestive of Lester Young, hanging in back of the phrase, then catching up with downhill momentum. His sound shows the influence of Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster, but the sum of all this is what we have come to know and love as a pure expression of Sonny Rollins.

Among the standard songs is an interpretation of Sam Coslow’s “Kiss and Run” that is pretty quick in tempo, and allows Rollins, Brown, and Powell (in that order) to show their bop chops pretty much unadorned. The tempo ratchets up a notch with “I Feel a Song Coming On,” and Roach cooks behind the soloists like a madman. We hear the seeds of the approach that drummers like Paul Motian and Jack DeJohnette would later take; though Roach never abandons the rhythm, he does plenty else as well, providing coloring and punch behind the soloists in a way that few drummers could do at the time.

In a characteristically sharp choice of melodic vehicles, Rollins also tackles “Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep,” the closest thing to a ballad here, though the tempo is kept at a walking pace. Rollins displays his characteristic warmth while still adding some nice twists and turns to the familiar melody.

Sonny Rollins Plus 4 is an essential recording for anyone seeking to apprehend the roots of the style that he’s continued to successfully explore for the forty years that came after. With characteristically outstanding remastered sound, it’s an essential addition to any burgeoning jazz collection.

Sonny Rollins, tenor saxophone Clifford Brown, trumpet (except track 4) Max Roach, rums Richie Powell, piano George Morrow, bass

Recorded March 22, 1956 at Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, New Jersey
Produced by Bob Weinstock

Digitally remastered

Sonny Rollins
will go down in history as not only the single most enduring tenor saxophonist of the bebop and hard bop era, but also the greatest contemporary jazz saxophonist of them all. His fluid and harmonically innovative ideas, effortless manner, and easily identifiable and accessible sound have influenced generations of performers, but have also fueled the notion that mainstream jazz music can be widely enjoyed, recognized, and proliferated. Born Theodore Walter Rollins in New York City on September 7, 1930, he had an older brother who played violin. At age nine he took up piano lessons but discontinued them, took up the alto saxophone in high school, and switched to tenor after high school, doing local engagements. In 1948 he recorded with vocalist Babs Gonzales, then Bud Powell and Fats Navarro, and his first composition, "Audubon," was recorded by J.J. Johnson. Soon thereafter, Rollins made the rounds quickly with groups led by Art Blakey, Tadd Dameron, Chicago drummer Ike Day, and Miles Davis in 1951, followed by his own recordings with Kenny Drew, Kenny Dorham, and Thelonious Monk.

In 1956 Rollins made his biggest move, joining the famous ensemble of Max Roach and Clifford Brown, then formed his own legendary pianoless trio with bassist Wilbur Ware or Donald Bailey and drummer Elvin Jones or Pete La Roca in 1957, doing recorded sessions at the Village Vanguard. Awards came from Down Beat and Playboy magazines, and recordings were done mainly for the Prestige and Riverside labels, but also for Verve, Blue Note, Columbia, and Contemporary Records, all coinciding with the steadily rising star of Rollins. Pivotal albums such as Tenor Madness (with John Coltrane), Saxophone Colossus (with longstanding partner Tommy Flanagan), and Way Out West (with Ray Brown and Shelly Manne), and collaborations with the Modern Jazz Quartet, Clark Terry, and Sonny Clark firmly established Rollins as a bona fide superstar. He also acquired the nickname "Newk" for his facial resemblance to Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Don Newcombe.

But between 1959 and 1961 he sought a less superficial, more spiritual path to the rat race society of the times, visiting Japan and India, studying yoga and Zen. He left the music business until 1962, when he returned with the groundbreaking and in many ways revolutionary recording The Bridge with guitarist Jim Hall for the RCA Victor/Bluebird label. Rollins struck up a working relationship with trumpeter Don Cherry; did a handful of innovative LPs for the RCA Victor, MGM/Metro Jazz, and Impulse! labels; did one record with his hero Coleman Hawkins; and left the scene again in 1968. By 1971 he came back with a renewed sense of vigor and pride, and put out a string of successful records for the Milestone label that bridged the gap between the contemporary and fusion jazz of the time, the most memorable being his live date from the 1974 Montreux Jazz Festival, The Cutting Edge. Merging jazz with calypso, light funk, and post-bop, the career of Rollins not only was revived, but thrived from then onward. He was a member of the touring Milestone Jazz Stars in 1978 with McCoy Tyner and Ron Carter, and gained momentum as a touring headliner and festival showstopper.

His finest Milestone recordings of the second half of his career include Easy Living, Don't Stop the Carnival, G-Man, Old Flames, Plus Three, Global Warming, This Is What I Do, and Without a Song: The 9/11 Concert. He has worked extensively with road and recording bands that have included such artists as electric bass guitarist Bob Cranshaw; trombonist Clifton Anderson; pianists Tommy Flanagan and Stephen Scott; keyboardist Mark Soskin; guitarists Bobby Broom and Jerome Harris; percussionist Kimati Dinizulu; and drummers Jack DeJohnette, Perry Wilson, Steve Jordan, and Al Foster. Rollins formed his own record label, Doxy, through which he issued the CD Sonny, Please in 2006. Well into his eighth decade of life, Rollins continued to perform worldwide. As a composer, he will always be known for three memorable melodies that have become standards and well-recognized tunes in the jazz canon -- "Oleo," "Airegin," and especially "St. Thomas." (Michael G. Nastos). Source: Blue Note Records.

This album contains no booklet.