Jazz
VOICES Notes and news on Jazz releases
Moving Up
04 NOV 09 CHRIS SLAWECKI
The principals on Sonny Rollins' Moving Out, newly polished in the RVG Remaster series, couldn't have known this at the time, but they couldn't have assembled a set more representative of the state of post-bop jazz if they had built one from a diagram and instructions.
Its first two tunes -- the title track and subsequent "Swingin' For Bumsy" -- serve torrid bop straight up and pair Rollins in the front line with trumpeter Kenny Dorham, who flows through his upper registers scalding hot. The soft and supple "Silk 'N' Satin," taken more moderately, presents the modern jazz ballad sound, while "Solid" rocks the cradle of jazz, the blues, with its hip rhythmic snap. (Dorham and Rollins played together in a quintet led by drummer Max Roach, too.)
From a subsequent quartet session featuring pianist Thelonious Monk, "More Than You Know" puts the crown on top. Rollins creates a lush, richly gorgeous sound that hovers like a brooding, dark romantic cloud over the rhythm section, while Monk's contemplative spotlight turn doesn't end up worried into gnarled knots, like so many of his solos.
You can hear more music made by Rollins and Dorham on Plays For Bird ('56, Prestige), and more from this second session, with Monk, on Thelonious Monk And Sonny Rollins ('54, Prestige), also available in the RVG remaster series.
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Swingin' For Bumsy
Sonny Rollins, from Moving Out
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Blue Spring Shuffle
Kenny Dorham, from Quiet Kenny [Rudy Van ...
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Filide
Max Roach, from Deeds, Not Words
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Bemsha Swing
Thelonious Monk, from Brilliant Corners ...
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I’ve Grown Accustomed to Your Face
Sonny Rollins, from Plays For Bird [Rudy ...
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I Want To Be Happy
Thelonious Monk & Sonny Rollins, from Thel ...
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