The Freelance Years: The Complete Riverside and Contemporary Recordings

Disc 1
1	Brilliant Corners / Thelonious Monk 7:45
2	Ba-Lue Bolivar Ba-Lues-Are / Thelonious Monk 13:19
3	Bemsha Swing / Thelonious Monk 7:44
4	Pannonica / Thelonious Monk 8:52
5	I'm an Old Cowhand (From the Rio Grande) 5:42
6	Way out West 6:31
7	Come, Gone 7:52
8	There Is No Greater Love 5:16
9	Wagon Wheels 10:10
Disc 2
1	Solitude 7:53
2	I'm an Old Cowhand (From the Rio Grande) Alternate Take 10:12
3	Come, Gone Alternate Take 10:29
4	There Is No Greater Love Take 2 5:15
5	Way out West Alternate Take 6:39
6	Falling in Love with Love / Kenny Dorham 9:11
7	My Old Flame / Kenny Dorham 5:22
Disc 3
1	La Villa / Kenny Dorham 7:04
2	I'll Remember April / Kenny Dorham 12:06
3	The Last Time I Saw Paris 2:57
4	Just in Time 3:58
5	Toot, Toot, Tootsie, Goodbye 4:23
6	What Is There to Say? 4:55
7	Dearly Beloved 3:05
8	Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye 3:23
9	Cutie 5:54
10	It Could Happen to You 3:46
11	Mangos 5:34
12	Funky Hotel Blues 6:01
13	Porgy / Abbey Lincoln 4:26
14	I Must Have That Man! / Abbey Lincoln 3:58
15	When a Woman Loves a Man / Abbey Lincoln 4:26
Disc 4
1	Strong Man / Abbey Lincoln 5:04
2	Happiness Is a Thing Called Joe / Abbey Lincoln 5:56
3	That's Him / Abbey Lincoln 3:25
4	My Man / Abbey Lincoln 3:57
5	Don't Explain / Abbey Lincoln 6:41
6	I Must Have That Man! / Abbey Lincoln Take 3 3:56
7	Porgy / Abbey Lincoln Take 1, Alternate 4:29
8	Sonnymoon for Two 9:08
9	Like Someone in Love 5:00
10	Theme from Tchaikovsky's Symphony Pathetique 5:59
11	Till There Was You Take 4 4:58
12	Someday I'll Find You 4:40
13	Will You Still Be Mine? 2:59
14	Shadow Waltz 4:16
15	Till There Was You Take 3, Alternate 4:58
Disc 5
1	The Freedom Suite 19:35
2	I've Told Ev'ry Little Star 5:26
3	Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody 4:54
4	How High the Moon 7:43
5	You 4:15
6	I've Found a New Baby 3:39
7	Alone Together 5:59
8	The Song Is You 5:45
9	In the Chapel in the Moonlight 6:40
10	You Alternate Take 4:15
11	I've Found a New Baby Alternate Take 4:23
12	The Song Is You Alternate Take 6:11

Barnes & Noble

For close to 50 years Sonny Rollins has been one of the most important tenor saxophonists in all of jazz. He began his recording career in the late 1940's/early '50s playing on sides for Babs Gonzales, J. J. Johnson, Miles Davis, and Bud Powell. In 1954 he began recording "promiscuously," as he would later describe it, as a leader. He recorded frequently for the two major jazz labels of the time, Prestige and Blue Note, both of which have issued complete box sets of his recordings. This Fantasy box set combines all of Rollins's sessions for New York's Riverside and California's Contemporary labels from 1956 to 1958. The Riverside material contains all of his recordings as a sideman (all featuring Max Roach on drums): Thelonious Monk's BRILLIANT CORNERS, a cornerstone of every jazz collection, Kenny Dorham's JAZZ CONTRASTS, and singer Abbey Lincoln's THAT'S HIM. Rollins himself leads a swinging session with the great pianist Sonny Clark and drummer Roy Haynes (THE SOUND OF SONNY). But the most important Riverside recording is FREEDOM SUITE, a 20-minute tour de force supported only by Roach and bassist Oscar Pettiford. The Contemporary recordings contain another of Sonny's most famous and best-loved trio sessions, WAY OUT WEST with bassist Ray Brown and drummer Shelly Manne. This is a unique session, not only for Rollins but also for jazz, as he tackles left-field material like "I'm an Old Cow Hand" and "Wagon Wheels." The final Contemporary session is a relaxed meeting with West Coast jazz giants including guitarist Barney Kessell and pianist Hampton Hawes. This 1958 session was Rollins's last for any label until he emerged from his self-imposed "retirement" of 1959-1961. All of this material has been available for years, but spread over many different (and short) CDs - it's great to have it all in one place. An enticement for fans who may already have this material is a rare session recorded in 1957 for Period Records with trumpeter Thad Jones and trombonist Jimmy Cleveland, featuring the debut recording of "Sonnymoon for Two." Chris McDermott

All Music Guide

Picking up only ten days after Fantasy's Complete Prestige Recordings box leaves off, these five discs run through one of Rollins' most fertile (some insist, the most fertile) periods. Not only are Rollins' Riverside and Contemporary sessions as a leader and sideman collected in toto; Fantasy also includes three tracks recorded for Period in 1957, which can finally be heard within the context of Rollins' late-'50s hot streak. The box kicks off at the end of 1956 with almost all of Thelonious Monk's Brilliant Corners album, where Rollins alternates with alto saxophonist Ernie Henry. Then comes a quantum leap in inspiration, Way Out West, which is just bursting with invention and wry humor as well as cyclical references to previously played tunes; it relies only upon bassist Ray Brown and drummer Shelly Manne for support without needing anything more. Four tracks from Kenny Dorham's Jazz Contrasts find Rollins taking a subdued or conventionally frenetic bop backseat, while The Sound of Sonny approaches Way Out West's level as Rollins operates with piano trio backing and alone. Sonny appears only in flashes on Abbey Lincoln's sometimes melodramatic That's Him. Following the Period tracks, where Rollins' tone is especially grandiose in the Ben Webster tradition, Rollins, bassist Oscar Petitford, and drummer Max Roach extend themselves astonishingly well through the colossal, nearly 20-minute title track of The Freedom Suite. The odyssey concludes on the West Coast with another great session, the unquenchably swinging Sonny Rollins Meets the Contemporary Leaders -- Rollins' last before his first "retirement" -- where various combinations of sidemen provoke some especially creative playing from Sonny. All previously released alternate takes are included, but there is only one unreleased track -- a rip-roaring alternate of "You" from the Contemporary Leaders sessions -- which will drive Rollins completists entirely mad. If the budget allows, it's worth the splurge. Richard S. Ginell