Performer Notes

Personnel: Sonny Rollins (tenor saxophone); Tommy Flanagan (piano); Doug Watkins (bass); Max Roach (drums).
Recorded at the Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, New Jersey on June 22, 1956. Originally released on Prestige (7079). Includes liner notes by Ira Gitler.
Digitally remastered using 20-bit technology by Shigeo Miyamoto (JVC Studios).
Personnel: Sonny Rollins (tenor saxophone); Tommy Flanagan (piano); Doug Watkins (bass); Max Roach (drums).
Recorded at the Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, New Jersey on June 22, 1956. Originally released on Prestige (7079). Includes liner notes by Ira Gitler and Martin Williams.
DCC Gold Discs are mastered from original master tapes played back on a reconstructed vintage tube reproducer. The discs are custom-manufactured and plated with 24-karat gold, and housed in a lift-lock jewel box.
The 2002 edition of this CD (JVC catalog #XRC 221) is a sonically improved version which replaces JVC catalog #XRCD 60158.
Personnel: Sonny Rollins (tenor saxophone); Tommy Flanagan (piano); Doug Watkins (bass); Max Roach (drums).
Recorded at the Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, New Jersey on June 22, 1956. Originally released on Prestige (7079). Includes liner notes by Ira Gitler.
Digitally remastered by JVC using XRCD (Extended Resolution Compact Disc) technology.
Personnel: Sonny Rollins (tenor saxophone); Tommy Flanagan (piano); Doug Watkins (bass); Max Roach (drums).
Recorded at the Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, New Jersey on June 22, 1956. Originally released on Prestige (7079). Includes liner notes by Ira Gitler.
Digitally remastered using 20-bit K2 Super Coding System technology.
This is part of the Prestige Records 50th Anniversary Commemorative Special Edition series.
This is a Super Audio Hybrid CD playable on Super Audio CD players and regular CD players.
Personnel: Sonny Rollins (tenor saxophone); Tommy Flanagan (piano); Doug Watkins (bass); Max Roach (drums).
Recorded at the Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, New Jersey on June 22, 1956. Originally released on Prestige (7079). Includes liner notes by Ira Gitler.
The year 1956 marked a turning point for Sonny Rollins. Out of the ashes of what had been a talented but troubled young tenor saxophonist, came a new Sonny Rollins, his purpose clarified and strengthened, his muse razor sharp and brimming with new visions. As a new member of the Clifford Brown/Max Roach Organization, he was inspired as much by their spiritual consistency as their artistic integrity. By his own admission, even as a jazz tadpole, Sonny Rollins possessed a brawny sound and a powerful rhythmic drive...but other elements were missing.
With SAXOPHONE COLOSSUS, Sonny Rollins created a personal vision of the tenor saxophone and modern jazz brimming over with joy and conviction. SAXOPHONE COLOSSUS was a breakthrough recording, praised for its lyrical power, thematic logic, relentless swing and spontaneous invention. Borrowing a page from his West Indian roots, Rollins' "St. Thomas" employed elements of Caribbean folk melodies and calypso rhythms to create an exotic, dancing tenor anthem--one of the most identifiable, beloved themes in all of jazz--driven along by Max Roach's melodic drumming, Tommy Flannagan's shimmering accompaniment, and the saxophonist's swaggering melodic invention.
Rollins displayed fresh harmonic power and innovative methods of thematic develpment throughout SAXOPHONE COLOSSUS. On the swinging starts and stops of "Strode Rode" and the dreamy blues cycles of "Blue 7," Rollins began his solos with simple melodic motifs, and orchestrated them into grand, elongated thematic statements--every note made meaningful by Rollins' extraordinary sense of development and intuitive musical architecture. In addition, his tenor timbre took on renewed vigor and complexity on two ballads: "Moritat" (our old friend "Mack The Knife") and his epic reading of "You Don't Know What Love Is."

Professional Reviews

Down Beat - 5 Stars - Excellent "...Rollins displays humor, gentleness, a delicate feeling for beauty....I find this entire album excellent on all counts and for all persons concerned."

JazzTimes (4/96, pp.79-80) - "The title is not hyperbole....Important as some of his later work has been, the tenor saxophonist's levels of thematic development, assurance, humor and general creative force in SAXOPHONE COLOSSUS remain unequaled....this is an essential album."

Vibe (12/99, p.162) - Included in Vibe's 100 Essential Albums of the 20th Century

Record Collector (magazine) (p.93) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[A] masterwork of tenor saxophone improvisation that kicks off with the classic 'St Thomas'..."

Album: Saxophone Colossus [LP]
#	Song Title	Time
1)	St. Thomas
2)	You Don't Know What Love Is
3)	Strode Rode
4)	Moritat
5)	Blue 7