Sonny Rollins

The Sonny Rollins entry in the German Sony/RCA Victor Original Album Classics series contains the five albums he recorded for RCA between 1962-1964. They are individually packaged in a single box, with replicas of the original artwork. The albums contained here are from the very productive period after Rollins emerging from his second "retirement" phase -- in a career fraught with them. First up is the true gem in the bunch, The Bridge -- so named for the period Rollins simply practiced his horn at night on the Brooklyn Bridge. This is, without question, more than a catalog entry for the great saxophone colossus; it is a defining moment of a period in his six-decade career. Other titles in this box include Our Man in Jazz, What's New? (which includes the first version of his "Don't Stop the Carnival"), Sonny Meets Hawk (with Coleman Hawkins), and The Standard Sonny Rollins. All of these recordings are solid, but there is more than a chance that Rollins fans already have all of them. The sound on these is marginally better than their domestic counterparts, and the price for this collection is very reasonable. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide