Way Out West

One of Sonny Rollins most durable albums and certainly a fairly early defining recording of his talent and invention. This CD release includes 3 alternate takes and a comprehensive 16-page booklet.


Tracklisting:

01. I'm an Old Cowhand (From the Rio Grande) (5:42)
02. I'm an Old Cowhand (From the Rio Grande) (10:09) [Alternate take]
03. Solitude (7:52)
04. Come, Gone (7:53)
05. Come, Gone (10:29) [Alternate take]
06. Wagon Wheels (10:11)
07. There Is No Greater Love (5:17)
08. Way Out West (6:30)
09. Way Out West (6:37) [alternate take]

Total time: 70:45 min.


Tracks #1, 3, 4, 5, 6 & 7 originally issued in LP as Contemporary C 3530.

Personnel: Sonny Rollins (ts), Ray Brown (b) and Shelly Manne (d). Recorded in Los Angeles, on March 7, 1957.


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Notes:

"This album offers an unequalled opportunity on record to hear Rollins' tenor almost isolated from any other instrument. It is exceptionally well recorded, there is no piano, Manne's drums never intrude, and Brown in many places plays an obligato accompaniment."

Ralph J. Gleason -Down Beat (1957)


"With the right musicians, there really are no limitations playing with just bass and drums. There might be a piano player, like Wynton Kelly, who might play something [when he is comping] that would be very moving and very apt and inspiring. The one limitation of a piano-less trio is that sometimes a pianist might play something that is really quite helpful. But too often a pianist ends up limiting me. From the point of view of looking back on a long career playing jazz, I do believe that my playing with a bass-and-drums trio is more expansive. When I was playing mainly with a trio it really freed me up."

Sonny Rollins from the biography 'Open Sky'