A great Sonny Rollins album. Nice laid back mood throughout. And the sound of this original, 1st pressing Sonny LP is superb. Jack Higgins is the engineer. Very nice recording by him. This is truly a must in any jazz collection. One of my favorite Rollins albums so far. I have far too few Riverside albums to date. There's so many great albums on this label. Can't wait to acquire another one. I love these early, white label pressings. They always seem well recorded and well presented.
The personnel on this album are: Rollins (tenor sax), Sonny Clark (piano), Percy Heath and Paul Chambers (double bass) and Roy Haynes (drums). Being a drummer myself, I always listen careful to the drums, and I think Roy Haynes is great. Not my absolute favorite, but he has a nice approach to the drums. Actually, the way jazz drummers play, and the raw acoustic sound of the drums on these recordings from the 50's was one of the reasons I really got into jazz for real. And Sonny Rollins was one of the main reasons I got hooked on jazz. When I saw a concert on Swedish television with him, Henry Grimes and Joe Harris from 1959 recorded in Sweden, I thought it was superb and then I started listening to jazz more and more, to the point where I only listened to jazz. And here I am now, collecting jazz vinyl and loving every minute of it.
If you haven't got this LP in your collection, make amends. It should have it's rightful place on your shelves. Preferably the 1st pressing of course. Stay tuned for more nice stuff!