The love of great Jazz music reflects a healthy madness that is very healing in a troubled world. This Saturday evening finds me receiving the ministrations of Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane on tenor, Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums.
This marvelous session was recorded for the Prestige label on May 24, 1956, by Rudy Van Gelder at his venerable studio in Hackensack, New Jersey, USA. More than forty years after I first heard this music, it sounds fresh and sublime.
My vinyl play copy is an excellent mono reissued in 2021 by Analogue Productions, with sound is exceptional in every way. One is in the studio with this superb group which, except for Rollins, was Miles Davis’s working band at the time. This record, together with Sonny Rollins’ Saxophone Colossus, is essential in any collection.
Incidentally Mr. Rollins, who celebrated his 92nd birthday on September 7, is very much with us. He played his saxophone until age 84.
Listen to Tenor Madness here.