Sonny Rollins - A Night At The Village Vanguard: The Complete Masters (2024) [CD-Rip]

Newly remastered! Sonny Rollins’ tour-de-force 1957 live trio album is expanded with the three album Edition "A Night at the Village Vanguard: The Complete Masters".

The mid-fifties was an astonishing period for this saxophone genius. And for all his great work in this era, this daring album and "Saxophone Colossus" remain his crowning achievements. With just bass (Wilbur Ware) and drums (Elvin Jones) in support, Rollins creates tenor saxophone improvisations of increible beauty and inexhaustible creativity. Twenty years after the initial album, a double album containing the rest of the releasable material from this magic night at the Village Vanguard was issued. With the recent re-discovery of the original tapes, the performance has been assembled as it happened and beautifully remastered by original engineer with superb depth of sound. Several of Sonny's stage announcements have been added to master for the first time.

"I was so involved in what I was doing. I was a young guy. Playing the music was paramount in my mind, that was the only thing I was thinking аbout: having fun and getting the musical vibe right… I know it was a good record and I was completely happy playing with those guys: Elvin Jones and, of course, Wilbur Ware. Everything just fit together perfectly." (Sonny Rollins)

“As we began to prepare for this album, I made my customary call to Capitol tape vault archivist Jack Arenas to inquire about the analog master tapes. Naturally, I assumed there would be a set of Rudy Van Gelder assembled 15ips analog masters of all the material. Indeed, there was, but then Jack said something that caught my ear. ‘Now there are these other tapes, but they haven’t been assembled, and they are all recorded at 7.5ips.’ I sat straight up and probably looked a bit like the mind-blown emoji. With this issue of Sonny Rollins ‘A Night At The Village Vanguard: The Complete Masters’ we are finally able to hear the actual masters that were recorded that afternoon and evening.” (Joe Harley)

AFTERNOON SET:
Sonny Rollins, tenor saxophone
Donald Bailey, bass
Pete LaRoca, drums
EVENING SET:
Sonny Rollins, tenor saxophone
Wilbur Ware, bass
Elvin Jones, drums

Recorded on November 3, 1957 at the Village Vanguard, New York City

Produced by Joe Harley, the album has been remastered from the never-before-used original analog master tapes by Kevin Gray